Grow Your Empire In Weedcraft Inc. – Review (PC)

By Cameron Abbott Last updated Apr 11, 2019

The budget is in the red, I have an employee in jail over selling some special blend I cranked out of my lab in Boulder, but this last batch is exactly what I need to help this ultra-conservative father help his son’s chronic pain after he’s finally recovered from opioid addiction. Then I’m in the black, but not by much. Overhead is larger than ever, with six different facilities, all with their own fronts. My longtime employees want better wages, and they deserve them. But the cheap weed I’m having them sling isn’t bringing in the big bucks. I have a request from this guy, but I see the score in the bottom right of his request. It’s a high level of Shady, this game’s “dark” alignment, and so far I’ve been able to stay true to my brother’s and my ideal about helping people. If I take it, I’ll make this month’s bills and much more. And with competition getting heated all over, it’s getting harder and harder to say no to these folks. But is this what Dad would have wanted?

This was probably the most difficult point I’ve had in Weedcraft Inc. The game is the brainchild of Scott Alexander and Polish developer Vile Monarch, with whom publisher Devolver Digital is working to create a new kind of tycoon game that has more to do with your old high school TI-83’s Drug Wars than with roller coasters or zoos. But it has much more to say about that than what other games might. The two campaigns are about two completely different individuals from two completely different backgrounds. One stars an MBA program dropout who after attending his father’s funeral enters the weed game to put his business knowledge to use, and with the pushing of his brother Clyde, he starts an empire of green. The second campaign, notedly dubbed the “advanced” campaign features an ex-convict who spent fifteen years behind bars for smuggling weed. Both campaigns starts you off in different cities with different starting objectives and inventories. But where the beginner’s campaign introduces the questions of capitalism morality in a growing medicinal field, the advanced campaign focuses more on the political ramifications, and the vast legal chasm between state and federal laws, and much more

Regardless of the set up, both games lead through a loose narrative with each section consisting of story related objectives. But this is where the first issue of the game comes forward. Every once and a while there will be an odd gate keeping objective, usually revolving around a new strain, and increasing the quality of strains in order to teach the player. But it often feels out of place, prohibitive, and worst of all, like a late game tutorial.

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But as you work your way up in the green trade, you have to carefully balance inventory, growth conditions and, eventually, your operation begins requiring you to be in two places at once – slinging dime bags on the streets while carefully cultivating your buds at home. Employees can then be brought on, and with it an introduction to the interpersonal NPC mechanics that are one of the game’s highlights. Each character has their own backstory, from the day to day workers under you, to the cops that try to bust you. On top of that, you have the opportunity to befriend them all, creating a likeable person whom everyone can respect. Eventually your operation evolves and, to throw the five-oh off your trail, you open business fronts.

An idealized version of Flint, MI where the water is actually drinkable.

As you prosper, competition starts moving in on your corners, trying to work against you. Your response to this can be to befriend the competition, it’s even advisable for you to do so. On the other hand, you can become a ruthless businessman who takes no mercy to your competition and drives them out as you establish a solitary grip over the city. Fulfilling specific requests from high paying custom clientele that require particular amounts of particular quality from various strains becomes the name of the game. This is where the big money that can overhaul your operation to the next level are found. Orders for $22K versus the $150 order of dime bags are the kinds of balances you need to keep as you supply both your regulars and the specialty clientele.

Eventually it’s time to branch out. In the base campaign Clyde gives you an set of options. Boulder, CO or Fargo, ND. From there it’s starting a new branch of the empire. As your influence grows, so does your opportunity. Research points get introduced, and from there the wide world of Mary Jane’s lovely strains open up to you. The story continues as you evolve and create new strains, and further your tale as you toe the line of legality.

While managing the price of your product, controlling the salaries of your employees, and much more, there are options on a deep level that leaves the game open to one of its major failures.

“At this point, Weedcraft Inc. takes on a balancing act that only gets more and more complicated. Introductions of new strains of marijuana, new soils, and new growing tools all lead up to experimenting with new strains in a slot machine-like device that will enable you to develop your own strains that can change the market. In the end, it can get incredibly tedious to keep up with your research and managing the overhead and operations of a national marijuana conglomerate.

What Weedcraft Inc. excels in is the variety and opportunity presented in the micromanagement of the operation. But this leads to its second issue, the lack of micromanagement tools. It’s great being able to determine my strain’s different chemical exposure through both options of experimentation and research points unlocked later on. But it’s tremendously tedious that there is no larger overarching toolset for macromanagement that so many other kind of tycoon games offer. Leading to what is likely its greatest weakness as a game.

There is a lot to appreciate about Weedcraft Inc. It takes an interactive look at the burgeoning legal weed market and the opportunities that can both benefit us as a society, and how it can be abused. A look at the nuanced and often convoluted political and legal landscape of marijuana legalization. And for that, it can be considered to be an experience worth it, in and of itself. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be an experience that everyone can enjoy.