Many of the games that I play are odd little ones that don’t really have a storyline; puzzle games, simulations, etc. One that I picked up recently is Big Pharma, and I really like it. Here’s the official trailer for it:
The first part of the game is a bit of a logistics puzzle; you need to build your assembly lines to be as space efficient as you can, and properly utilize your ports for importing and outputting. Floor space gets spendy and some of the machines don’t like to cooperate with each other, so it’s fun to try to make sure your supply doesn’t stop when one machine takes longer than another, and that you’re not wasting space.
The second part is the business sim. It’s not as advanced in some areas as it could be (for instance, the competing drug companies don’t really make much of a difference except for when they drug-block you with patents), but it’s interesting enough to stay fun.
You have to decide if you want to engineer your drug to have no side-effects (which can give it a better rating), or if you want to make it only work sometimes so they have to buy more, or if you don’t care how awful the side effects are as long as you can produce it cheaply. One of my favorite reviews on the game ended with “10/10 would abandon business ethics again” haha.
Along the way you also research more ingredients and machines for making more advanced cures. The “modes” in the game start off really simple with features disabled and gradually add more, which is a great way to learn how things work without getting overwhelmed.
The game is really polished and is way better than most indie games I’ve played, and seems even better done than some non-indie games in ways! I highly recommend Big Pharma for the gamer that likes casual games, especially if you catch it on sale.
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