Gamious’ oil rush simulator has stayed fresh with new DLC, multiplayer modes, and daily challenges

I first tried Turmoil or, as it’s styled there, Turmoil+, when it hit Apple Arcade. This was long after the game’s initial release but a little before its tenth anniversary. I didn’t get it at the time, and that’s actually a testament to the game–I was looking for something mindless to do on my phone as I gradually lost consciousness, and Turmoil isn’t really that.

Gamious provided a key via Keymailer and invited me to try it again on Steam where I’ve been playing it ever since.

For the uninitiated (like me up to last week), Turmoil puts you in the role of an 1899 cartoon oil baron and pits you against your peers as you drill up scenic North America. You can reinvest your riches into the business, fix industry prices for future rounds, and even buy up the mayor’s stake in the town. For the obvious dissonance between the ecologically nightmarish subject matter and the game’s charming presentation and sense of humor, Turmoil is a fairly well-designed sim game that would likely please all but the most intensely-serious strategists.

Nintendo Switch trailer below:

Once again I find myself in a position where I’ve just gotten very into a game most players started playing years ago. That said, if all of this is news to you, you’ll probably find the game’s cartoony board game art style just right for the project. I enjoyed the music–especially the late round music that ends just right when it’s time to go to the round summary–but the sound effects started to wear on me after a few hours of play time.

At this point, I’ve tried the game on PC, Xbox, iOS (not for long) and Android. I’m always interested in seeing how designers adapt from platform to platform. For example, nothing will beat the precision of playing this game with a mouse, but I found the Xbox controller layout and the snapping of surface tools and characters clever and very helpful. I’d say you owe it to yourself to try the game somewhere other than mobile devices where the zooming is helpful but precision and detail clarity suffer a bit too much.

Daily challenges and leaderboards are a nice feature. Just yesterday I tried drilling as deeply as I could through rock and water deposits in an effort to maximize my payout. I managed to complete the map without finding any of the rubies that were apparently distributed here and there for a bonus. I still scored pretty well. This is a nice way to keep players interested beyond the lengthy campaign.

Players have apparently requested multiplayer support for just about the full lifetime of the game, and the dev team managed to grant their wish in iterations over the last few years. This is chronicled in an interesting series of dev blogs on Steam. Players can now play with random humans mixed with NPCs as needed, they can connect with friends to play privately, or even play multiplayer mode completely alone. Multiplayer mode is designed to be a shorter experience, but it’s highly customizable and includes all the same play mechanics.

At the time of writing, I have not played either of the DLC packages for Turmoil. The Heat Is On seems very popular, and hardcore strategists seem to have some criticism for certain design choices in Deeper Underground. Both can currently be had for $11 and change on Steam and, if there’s interest after this post, I’ll play them and report back.

I’m a new fan of the base game. Highly recommended for sim and strategy fans.