This review contains spoilers
Drug Dealer Simulator is a quite literal “drug dealer simulator” about being, well, a drug dealer; developed by Byterunners Game Studios, it’s kind of self explanatory and I’m not sure what else to put here in terms of developer context. However what I can say is this: I originally got this game a month and a half after the game came out in Early Access around April of 2020 (shoutout to my dude BFD Survivor for the immaculate pick) because not only had I shown interest in it due to my fascination for criminal fiction/nonfiction but also my constant jokes about actually selling and taking drugs, so I’ve been playing this on and off for the past couple of years and I’ll just start out by saying that it has its flaws but as a game I really enjoy my time with it, both due to my imagination but also due to the fact that once you get the rhythm going that the gameplay loop to me personally becomes addicting.
In fact, I’m gonna start with the gameplay; you’re here to sell drugs (of which can vary from weed to meth to the motherload of cocaine), you can mix them together with other materials like baking soda, fentanyl, acetone, whatever you can find in game to make it more potent/addicting. The more addicting, the more customers you bring/the faster you can get them addicted; however there’s a high price to pay if people overdose. The cops will show up more often, a lot less people will go to you for product and eventually you might get raided by DEA and if you get that then it’s game over. To this end, this game essentially promotes both time and monetary management skills; you have to buy the drugs from Eddie (your dealer) whom you distribute drugs to other customers so you can get money of course. However with this, keep in mind you have to pay Eddie as well or you won’t get any drugs; of course you can grow some in the future (and later end up going independent due to story events, of which you have to start up drug labs in certain safehouse spots). The early game can be hellish in terms of actually making profit considering the first area you don’t really get too cash. But saving money is the key, you get money and stash some away, maybe buy a safehouse or two in case you need a place to fall back on (they also give you benefits like extra money per sale and lower reputation degradation), invest in new equipment; there’s a lot that I can’t describe here but it does have some sort of benefit to the overall experience. Of course you can only get this stuff (as well as End Game features) by leveling up to 36 so it’s going to be a grind, and whereas I do enjoy this stuff and the RPG-like mechanics with perks, grinding in almost any case can be boring if there isn’t MORE to it other than the core gameplay loop, which I like a lot but still. Again, you can kind of tell that the feature creep really got to ‘em considering the debut trailer had guns in it (and I believe the dev promised them? Don’t quote me I don’t remember). You can also apparently get high on your own supply (which I didn’t, because never do that though it apparently gives benefits) and there’s a lot of smuggling going on with inventory management; any money you get you have to carry in your backpack (which reminds me you can launder that money later and slowly get it trickled back down to you for legit purchases such as late game villas, safehouses, furniture, etc.) and the smuggling kept me on my toes between buying lockpicks and trying to cross into the other districts via sewers or choosing between paying 350 dollars to a construction worker to take a tunnel or throwing your bag over the wall (which I’ll be honest is kind of easier said than done, at least with me) and going through the police checkpoint. All of these make for a very interesting loop which I’ve enjoyed non stop; I wish I could describe every feature but I can’t because time; however if I were to describe any issues it would definitely be the grind can be boring and the police themselves. The police were strange with their AI in my play through, most of the time they worked fine but sometimes they could see me from 15 miles away and ask to search and other times I can sprint right past and they wouldn’t care; I don’t remember if that was perks or if it’s just a game thing but as much as it keeps you on your toes they definitely become annoying. If you want a tip for this, if you ever get into a chase and you have a heavy load then drop it and just book it or you’ll get zapped and arrested; overall for me the loop works and trying to balance doing all the math to get your product correct while running all over the place, trying to avoid cops, it genuinely works and it’s a tense but rewarding process. However, do yourself a favor and save often just in case, gonna move onto the story quickly.
The story is you play as a dude working under a guy named Eddie, who works for The Cartel; you sell drugs and do general crime while your inner conscience talks to you in a 90s skater voice about how doing crime is awesome while sometimes making fourth wall breaking joke instructions or pop culture references; play your cards right and eventually you team up with either drug lord La Ballena or Kenji who ask for varying amounts of drug orders in exchange for huge profits, you team up with a Psychedelics gang, get a money launderer and then you go to the end game: The Cartel and the Colombians go to war, and through a series of events Eddie ends up leaving and you grow to be an independent drug dealer with the entire area under your control. That’s it, no in depth plot or anything, it’s serviceable but for a simulation game like this it’s kind of what I expect.
