Industry Giant 2
                    Part of SynTax CD 2

                    Demo reviewed by Sue

The Industry Giant 2 demo consists of 3 tutorials and an 'endless'
game. The tutorials are the best way to learn how the game works
and what all the controls do.

In the first tutorial, the principles behind IG2 are explained in
a series of pop-up windows. The aim of the game, for example, is 
about producing and selling goods. As you work through the windows
in turn, you learn how to change the view, zoom in and out and
bring up an overall map. The next window only appears once you've
done whatever you needed to do in the previous window and the icon
you need to select next is always highlighted.

The aim of the first tutorial is to sell farm produce. You do this
by first building a department store where it will turn a good
profit.  As you move the building's footprint over the map, you'll
see the demand for certain goods in each season as four figures.
The goods in this case are milk and eggs. If the footprint is
green, you can build ... if red, you will have to find another
site.

You can't send goods directly to a store from a farm, they have to
go through a warehouse. Again, it will be clear where you should
build it so that the store is within its cachement area.  Third,
build a chicken farm, making sure it's in a nice grassy area where
the chickens will lay well and set it to produce eggs.  You can
tweak other factors like the workers' salaries and the production
level. Finally pressing OK kicks everything off. You'll see little
chickens zooming about the field (no battery farming here) and a
production meter.

Eggs that are produced automatically go to the warehouse and the
store automatically collects what it needs to keep its customers
happy. By checking the store you can see exactly what you're
earning and change the sale price if you want. Are your chickens
keeping up with demand? This is where you'll find out. To complete
the tutorial, you now have to build a dairy farm and sell at least
20 units of milk.

The second tutorial is more complicated with a production line.
You have to turn timber and steel into tools and sell them through
an existing store. As in the last tutorial, the mine's footprint
changes from red to green when you're over raw materials. Then you
must build a warehouse both the mine and factory can access. A
steelworks between the warehouse and mine completes one part of
the process. For the timber section, you need a logging camp and a
sawmill. You're also taught how to tweak the warehouse settings so
that the raw materials go to one warehouse and the finished tools
to the one by the store.  The aim is to sell 30 units.

The third tutorial lets you get to grips with transporting goods
by railway. The maps already has a department store and warehouse
in town, and a furniture manufacturer some way away. Positioning
the station in a "green" zone in each case and connecting them
with a railway line doesn't take long. Add a workshop to service
the trains, add a train and set it to go from A to B carrying
picture frames. You can tell the driver to wait until the train is
full to save wasting trips. Then sit back until 30 frames have
been delivered.

The endless demo is called Big Lake. You can build up quite a
network of stores among the towns around the lake shore.  There
are several farm industries, you can make toys and some furniture
as well. What's better you can build truck depots and watch the
little lorries zipping along the roads. You can also choose if you
want weather.

This demo is very basic in that you're limited to what you can do
at any one time. You can't save, for example. Since none of the
tutorials takes long to finish I guess this isn't really important
for those but I find it a bit annoying for Big Lake.  Lots of
other buttons don't work in the tutorials eg options, help, vehicle 
list, statistics, balance sheet ... all you can access are those you
need to complete the tutorial, nothing more. But you can use a lot
more in the Big Lake scenario.

During the tutorials, close instruction windows before trying to
alter warehouse settings or constructing buildings. You'll have
problems otherwise. I also found it a bit strange that warehouses
etc don't have to be positioned on roads. How does all this stuff
get transported anyway? I like to see lorries scurrying about, not
merely see sales racking up (though that also gives me a warm glow
for a different reason).

I liked Industry Giant II, it's much better than its predecessor
which I bought second-hand in Computer Exchange. There is a
special offer pack available where you buy IG2 and get IG1 free
with it. The full game has 20 worlds and 17 missions.







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