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Hello, and welcome back to what is probably going to be another individual post from the Slow Psycho and he’ll disappear into the ether once again. As you probably know, I’ve been having a bit of a hiatus from streaming across Twitch and YouTube and I have wanted to change that for a month or so. Unfortunately illness hit at the time I wanted to come back, so I have been playing Captain of Industry while I wait.
So while I’m dictating this into my Android smartphone, just to see how things will turn out and how many spelling mistakes I have to correct – I’m playing a game that I first bought back in June 2022. It took until Christmas for me to really pick it up and I’ve already put in about 75 hours in the first 6 weeks of this year.
I purchased the Captain of Industry game and Supporter Edition upgrade pack on the back of watching streams from the like of SlimGamingChannel on Twitch. It is available on Steam, although I have yet to see it on Humble Bundle or GreenManGaming.
So for the first review that I thought I would give you in 2023, and probably the only review that I’ll give you in 2023; I have been playing Captain of Industry from MaFi Games and I’m actually enjoying it.
So come, it’s made on one of those long meandering dictated random thoughts, on a tangent journeys as we take a look at why I am getting quite annoyed looking at my screen right now, and realising that I’m not playing the game the way the developer probably intended.
Multiple Devices – Handled Well
As always for those of you that remember me from the start of last year me from the start of last year, I play my games on a range of devices.
The two computers that I have been playing Captain of Industry on this time around include my streaming computer, which is a Ryzen 7 3700X with an with a Radeon 6700XT graphics card, as well as a 1700X CPU with an RX580 graphics card.
I can say that if you’ve got a potato of a computer, then at the moment this game plays reasonably well. I think the I think the developer has taken the time to think about the layout of the interface and it copes quite well with both a wide screen monitor as well as a standard 1080P offering.
The Idea of Captain of Industry
The idea of Captain of Industry is quite simple; you land on an island and you need to survive… Frankly, mate, that’s it.
Depending on the settings that you start right at the beginning; you get a minimal number of workers, you start with a broken ship, you start with the most basic of residential accommodation. You have to make it just work you have to supply the power, you have to build things up you have to mine for your basic materials and you have to make sure that you don’t let your workers starve.
For me, because as some of you know I will play a 6-high in Poker, that meant that I immediately gravitated to the “You Shall Not Pass” map (being the most challenging) and the “Admiral” difficulty (being the most inhospitable) to learn to play the game. I did however, as it grants free gifts, leave the tutorial goals on because the early game is slow, and tedious; and I want to build stuff!
From the outset, the game pushes you to start researching new technology and building on them to make your new village work. If you don’t research farming, your workers will starve and you will be reloading pretty sharpish.
Developing tech is everything from food types to factory modules. It is repairing and re-arming your ship. It is about expanding the civilisation. It is also a single player though, so no Anno 1800 multiplayer options to destroy your friends on the Interwebs.
Some Nice Touches
I think there’s a common theme for games, that I find I find that there are some nice little touches the developers have thought about and have integrated to the earliest builds of early access. Now I say the earliest building of early access, because I’ve had this game on my steam library for around 6 to 8 months and only just picked it up.
Although I haven’t yet got past the mid game, one of the nice little touches that I found, is that is the MaFi Games thought about the Tech that you’re having to build.
Not Infinite and not Finite
For example, at the moment my build is heavily reliant on groundwater. This is something that you research relatively early on in the game and it extracts water from the ground.
That’s nothing new, you will probably be saying, except this groundwater actually replenishes if you leave it long enough. In many games when you’ve got the sort of reserves that are built into the land, you find that once a reserve has gone the reserve is gone. Indeed in Captain of Industry when you’re mining raw materials like iron ore and coal, that’s finite and not replenish. It would have been easy to attach the same logic to groundwater, but when it rains the groundwater reserves slowly refill.
Of course, being on the most challenging settings probably means that I found this out the hard way whereas many people will go beyond groundwater tech and not notice. I have found that I am now merging older tech with newer tech to build element of resilience for when things go wrong.
The Research Tree
Oh my GOD there are dozens of things to research, and on a difficulty level basis I have taken over 100 game years on a single research building to not even touch the sides. This is not quite a system where you can mould your game build and selectively research what you need, but you can plan your research to give yourself the best opportunity to progress.
I do like the fact that you have to force yourself to a research cap though. The way that MaFi Games have tier loaded their research tree is to lock each section behind an upgraded research building. fail to keep up with that and you are definitely stifling your progress!
Kicking Myself
Something that some players will find useful, but I am already kicking myself over, is how you can abuse the planning and “Quick Build” features of the game.
It’s almost a plan of mine that if I have a game like Captain of Industry, then I will want to play it as naturally as possible. If my little workers and their trucks can not reach a part of the landscape yet, then I should not build there.
On the island that I am working on “You Shall Not Pass”, a big swathe of land needs access in order for you to expand the mid-game tech. As you can see, I’m having to dig a massive channel almost like a road through the mountainside in order to reach this large swathe of land. The other option is that I could have built a waste road a bit like a hill full of rock, slag and residential waste in order to reach it to reach it. You absolutely have to access the inaccessible bit of land early in order to progress on this map!
About 90 game years into the 6th or 7th attempt (whatever one I am on now), I realise that what I’m suddenly doing is building farms and building future food facilities in this section that is not yet accessible. Now for many people name that will probably be quite normal, but the realisation was that I can even build housing and vehicle depots on this inaccessible part of the map and then use the “quick build” option in the game to instantly build them.
Dang, I wish that the developers were able to block building until such time that there is a navigational track from the trucks.
Kicking the Damn Trucks
One other thing which I think is by design, and I hope there is an unlock to change, is the fact that the pickup trucks can be so damn lazy at times. I can have a full storage of construction parts and want to build something, but the pickups seem to take their time and carry 3 or 4 across to whatever is being built.
Now; this could be something that I have to change later after researching some vehicle mechanics or edicts, or maybe I am just imagining the fact that the truck workers are comply loading as little as they can get away with so that they have enough energy to go play golf afterwards.
Early Access Development
It does seem that MaFi Games are listening to their community though. Alongside the introduction of planning tools into the Captain of Industry, allowing you to lay out your build before the workers start getting in the way, they have recently introduced blueprints.
Around Christmas time, there was an update to fine tune the tutorial and add new early-game materials into the mix – allegedly making the early game a little easier. Within the social media posts on the Captain of Industry Twitter account, the developers are already planning the next update and starting to release hints as to what is coming.
A Kind of Summary
I am really getting back into gaming by playing Captain of Industry. For those of you that have noticed my disappearance it was the COVID, the lockdowns, the feeling rubbish that really pushed me away from the motivation of playing a game and streaming again.
I don’t quite know what it is with Captain of Industry though. It’s a game that I would pick up and play, it is a game that I would ordinarily say it is a good game, but it does not feel great, and it is a game that on the settings I would play it; it is too slow for me to stream. We would go off on a tangent, and chat between doing bits of interest.
I do keep coming back to play it though. If I am at work at 5am, then I am getting up an hour early just so that I can play a little bit before I go to work. When I am getting up at 7am to take ChildPsycho and YoungerChildPsycho to school then I am squeezing in an hour while they are getting dressed and breakfast. I can play a bit and leave the game running to catch up while I make a spot of lunch.
For a game that I bought six months ago and then did not really play; I am suddenly awoken to it and enjoying being frustrated by it. I might have to make my eighth start on You Shall Not Pass on Admiral soon and I am actually looking forward to it.
You can find Captain of Industry from MaFi Games on the Steam Store