Reviewed: May 11 30, 2003
Reviewed by: Dave Larson
Publisher
Konami
Developer
Hothouse Creations
Released: March 25, 2003
Genre: Simulation
Players: 1
ESRB: Mature
7
6
7
6
7.4
System Requirements
Recommended System
Do you feel lucky, punk? Well? Do ya? If so, then walk beneath the neon signs and come to Casino Inc. Konami brings the gritty realism and seedy nature of Las Vegas to simulator games in this casino sim. Set in the 1970s, you can be the driven entrepreneur, bound to dominate the market with extensive advertising, careful game payouts and big name entertainers, or you can be the sneaky boss, sending out hitmen and card sharks to keep your competitors out of the picture. Of course, it is never that easy. While you are busy running your own show, other casinos are working their own brand of shenanigans as well.
It’s not just about the cards and dirty deeds, though. It’s about entertainment. Casino Inc. allows you to make a complete facility. That means restaurants. From classy bistros to quick and cheap burger stands, you put in your own dining areas, so your money-spending guests can stay in your building even longer. It also means movies. From action to comedy to even adult movies, you place theaters for your guests as well. Don’t forget the stages, either. Siegfried and Roy may be booked, and Wayne Newton might be a bit too pricey, but you can put your own hacks—uh, entertainers on the stage to draw in guests as well.
Of course, if you’re looking for more action than Ed Norton in Rounders was, then the games are still here. Black jack, poker, roulette, and all of the old favorites and a good chunk of new ones are available. You can even track your high rollers, so you can be sure to give them that extra special touch of class and service. If cards aren’t your bag, then fill the halls with slot machines. You can set the payout ratio yourself. Pay attention to these, because as any pit boss can tell you, the slots are where the real money is.
No man is an island though, and the same is true for casinos. You need to make sure that you are well situated in the city. Place billboards at strategic locations to increase awareness of your great facility. Schedule shuttles routes to the airport, the mall, and other places of interest to keep the customers coming.
You can also control your doormen, and decide whom to open your doors to. You can just target the high rollers and upper class, or you can invite teens and white trash. Whomever you prohibit will be set upon (subtly, to be sure) and encouraged to find other places to enjoy. If you’re not a fan of subtle though, try some of these options.
Firstly, start a nice sideline brothel. Nothing brings in the customers like a nice, warm hostess with the mostess. Secondly, get some punk troublemakers and send them to your competition. Not just other casinos, either. Restaurants, arcades, anywhere people go to have fun is taking just a little bit more away from you. For some reason, they have a hard time keeping customers brawls occurring every two or three hours.
Thirdly, keep it simple. Nothing tells the other side to get out of business better than a sucking chest wound. Send a hitman out to take out the trash. The town always looks better after a good cleaning.
Casino Inc. follows the tradition of mouse-dependence in sim games. That fault aside, the menus and commands are really easy to follow. All of the main menus appear as buttons on the main screen, and to make any changes just click on the thing you want to change. It was easy to navigate. To move around, just move the mouse to the edge of the screen and to change floors there is a simple elevator bar to click on. To tell your staff members what to do, you simply click on them. If they interact with other people, you then right click on the target individual for a list of possible commands.
This is where Casino Inc. has problems. Sometimes it won’t give you the menu of commands when you click on the target. Other times, even when you do give them commands, your character won’t do it, or he’ll do it to the wrong person. This can be the big suck when your bouncer bum-rushes the high roller, while the cheat right next to him keeps taking your casino to the cleaners. Otherwise, there isn’t much to say about the game play. It’s simple and unobtrusive, the way controls should be.
Speaking of simple and unobtrusive, the graphics are also bland. Unfortunately, those aren’t good qualities for the graphics of a game. The people have had a good amount of work put into them. It’s especially nice to see some of the get-ups your customers are wearing, wide lapels and big sunglasses and all. However, at that point the good effort stopped. The gaming tables are ho-hum, and the slot machines all look the same.
The sound for this game is actually pretty good. The most pleasant surprise is the voices in this game. When alerts pop up, a voice will say (for example), “Someone is cheating your casino,” and the name will be in the alert. It’s really quite nice, and not even really irritating after long hours of play. There is of course, cheesy seventies music in the background, but hey, you’re running a seventies-era casino. What do you expect? And if the music and voices aren’t enough for you, there will always be the endless sound effects of the slot machine games.
Available at your local game store for $39.99, Casino Inc. is a tad pricey for your return. However, there are some positives. The first is that for many simulator fans, this game like many others, can really be played indefinitely if you so choose. There are six different casinos you can play, each with its own campaign of five or so goals to accomplish. This ranks pretty standard with most sim games, but unfortunately the casinos are very similar. The desire to play past the second or third one is pretty well sublimated by that point. Still, if you are a fan of sim games, then this is worth a look.
Casino Inc. brings a new look to casino simulators, flaunting the dark side of gambling in its heyday. While lacking a Joe Pesci-like sense of chaotic brutality and a Sharon Stone-like sexiness, Casino Inc. requires more than just good business sense, it needs a good dose of immorality and aggression for real success. Manage your staff, your knaves and your customers so you can have your own piece of The Strip. Just make sure you keep sending the boss in Chicago his cut, or you might just find out where Jimmy Hoffa is after all—in the grave next to yours.