Dealer’s Life 2 – Spotlight
Dealer’s Life 2 has me constantly hoping that a customer who looks like me in real life will come into my pawnshop and sell me that not-a-Death-Star, and that an obsessive collector will then come to take it off my hands for a big payday.
Abyte Entertainment is in charge of both the game’s creation and distribution. Steam can be used to download the game to a computer. Toy-like visuals and solid, if monotonous, mechanics characterise this pawn shop simulation.
Gamers can make their own character from the ground up and start in a slum or a radioactive shack to learn the ropes. Buy low and sell high so you can afford to shop at higher quality stores and stock up on personal belongings.
Dealer’s Life 2 is full of humorous writing, particularly in the news section of the paper the protagonist reads every day. Even though the humour and cultural allusions in the game were amusing at first, I only used the newspaper after the first month to hire people or take part in special events.
The game’s gameplay loop is simple to grasp, but it’s also fairly repetitive. A customer approaches the counter, either to buy or sell something. Estimating its worth, the player takes a look at it. Then comes the haggling. Find someone willing to pay more than the actual value of the item in order to turn a profit. Take pride in your ability to profit from the misfortunes of others.
The complexity of Dealer’s Life 2 rises quickly, making the game even more challenging. Rarity and condition play major roles in the price variation of any given item. Take care of your finances and wait for the right opportunity. Sell to people who are willing to pay far more than the market price for an item.
Enhance your character stats to gain a better understanding of your customers and improve your negotiation skills. The stats and additional ways to get value from items will grow as more people, from clerks to counterfeiters, are hired. The reputation of a company is directly linked to the type of clients it attracts, as well as the quality of those clients.
Money sinks abound in this game. Better shops are more expensive to open and maintain, and you’ll also need to pay for the labour to run them. Personal items can be purchased to represent the character’s increasing wealth. There are both long-term investments and short-term loans available. In the newspaper, you’ll occasionally see auctions that have the potential to bring in a lot of money.
To keep players interested, Dealer’s Life 2 will need to add a lot of new features and activities. I couldn’t be swayed by the storyline or the prospect of saving money for a bigger house or a new car. Even if I didn’t get a forger or another auction, the prospect of upgrading and getting more room for him kept me going through another day of haggling over commemorative mugs worth $100.
There is a huge disparity in the values of some of the objects that appear in the game. I recently resold a vintage cell phone for $500 and made a tidy profit. I’m about to meet a customer who expects me to sell a rare book for $100,000 when I only have $10,000 in reserve.
For the most part, Dealer’s Life 2 doesn’t try to be realistic. The lighthearted approach to the concept works well with the stylized settings, objects, and characters. It’s important that the visuals stand out because the gameplay is so repetitive. After a few hours of playing, the music begins to grate on the ears.