To move onto graphics/art & sound design; I’ll just start with the graphics. The graphics aren’t great, they feel really cheap, like low quality flipped assets (mostly on the civilians of course) and the world definitely gives the feeling that it’s abandoned (I mean christ, you’re working around what I believe to be the border and it’s a HORRIBLE crime infested hell hole), most likely it’s not a purposeful world design but it gives off the vibe of such especially considering throughout the game you’re stuck in a town trapped by overzealous police officers who love to oppress the people anyways. Now there are people, but most of the buildings while they don’t need to have a purpose, feels like they were supposed to have one but got cut due to budget reasons. Truth be told, I don’t think the graphics really delivered because of the budget stuff, what I can say is that the graffiti looks cool. Also commonly when getting into conversations you’ll see misspelling, punctuation that’s off, like it’s a finished game but it needs more polish and that’s probably due to the fact that the developers are from Poland I believe (no pun intended). In this section however, the sound design is where the game shines; the music selections are a great sort of underground mix, the title theme slaps to hell, like there are songs in this game that I STILL listen to even when I take months off from playing this game (mostly songs by Thonio or Vic Sage).
Overall, the game has a lot of jank, a lot of stuff that feels strange and unfinished; but again the gameplay loop really works for me and I like what this game has to offer despite the jank (also wanna point out a glitch, working on my villa and tried putting some doors down but accidentally painted the nearby walls and so now I can’t give my villa front or back doors, which is strange but whatever) and general grind of the game. Is it worth the price? To me yes it is, I got my hours/enjoyment out of the game and every now and then I’ll go back and play for fun; BUT you kind of have to look past all the imperfections and meet the game on it’s own terms to do so. It’s not perfect but I find it enjoyable and will probably continue to play it; I know at the moment the studio is gearing up for DDS2, of which I’ll put the links below.
Wanted to post this in the review but I'm tired and Steam Character limits, however here are some guides and reference material I looked into.
https://www.chaptercheats.com/cheat/pc/436459/Drug-Dealer-Simulator/hint/155297/
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2065932078
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2885790535
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXd86rUabl8
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2D00LMHvPxxvlllGQUAx7XqX-iBzlfTM
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4d5eN1HopWyRm3xF6DGCyc
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1708850/Drug_Dealer_Simulator_2/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLCU-T5rvs&ab_channel=GameTrailers
https://www.nexusmods.com/drugdealersimulator
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
In fact, I’m gonna start with the gameplay; you’re here to sell drugs (of which can vary from weed to meth to the motherload of cocaine), you can mix them together with other materials like baking soda, fentanyl, acetone, whatever you can find in game to make it more potent/addicting. The more addicting, the more customers you bring/the faster you can get them addicted; however there’s a high price to pay if people overdose. The cops will show up more often, a lot less people will go to you for product and eventually you might get raided by DEA and if you get that then it’s game over. To this end, this game essentially promotes both time and monetary management skills; you have to buy the drugs from Eddie (your dealer) whom you distribute drugs to other customers so you can get money of course. However with this, keep in mind you have to pay Eddie as well or you won’t get any drugs; of course you can grow some in the future (and later end up going independent due to story events, of which you have to start up drug labs in certain safehouse spots). The early game can be hellish in terms of actually making profit considering the first area you don’t really get too cash. But saving money is the key, you get money and stash some away, maybe buy a safehouse or two in case you need a place to fall back on (they also give you benefits like extra money per sale and lower reputation degradation), invest in new equipment; there’s a lot that I can’t describe here but it does have some sort of benefit to the overall experience. Of course you can only get this stuff (as well as End Game features) by leveling up to 36 so it’s going to be a grind, and whereas I do enjoy this stuff and the RPG-like mechanics with perks, grinding in almost any case can be boring if there isn’t MORE to it other than the core gameplay loop, which I like a lot but still. Again, you can kind of tell that the feature creep really got to ‘em considering the debut trailer had guns in it (and I believe the dev promised them? Don’t quote me I don’t remember). You can also apparently get high on your own supply (which I didn’t, because never do that though it apparently gives benefits) and there’s a lot of smuggling going on with inventory management; any money you get you have to carry in your backpack (which reminds me you can launder that money later and slowly get it trickled back down to you for legit purchases such as late game villas, safehouses, furniture, etc.) and the smuggling kept me on my toes between buying lockpicks and trying to cross into the other districts via sewers or choosing between paying 350 dollars to a construction worker to take a tunnel or throwing your bag over the wall (which I’ll be honest is kind of easier said than done, at least with me) and going through the police checkpoint. All of these make for a very interesting loop which I’ve enjoyed non stop; I wish I could describe every feature but I can’t because time; however if I were to describe any issues it would definitely be the grind can be boring and the police themselves. The police were strange with their AI in my play through, most of the time they worked fine but sometimes they could see me from 15 miles away and ask to search and other times I can sprint right past and they wouldn’t care; I don’t remember if that was perks or if it’s just a game thing but as much as it keeps you on your toes they definitely become annoying. If you want a tip for this, if you ever get into a chase and you have a heavy load then drop it and just book it or you’ll get zapped and arrested; overall for me the loop works and trying to balance doing all the math to get your product correct while running all over the place, trying to avoid cops, it genuinely works and it’s a tense but rewarding process. However, do yourself a favor and save often just in case, gonna move onto the story quickly.
