''Offworld Trading Company'' is a

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, turn ...

(RTS)

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Mohawk Games ''Mohawk Games'' is an American video game developer based in Baltimore, Maryland, known for releasing the strategy video games ''Offworld Trading Company'' and ''Old World''. History Mohawk games was co-founded in 2013 by Firaxis veterans Soren ...

and published by

Stardock Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Microsoft Windows due to the collapse of the OS/ ...

. The game was released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

in April 2016.

Gameplay

''Offworld Trading Company'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

themed

set on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

. Featuring economic warfare ranging from hostile takeovers to sabotage, it puts the player in charge of one of four titular offworld trading companies. The players' choice of faction comes after they have their first look at the map, allowing them to tailor their choices to the situation. Regardless of their choice, players land their HQ and begin to construct resource extractors on the neighboring hexes. There are 13 resources in the game.

Water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

, Aluminum, Iron, Silicon, and Carbon can be extracted from hexes that contain those resources. Power can be generated by building a

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

, with different limitations depending on the type of power plant being built, and is usually used to power buildings. Steel mills generate steel from iron. Greenhouse farms make food from water. Hydrolysis reactors break water apart into oxygen and

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

. Glass kilns produce glass from oxygen and silicon. Electronics factories produce electronics from silicon, carbon, and aluminum. Chemical refineries produce chemicals from carbon and fuel. Finally, money can be produced by selling stockpiles of resources.

Supply and demand In microeconomics, supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a Market (economics), market. It postulates that, Ceteris paribus, holding all else equal, in a perfect competition, competitive market, the unit price for a ...

fluctuates constantly. If a player is buying large sums of glass for an expansion, their rival could be gearing up glass kilns to make a handsome profit. The game also offers more direct ways of engaging a player. Through the

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...

, a player can purchase anything from underground nukes that wipe out resource pockets to

mutinies Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military, of a crew or of a crew of pirates) to oppose, change, or overthrow an organization to which they were previously loyal. The term is commonly used for a rebellion among member ...

that divert a rival's wealth into their pocket. When a player purchases something from the black market, however, its price rises, giving a wary opponent a chance to prepare a defense, usually in the form of a goon squad. The goon squad protects a single structure from most

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

actions, capable of stealing the sabotage for yourself. The end goal of the game is to buy a

majority stake A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the major ...

in every offworld trading company in the game. If a player loses majority stockholdership in their own company, or is subjected to a very expensive

hostile takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to ...

, they are eliminated from the game, but can elect to watch as an observer. Players are warned when an opposing player earns enough money to buy them out (but the opposing player is not alerted), which usually results in tense, desperate races to earn money.

Development and release

''Offworld Trading Company'' was developed by Mohawk Games and published by Stardock. An in-development version of the game was released via

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

. The full game was released for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

on April 28, 2016. The game's score was written by

Christopher Tin Christopher Chiyan Tin (born May 21, 1976) is an American composer of art music, often composed for film and video game soundtracks. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence. He has won two Grammy Awar ...

Reception

''Offworld Trading Company'' received "generally favorable" reviews from

critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...

according to aggregate review website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

References

External links

* {{Stardock 2016 video games Early access video games Multiplayer and single-player video games MacOS games Real-time strategy video games Stardock games Video games set on Mars Video games developed in the United States Windows games Mohawk Games games