Industry Giant II 1980-2020

Published by JoWooD Productions
Developed by JoWooD Ebensee
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Requires: Full version of Industry Giant II
Released - Out Now
Price : £19.99

Industry Giant II is one of the best resource management RTS games that we have reviewed here at Deaf Gamers. The depth and scope of the game is very impressive indeed and with a 150 products that can be manufactured and many, many improvements upon the original Industry Giant it clearly isn't wanting for much. However because of it's popularity JoWooD have released an expansion for the game that not only adds more features and depth to the game but also extends the timespan the game covers by another 40 years. Let's take a look at Industry Giant II 1980 - 2020.

I suppose the obvious addition that this expansion has is the 56 new products. These products are a result of the inclusion of a gold mine, fishing ports, jewellery industry and coffee house. The jewellery industry alone is responsible for seven new products such as fashion jewellery and quartz watches. To allow for this extra production the warehouse control has been modified and you can now control each warehouse space individually to give you more control over things. If you like to grow your produce you'll be pleased to know that farms can be expanded. This is particularly useful if you want more produce but don't want the additional expense or hassle of building a completely different farm.

Extra vehicles have also been added. There are 5 extra locomotives, 3 lorries, 3 ships, 3 aeroplanes and 3 helicopters. A heliport can also be used as an alternative to an airport. This is especially welcome when space is at a premium. There is also Transatlantic ports for import and export to help make that extra money that you so desperately need. Extra space can be created to park vehicles too. Because of the added timespan that the expansion brings to Industry Giant II there is also a new high-speed line that allows for faster trains to operate. Improvement have also been made with vehicles and if one of your trucks, for example, breaks down you can now instantly buy another one to take over the route with one click, very helpful indeed.

The expansion comes with an additional 3 campaigns, Banana Republic, Rockstone and Z-files. These are all very different from the original campaign and in my opinion more challenging. There's 30 endless play maps that have been added as well as some specially created for multiplayer games. There is even an additional building style that has been added and if you like the way the you could change the interface design scheme in the original Industry Giant II, you'll be pleased to know that 5 more design schemes have been added this time and they all look very nice indeed.

Industry Giant II was fine for deaf gamers and this expansion does nothing to change that. As before all information is given in text and deaf gamers are completely catered for, which is very pleasing. It would have been great if on starting a campaign mission the game paused whilst you were reading the objectives, as time slips away and in Industry Giant II it is very precious indeed. This isn't really a problem though as once you're used to it, you'll pause the game yourself before you start reading.

There are some additional improvements and additions but to be quite honest the list is that lengthy we would be wasting time going through every little detail. This is one great expansion pack for what was a very impressive game already. The only thing I can say against it is that the developers still haven't sorted out the traffic congestion problem that can sometimes occur where the traffic just comes to a standstill. Despite this though, what's here is very impressive and rounds Industry Giant II out very nicely indeed.

Overall Game Rating: 9.0/10
An impressive expansion to what was already a great game.

Deaf Gamers comment:
Superb for deaf gamers.