You have no idea how difficult it is for me to begin this article without making a reference to Breaking Bad or Scarface, but I’ve managed to resist that temptation so far. I said in my review of The Invisible Hand that we’re getting to a point where there’s likely a game that allows its players to simulate almost anything they can think of. Cartel Tycoon, developed by Moon Moose and published by tinyBuild, is one such game that grants you the opportunity to become the kingpin of your very own drug cartel without the risk of being imprisoned and/or slain in a hail of bullets.

Cartel Tycoon exited Steam Early Access on July 26, 2022. I would describe it as a city-builder game with a rather strong emphasis on things like resource management. The term “city-builder” doesn’t entirely explain what Cartel Tycoon is in my opinion, though. Yes, you are expected to construct buildings within cities and territories your cartel controls, but most of the building you’ll be doing is outside city limits and is directly related to maintaining and expanding your drug empire.

That brings me to the first aspect of Cartel Tycoon that I quite like. I first tried it out some time ago when it first entered Early Access, and one department in which I think it has greatly improved since then is in the depth and quality of its tutorials. Most city-builder games I’ve played tend to have a lot of information to throw at you in order for you to play effectively. Cartel Tycoon is no exception, but I find that its tutorial mode paces out everything it needs to show me in such a way that I’m less likely to feel “information overload.”

I’ve personally struggled somewhat with basic aspects of city-builders like constructing buildings in optimal places and setting up effective road networks. You’ll be doing a lot of both of those things within Cartel Tycoon, which has presented occasional obstacles for me during my time with it. However, I can hardly blame the game for the fact that the more logistics-oriented sides of titles like this aren’t my strong suit. That’s especially true because Cartel Tycoon’s tutorials do what they can to help teach you how not to make the same kinds of mistakes I often make, all without holding your hand too much while you learn.

With that being said, I have found that I’ve learned what I need to know to effectively play Cartel Tycoon more quickly by playing its story campaign than I have from its tutorial mode. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I just think it is amusing that throwing myself toward the deep end of the metaphorical pool has been more effective for me than learning the ropes by playing the mode specifically designed to teach me how to play. I guess I’ve learned more from Cartel Tycoon’s story mode because it requires me to play without the relative “safety nets” that are present within its tutorials.

Even though having anything to do with a drug cartel is something no upstanding citizen would ever consider, Cartel Tycoon seems capable of offering quite a lot of suggestions as to how someone might hypothetically go about doing that. The hierarchy of your in-game cartel is structured similarly to what you might know about real-world organized crime. You play as the so-called “Capo,” the leader of the cartel, you have to manage your lieutenants who are directly beneath you in the chain of command, and so on. The importance of managing lieutenants is one thing that Cartel Tycoon spends quite a while teaching you.

Keeping your underlings happy and loyal is one of the biggest things that can make or break your cartel. If you don’t treat your lieutenants right, they may turn against you. Not only will you then be forced to take your attention away from the business to deal with any of your former associates who have gone rogue, but the process of eliminating those defectors may cost you important resources and put the lives of your still-loyal subordinates in danger. As a Capo, you’ll frequently have to take significant risks, make difficult decisions, and hope things work out in your favor.

One of the very few things I don’t really like about Cartel Tycoon is that it seems its story mode might not be ideal for me, as I don’t really have the skills necessary to build and manage anything on the scale of an entire city, or in this case, a multi-regional drug cartel. However, Cartel Tycoon more than makes up for that minor issue in my mind because I can still easily become totally immersed in its sandbox mode. Sandbox modes are often the aspect of city-builder games that appeal to me more than anything else these types of games might offer.

Cartel Tycoon’s sandbox mode allows me to change the difficulty of certain parts of gameplay that tend to give me trouble in story mode, set whatever structure and ultimate goals I desire, and give myself obscene amounts of both illegal and legal money so that I can afford not to care about how well or how poorly I might be playing while I proceed to simply mess around to my heart’s content. For me, this makes Cartel Tycoon what Yahtzee Croshaw of Second Wind might call a “podcast game,” and those sorts of titles are frequently right up my alley.

If a game where you can construct your own drug cartel and become filthy rich beyond your wildest dreams (in more ways than one) sounds appealing to you, I’d say Cartel Tycoon is definitely an option worth considering. That’s especially true if you’re more skilled at city planning than I am, so that you won’t end up with any road networks designed so strangely that they’re more likely to cause multi-car pile-ups daily than the transport of your product to its ultimate destination.

A PC review copy for Cartel Tycoon was provided by tinyBuild for the purpose of this review.

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Cartel Tycoon

$29.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• In-depth, expansive tutorials
• Highly enjoyable sandbox mode
• Enjoyable story campaign

Cons

• Possibly not the best introduction to city-builder games
• Particularly mature subject matter