Since the business world is as cutthroat and lucrative as it is, it's no surprise that it makes for great game material. But while some might think that all such games must have "Tycoon" somewhere in the title, Capitalism II sets its sights higher. If you play your cards right in Capitalism II and establish a globe-spanning corporation, it's not about wealth, but megawealth--counted in billions. The scale of this game is much more ambitious than that of other Tycoon games or business sims, providing a world where you can control everything from mining operations and media outlets to the manufacturing and retail of around 60 diverse products. This complexity means the game requires quite some effort to learn, but once competition picks up against the aggressive AI, Capitalism II shows its colors as a great strategy game. Also, as if to help your own bottom line, the game's a real bargain at $20.

Capitalism II is a substantial improvement on its predecessor.

At the heart of Capitalism II is a sophisticated game design that's been expanded and refined since the original version of Capitalism was released in 1995. Both Capitalism games were designed by Trevor Chan, who is also the creator of the Seven Kingdoms games, which innovatively combine real-time strategy combat with Civilization-style empire building. The core of Capitalism is straightforward: The object is to create businesses that buy, produce, or sell products and reinvest the profits to boost revenue and to diversify into new regions and products. Businesses are as customizable as you might hope. You don't need to devote one whole store to aspirin and another to cough syrup--there's a manageable four product slots you can allocate. Each business is made up of nine building blocks, such as crop growing, manufacturing, purchasing, sales, and advertising, but there are hundreds of easily searchable premade templates, so a working furniture factory is only a few clicks away.

Once you have some basic businesses turning a profit, the game really opens up. While there are usually a few decent retail goods available for import from nearby seaports, you'll soon have to move into manufacturing to keep your corporation growing. And to get the raw materials for your factories, you'll often have to get into farming, mining, or lumber. Even though it can take a lot of capital--whether from cash, loans, or a stock offering--to build this sort of infrastructure, there are ways of starting small. Over time, the key to massive success in the game is vertical integration--owning every part of the food chain from oil fields and plastic plants to toy factories, stores, and even the TV stations where you advertise.

The game offers a much broader scope than most other business sims.

Capitalism II adds new depth, as well as a more accessible presentation, to the original game. The first campaign is entirely devoted to tutorial scenarios that progressively walk you through the game's key mechanics and then provide an open-ended testing ground with a relatively simple goal. For those who have completed the tutorial and at least tried an open-ended random game, there's a second group of five scenarios that quickly ramps up the challenge. The game's interface has seen a number of improvements, including a much better menu system for finding products, automatic relinking of products to new suppliers, and more comprehensive automation for businesses that you can hand over to a well-paid chief operating officer. However, the interface is sorely lacking keyboard shortcuts--in fact, it's lacking any useful keyboard control. With so many lists and menus to scroll through, it would have been fast and helpful to be able to at least use the standard arrow and "page up" and "page down" keys. While the game may look like Quicken at times, it's not as user-friendly as real business applications have become.