It’s been over a decade since Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon was unleashed upon the world. However, the game looks even more dated than that. It looks like someone reused assets from SimCity 2000 when games like The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind came out the same year in the United States. At the end of the day, Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon is a generic tycoon game which was mediocre at best even when it came out. What’s most shocking is the lack of quality when it comes to the repetitive gameplay and the voice acting. I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice this but in the game, Donald Trump speaks in broken English. Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon is a bizarre experience which gamers should avoid even after a decade.
Aside from the atrocious visuals which make Prince of Persia 3D look like the Mona Lisa, Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon desperately needs more variety in terms of gameplay. The basic premise of the title revolves around you starting out with a small amount of capital with which you must build a thriving business empire. An empire based on real estate of course. You buy properties, have to compete against opponents—of which Donald Trump is one—in order to come out on top.
As stated earlier, Donald Trump turns out to be one of your rivals in the game. However, he’s also the person who promotes you when the time comes. This seems like quite an oversight because if the player is working for Trump, then why is he one of the rivals? Attention to detail is clearly not a forte here. Once you’ve been promoted around 100 times, the game ends. I can guarantee that you’ll want to harm yourself before reaching that point. It’s that dull.
Speaking of opponents, the artificial intelligence programmed into this game is asinine. Computer-controlled tycoons make some of the most questionable decisions which no sane person would ever sanction. The challenge really isn’t there. I believe Industry Giant II, a game that came out around the same time, is a much richer experience. It’s more complex and adds factors like strategic, tactical and operational supply chain management. The gameplay is also varied and keeps you on your toes.
The majority of your time in Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon is spent buying empty lots. Once you do that for the first few years, you can choose to build hotels, apartments, offices or commercial properties on them. These projects provide income but require maintenance which really isn’t that difficult if you don’t overspend in the beginning. Buying lots is the main focus of the game and the title even includes an awful auction mechanic. Competing real estate developers bid randomly and take a surprisingly long time considering that it’s just the computer. I can guarantee you that bidding doesn’t take that long in real life.
Now that we’ve discussed the gameplay, let’s talk about the technical limitations of the game. Even in 2002, many titles had a background score. Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon is curiously devoid of one. Don’t worry though, there are clips of him speaking in broken English throughout the experience. Clearly that compensates for the music because who doesn’t want to hear Donald Trump speak for hours?
Summary
Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon is a travesty and I’m glad I didn’t even know it existed for a long time. It’s evident that not a lot of effort went into the game given its audio, visuals and banal gameplay. The game is basically an old tycoon title with a Donald Trump sticker on it. Donald Trump’s Real Estate Tycoon reminds me of what Milestone does nowadays. They package the same motorcycling simulator for different publishers but give it varying titles. Gamers should definitely avoid it even after a decade.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.