Turmoil | PC Review
Get ready to seek fortune with the oil-drilling sim game, Turmoil. In this day and age of solar energy and electric cars, does this throwback to the wild west have what it takes to grab your attention? And should you buy it?
Out To Strike Liquid Gold
First released in 2016 by Gamious, Turmoil sets you in the 19th century Wild West as a budding oil baron. Using a $20,000 start-up fund, you’re tasked with digging for oil and turning a profit in the game’s campaign mode. You’ll be competing with AI opponents for who can make the most money and become the next mayor of the town. You start out in a fictional town where you can upgrade your various tools, bid on plots of land, and even bribe local officials for better oil prices. Along the way, you’ll upgrade your rigs, dig for gold and diamonds, and as always, drill for oil.
The main gameplay loop of Turmoil takes place out in the dig sites, where you use a dowser to locate oil, drop down a rig and drill for that sweet tar, and use wagons to cart the oil to the factories. While the game starts you out slow, it quickly elevates to a point where you need to manage multiple oil rigs and wagons in order to maximize your profits. The price at which you can sell your oil fluctuates, and part of the active management of the game is whether to sell your oil to the left or right factory respectively, or to store it in a silo until the price climbs back up.
Too Boring Too Quickly
Unfortunately, the game quickly hits a point where the only active management you do is deciding where or whether to sell your oil. The wagons operate automatically, so once your oil rigs are established and wagons are running, there’s not much for you to do except watch it run and occasionally redirect your wagons. The game does throw in additional obstacles as the campaign continues, namely rocks that block your pipes and diamonds you can sell or trade for favors, but the main gameplay component remains the same.
Ultimately, Turmoil doesn’t give you much to actually play. Just watching the oil prices go up and down isn’t very engaging, and because you have to be paying attention to ensure you don’t sell your oil for a pittance, it doesn’t work well as a game you can just play and chill. It’s not a bad game by any means, but there’s not much meat to it.
Turmoil Final Verdict
Turmoil is currently available on Steam, Mac, Linux, and iOS for $10 USD, with The Heat Is On DLC for $5. The DLC adds an additional campaign and a few new gameplay mechanics, but at its core, it’s more of the same. A full campaign might take you a few hours, and for what it’s worth, there is some replay value if you do enjoy the gameplay. That said, if you’re really into simulation games, it’s still worth waiting for a sale.
This review is based of of a PC review copy provided by Gamious and PR Hound for coverage purposes.
Turmoil
$9.99
Pros
- Good Replay Value
- Lots of Tools
Cons
- Hands-Off Gameplay
- Far Too Simple
