Buy low, sell high, earn as much money as you can and try staying out of trouble. Sounds familiar? Well, if this is Drug Wars, then the ‘trouble’ part would usually be related to the guys in blue. Well, you still deal with the guys in blue when it comes to OfficeWars, but they are less authoritative – they are the usual sleepy security guards you’ll find in any office environment.
OfficeWars by AndytheDesigner puts Drug Wars in a twist, utilizing office supplies instead of drugs. This not only puts the game on a lighter ground, I believe Apple would be more reluctant to approve the game should real drug names be used.
If you have played any of the Drug Wars, Dope Wars game in the past, OfficeWars is going to be familiar territory to say the least. The game currently operates on a 32 day cycle. Your task – buy office supplies at a low price and then sell it off at a (hopefully) higher price.
In OfficeWars, your market consists of office equipment like Highliters, Ink Cartridges, Calculators and etc. You get to buy these items from the five different locations featured: Lobby, Copy Room, Lunch Room, Back Stairs and the Car Lot. As with any Drug War themed game, item availability are entirely random – don’t panic if you just bought 20 pieces of Highliters at the Copy Room only to find out that there’s no market for it in the Lobby.
Due to the randomness effect, properly managing your shopping cart will help you a lot. You start out with a small shopping cart that is capable of carrying up to 20 pieces of items. There’s a chance that you might be offered a larger shopping cart while playing the game, so take the opportunity and buy it if and when it occurs.
Graphics wise, the game is very well designed according to Apple’s user interface guidelines. Characters are lovable and well drawn out. One of the goods of OfficeWars is the input mechanism – it is pretty well designed and blends in with the game’s theme. Simply drag your finger downward across any of the digits. The scrollers are smart enough to know their maximum values – if you try putting in a value beyond the max, the scroller will automatically jump to the maximum value available. This occurs identically throughout all areas in the game where input is used – buy sell window and bank deposit withdrawal window.
Throughout my review playing the game, I find that I wasn’t offered any new equipment to defend myself should the security guards come chasing my back – I usually end up having to fight with my bare hands. The same goes with the offer to get a larger shopping cart. The game could use a little tweaking in this department.
Not all is lost though – the developer has promised an update for the game which would allow custom game cycles and an online global high score.
Drug Wars themed games in the iTunes Store is pretty scarce. OfficeWars fits this bill pretty well, giving us an alternative to the much loved genre.
OfficeWars is available from the iTunes Store for only $1.99 a copy.
Rating: 4.5/5.0 Taps
App Data
App Name: OfficeWars v1.0 | Developer: AndytheDesigner | Purchase via: iTunes App Store @ $1.99 | Released: Mar 06, 2009 | Reviewed on: iPod touch v2.2.1
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