Offworld Trading Company
2016 · mohawk games
Has it aged?Why ↓
Offworld Trading Company makes an excellent battlefield out of a market ledger. You oversee Mars from above in this economic real-time strategy game, running a corporation: claim land for mines and factories, trade resources and sabotage competitors until you can buy them out. Watching oxygen supplies matters more than admiring your buildings.
Mars has been colonized, and Earth's corporate titans fight to dominate this new market. Competition is fierce in this fast-paced economic RTS from Civilization IV Lead Designer, Soren Johnson.
The publisher’s description, from its Steam store page.
What it looks like
the trailer, then the store's own shots
The verdict
Play it for the pleasure of making a rival's factories unprofitable without sending a single soldier. Limited land claims make self-sufficiency a trap: the better decision is often to import one resource and corner another. Selling your stockpile can wreck the very market you depend on, so a successful production chain is never permission to stop thinking. That need to reconsider what to build gives it more staying power than its Martian scenery.
Play it if
You enjoy spotting what an opponent needs, hoarding it and making them pay. You would rather replace an unprofitable steel mill than perfect a build order, and you like strategy matches that can finish in under half an hour.
Skip it if
You need armies to command or a colony whose growth tells a story. Here, resource totals and fluctuating markets demand your attention; if monitoring those figures feels like work, the sabotage won't rescue it.
Common questions
- Why can't I build mines on every resource deposit?
- Construction uses limited land claims, with more granted when you upgrade your headquarters. You have to choose what to produce and what to import; securing a deposit is little help if you have no claims left for the factories that process it.
- What does the black market do if there are no armies?
- It sells sabotage and other advantages: you can disable rival buildings, disrupt shipments or obtain extra land claims. Cutting a competitor's production can force them to import resources and run up debt.
- Can I pause while deciding what to produce on Mars?
- Against the AI, you can pause to examine the market and plan your next move. Multiplayer does not offer that respite.
- Does the campaign use the same corporate buyouts as other matches?
- Not throughout: you carry one corporation through encounters, investing in buildings for a central neutral colony rather than buying opponents' shares. Aggressive takeovers enter on the final maps.
What everyone else said
we link, we don't reprintHas it aged?
How does it hold up today? Based on recent reviews, how opinions have changed since launch, player activity and updates.
% positive each month, last 4 years.
Reviews via Steam ↗Peak: 419 in May 2016.
Player counts via SteamCharts ↗Better liked than at launch.
No update in the last year.