Drill Deal - Oil Tycoon Review

Black gold, petroleum, crude oil… just some words for the world’s addiction to oil. Now, Drill Deal - Oil Tycoon lets players construct, run, and manage their own oil rigs. Developed by A2 Software and published by Manager Games S.A, Drill Deal - Oil Tycoon is a voxel simulation title. Like other Tycoon type games, Drill Deal - Oil Tycoon is challenging to be a master at but is also extremely addictive.

When I first started up the game, I was thrusted into a tutorial to learn its mechanics. To be honest, this is one of my first Tycoon games so even the tutorial was a little intimidating. Fortunately, the developer practically handheld me through it all and I felt fairly confident to progress to the “campaign mode” or stages. Each stage presented a unique challenge and got progressively harder. Unfortunately, once I had cleared the main missions of the particular stage I was on, even though I could continue playing around on that stage, I could not further expand my drilling platform. Some builds were locked unless I progressed to the next stage. If I am honest, this both annoyed me but also made a lot of sense as each stage was in a way, another tutorial to teach me how to use each build or feature of the game.

The sandbox mode is where I got to really play around with the mechanics of Drill Deal - Oil Tycoon without any of the limitations that were imposed on me in the campaign. Challenges that came up during the campaign also would occasionally come up in the sandbox mode which presented an interesting puzzle for me. The difference here is that I could expand my drilling platform as much as I wanted and really rake in money.

One of the biggest challenges for me was simply figuring out the mechanics. While the game’s tutorial did a pretty good job teaching me, there were some parts that, for a novice Tycoon player like myself, would still be a struggle. For the longest time, I could not multitask effectively as I had to decide whether to keep workers happy, sell off oil, or hire more workers to replace the ones who were not effective. That and knowing the layout of the platform and where to build things were also important. For example, worker satisfaction would drop if I built the power generator right next to their dorms. To improve their satisfaction, I could hire chefs or build movie theatres. But the true challenge was knowing who to hire and what they are most skilled at. Some workers were able to do multiple tasks or some were only skilled at one task. Knowing who to put where was in itself a challenge and if I’m honest, one I spectacularly failed at for quite some time.

Selling the oil was again another hurdle. Not only did I need to get contracts, but I also had to find ways to get ships to deliver the oil I produced. People who are used to these simulator games may have an easier time than I did, but I was constantly struggling to send off my oil so that I could make money. I frequently reached the cap in my oil storage so my workers would have nothing to do but take my dwindling cash. However, once I figured out how to manage this, the game pretty much went on autopilot for me.

Graphically, Drill Deal - Oil Tycoon was very pleasing on the eyes. I did enjoy seeing the blocky workers walk around and watching ships sailing past or picking up oil. The sea monsters were also a pleasant surprise and were well made. Drill Deal uses the Unity Engine, and while the graphics seem simple, this probably was the best option as if Unreal Engine was used, it would probably be a huge strain on computers, limiting the number of gamers that would be able to play the game. It was also nice to hear the sounds of the oceans which occasionally got interrupted by gunfire from the turrets shooting at pirates. That said, the audio was a bit lacklustre as it did not come with too many options.

Drill Deal - Oil Tycoon was truly addictive to play. I remember thinking that I would only play for half an hour one time which turned into 2-3 hours of gameplay in one sitting. There is a lot to do and for a creative mind, you can really let it run wild. The game even got me curious about how closely they tried to factor in real life drilling platforms and to my surprise, there seemed to be a lot of accuracy such as having a movie theatre for workers and other forms of entertainment on the drilling platforms. Of course, krakens and other monsters probably are not much of a concern. The game can be a challenge to master and may be a struggle to learn at first but after a bit, it does get very addictive. One can easily lose themselves in Drill Deal - Oil Tycoon without realising it.