Rise of Industry 2 Review: A Complex Tycoon Game Buried Under Bugs
Ever wondered what would happen if Gordon Gekko designed a factory simulator, filled it with cocaine-fueled 80s satire, but then forgot to hire a QA team before shipping it? That's Rise of Industry 2, a game with a brilliant, complex, capitalist heart that's currently suffering from a catastrophic, bug-riddled meltdown.
Welcome to the Jungle, We've Got Fun and Games (and Spreadsheets)
When this game works, it's a thing of beauty. Let's be crystal clear: this isn't your casual, chill factory game where you can turn your brain off. This is a hardcore tycoon sim that demands your full attention. Juggling intricate production chains, international import/export contracts, staff management, and a full R&D tree feels like spinning a dozen plates while doing lines of coke off a mahogany desk. It's complex, it's challenging, and when you finally get a massive production line humming and see the profits roll in, you feel like a goddamn master of the universe. The 80s vibe is perfect, complete with cheesy but hilarious live-action FMV cutscenes that nail the satirical tone.
This Ain't Your Daddy's Rise of Industry
If you're a fan of the first game coming here expecting more of the same, hit the brakes and turn around. The focus has shifted dramatically. The more relaxed, logistics-heavy gameplay of RoI 1 has been completely replaced by a much more demanding, overwhelming "math game" that's all about optimizing production ratios and balancing contracts. It's not necessarily a bad thing—it's just a completely different beast. Fans of the original might hate it. Newcomers looking for a hardcore challenge might love it. Just know what you're getting into, because this is not the sequel you were probably expecting.
A Hostile Takeover of Bugs and Crashes
This game was clearly pushed out of the oven way too early. It is a technical mess. I've had game-breaking bugs that made negotiating new contracts literally impossible, forcing a restart. I've been hit with a never-ending stream of pop-up notifications that froze the entire game. And I've had more crashes than a Wall Street broker in '87. The performance is also a joke, with the game lagging to a crawl after just a few in-game years and making my high-end PC run hotter than a car phone left on the dash in July. There is a fantastic game engine buried under this mountain of unacceptable instability, and it's a damn shame.
The Learning Curve is a Goddamn Cliff
The tutorial does an okay job of teaching you how to build a factory, and then it basically kicks you out into the wilderness to die. It fails to explain dozens of critical systems, from managing your executive team to the nuances of supply and demand. You will probably go bankrupt on your first few attempts, not because you made a bad strategic decision, but because the game simply never told you the rules. It's a steep, frustrating learning curve that feels less like a satisfying challenge and more like poor, unintuitive design.
The Verdict
Rise of Industry 2 is a fucking paradox. There is a genuinely brilliant, deep, and rewarding tycoon game in here, with a fantastic satirical vibe. But it's buried under a thick layer of game-breaking bugs, poor optimization, and a brutal lack of polish. The developers are active and patching the game frantically, which is commendable, but they released a product that should have stayed in Early Access for another six months. If you're a hardcore genre veteran with a very high tolerance for bullshit, you might find the gem underneath all this rubble. For everyone else, wait. Wait for the fires to be put out, because right now, this American dream is a goddamn nightmare.
Score: 5.0/10 - A brilliant game that's actively trying to stop you from playing it.
We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn't impact our review in any way.