Capitalism Plus

The Good
One of the great things about Capitalism Plus, imo, is that it has a great tutorial (to help you get started). Like, for example, another review implies that when one of your locations is losing money, that the game doesn't give you enough information to figure out WHY (and hence correct it): This is false, as it is clearly stated in the Tutorial that Consumers will base their purchasing decisions on Price, Quality, & Brand. And since you can review products sold by competitors, you will know whether you need to increase quality, decrease price, or invest in advertising.

The Bad
There are only a few minor flaws in Capitalism Plus:

First is that good, quality farmland is hard to come by and there's no way to invest in fertilizer that will increase the quality of your crops.

Second is that there aren't a huge selection of Executives that you can hire as your VP. Altho, this is probably deliberate as you will have to choose a VP with the specific strengths & skills you're looking for.

Third, if you're running a large scale operation, with revenue in excess of hundreds of billions of dollars, there is only so much you can compensate your VP before he decides to leave: Which if I remember correctly, is about $2.1 billion.

So, I guess the original developers never conceived of players reaching such a level and so, they thought that the maximum value of a 32-bit integer was good enough. Luckily, total revenue can go well beyond this limit.

Finally, there is a flaw that effects replayability: That is that there exists the best starting product in the game AND there is also the best product in the game: And unfortunately, these two products will never change. So once you figure them out, the starting pathway and mid-game objective will usually be the same.

Altho, the developers have done a good job at addressing this issue with different scenarios: I just wish that there was a little more RNG and variance in this area (for custom games). Like, randomize the market so that these two products are different for each new game.

Unfortunately, there's no option to contract for Market Research services: So, you have do that yourself (which would be a pain with more randomization). Nor will the game allow you to become a Big, Fat Cat DOD Contractor manufacturing Fighter Jets for billions of dollars (or selling screws for $70,000 a piece):

The Bottom Line
But, beyond that, you can let your creativity run wild with how you want to run your business: What to name it. Who to hire as VP. Which products you want to focus on. And different strategies for maximizing profits !!! And also where and how to spend those profits :P

Like, this goes well beyond merely re-investing into your business: It includes your own personal compensation package (via shareholder dividends) as well as the option to invest in stocks and even do hostile takeovers on other Corporations !!!

Truly a phenomenal game, imo !!!

The Good
Dozens of resources, lots of combinations, got that "one more year" feeling, stock market to play with

The Bad
Not enough feedback (like when a firm is losing money), no "firm summary" where I can jump to a specific firm and do some micromanagement, no physical reference chart on what can be used to make what (just online help)

The Bottom Line
Capitalism Plus is best described as an business simulator. Given a certain amount of capital, you can choose to build a certain type of business, and start making money. The goal will depend on the scenario.

In general, you want to start on the retail end, i.e. department store. So you spend a few million to build on (the land costs will vary!) Once that's done, staff the purchasing department and it will start to stock your store... but stock with what? That depends on what firms are on the map (in the game, seaports are considered firms as well) Setup the purchasing department and link it to the supplier. Voila, you've purchased inventory. Now you need to setup a sales department.... and link that to the purchasing department, and soon you will have made your first sale, and profit! Each firm is limited to 9 departments so choose carefully!

As time go on, you will want to invest in suppliers of your own, or even raw material production. Factories can be built and used to manufacture various goods though they will require different resources. You will need to put some money into R&D in order to produce some new products that should prove to be more profitable.

Each product has several ratings, including brand recognition, quality and price. Consumer demand is based on those factors, and will change as time goes on. Costs will change, and you must change with the times. Imported diapers getting too expensive? Build a lumber mill to product paper, and sent paper and cotton to a factory to produce diapers. Buy products from your competitors? May be a good way to round out your product line. Different products have different desirability, and all that is modelled into this deep yet addicting simulation.

Throw in random events like war, disaster, and more. The map is generated randomly each time and resources can appear randomly on the map. Cities and ports appear in different places, so no two games are the same.

There are many drawbacks, of course.

Each firm is limited to 9 departments, and an inefficient layout will force you to spend money to fix it. That means each firm can at most offer 4 products (4 purchasing and 4 sales), with perhaps 1 advertising. This creates a lot of micromanagement as you constantly add new firms to deal with increased demand.

The graphics, being from 1997, is quite a bit out of date, being limited to 640x480x256. Graphics are primitive and most of the game is limited to the top half of the window. The map zoom never goes in far enough, and it's cumbersome to scroll through the various firms with available production you can link to as a supplier. There's also no "boycott" or such where you can refuse to sell to competitors.

All in all, Capitalism Plus is an enhance version of a possible sleeper hit, if you can look past the simple exterior to locate the deep sim inside.