The story is you play as a dude working under a guy named Eddie, who works for The Cartel; you sell drugs and do general crime while your inner conscience talks to you in a 90s skater voice about how doing crime is awesome while sometimes making fourth wall breaking joke instructions or pop culture references; play your cards right and eventually you team up with either drug lord La Ballena or Kenji who ask for varying amounts of drug orders in exchange for huge profits, you team up with a Psychedelics gang, get a money launderer and then you go to the end game: The Cartel and the Colombians go to war, and through a series of events Eddie ends up leaving and you grow to be an independent drug dealer with the entire area under your control. That’s it, no in depth plot or anything, it’s serviceable but for a simulation game like this it’s kind of what I expect.
To move onto graphics/art & sound design; I’ll just start with the graphics. The graphics aren’t great, they feel really cheap, like low quality flipped assets (mostly on the civilians of course) and the world definitely gives the feeling that it’s abandoned (I mean christ, you’re working around what I believe to be the border and it’s a HORRIBLE crime infested hell hole), most likely it’s not a purposeful world design but it gives off the vibe of such especially considering throughout the game you’re stuck in a town trapped by overzealous police officers who love to oppress the people anyways. Now there are people, but most of the buildings while they don’t need to have a purpose, feels like they were supposed to have one but got cut due to budget reasons. Truth be told, I don’t think the graphics really delivered because of the budget stuff, what I can say is that the graffiti looks cool. Also commonly when getting into conversations you’ll see misspelling, punctuation that’s off, like it’s a finished game but it needs more polish and that’s probably due to the fact that the developers are from Poland I believe (no pun intended). In this section however, the sound design is where the game shines; the music selections are a great sort of underground mix, the title theme slaps to hell, like there are songs in this game that I STILL listen to even when I take months off from playing this game (mostly songs by Thonio or Vic Sage).
Overall, the game has a lot of jank, a lot of stuff that feels strange and unfinished; but again the gameplay loop really works for me and I like what this game has to offer despite the jank (also wanna point out a glitch, working on my villa and tried putting some doors down but accidentally painted the nearby walls and so now I can’t give my villa front or back doors, which is strange but whatever) and general grind of the game. Is it worth the price? To me yes it is, I got my hours/enjoyment out of the game and every now and then I’ll go back and play for fun; BUT you kind of have to look past all the imperfections and meet the game on it’s own terms to do so. It’s not perfect but I find it enjoyable and will probably continue to play it; I know at the moment the studio is gearing up for DDS2, of which I’ll put the links below.
Wanted to post this in the review but I'm tired and Steam Character limits, however here are some guides and reference material I looked into.
https://www.chaptercheats.com/cheat/pc/436459/Drug-Dealer-Simulator/hint/155297/
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2065932078
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2885790535
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXd86rUabl8
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2D00LMHvPxxvlllGQUAx7XqX-iBzlfTM
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4d5eN1HopWyRm3xF6DGCyc
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1708850/Drug_Dealer_Simulator_2/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBLCU-T5rvs&ab_channel=GameTrailers
https://www.nexusmods.com/drugdealersimulator
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/