*** Welcome to piglix ***

Tom Clancy's ruthless.com

Tom Clancy's ruthless.com
Developer(s) Red Storm Entertainment
Publisher(s) Red Storm Entertainment
Designer(s) Kevin Perry
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release November 30, 1998
Genre(s) Strategy
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer (1 to 8 players)

Tom Clancy's ruthless.com is a turn-based strategy computer game based on Tom Clancy's Power Plays novel "ruthless.com". It was published in 1998 by Red Storm Entertainment. Ruthless.com puts the player in the position of CEO of a new software company. The game features a campaign mode, six different scenarios of varying difficulty, and a multiplayer option.

This is a game of economic intrigue and corporate maneuvering. As the new CEO of a software company, players must scheme and strategize, form and break alliances, undertake sometimes criminal actions and do whatever it takes to get the company to the top and keep it there.

Playing in a board-game-like environment, players can choose to play any of six individual scenarios or a full campaign. The scenarios each have fundamentally different parameters. Players at an advanced point in the action with opposing corporations already established and a small history already in place.

The campaign is more freeform and the player with only one building and three departments with no immediate opponents. While objectives vary for the scenarios, in the campaign game the player must control seventy-five percent of the market for four turns.

Setting up a game involves determining how long is it going to last—between 20, 40 or 60 turns. You also choose the level of AI you wish to play against, novice, intermediate or expert. Lastly, players can set their own difficulty level that indicates how far they can go into debt before losing (bankruptcy). On the easy setting, players can incur debt up to $10,000, medium $5,000 and hardest $2,500.

Other selections include naming the corporation and selecting a CEO. Each CEO has a unique benefit that he or she brings with labels like "Talented," "Whiz Kid" or "Banker." These benefits add, as examples, five percent per level to all computer points generated (Whiz Kid) or let you go twice as deep in debt before becoming bankrupt and losing the game (Banker).

Gameplay in Tom Clancy's ruthless.com is turn-based. Each turn, you gives CEO two orders, choosing from the Corporate, R&D, Marketing, Admin, Human Resources, Acquisitions, Legal, Security and Computer groups. Each group contains action orders such as "build new department" and "build new product" in the Corporate group, "executive training" in the Admin group and "assassinate executive" in the Security group.


...
Wikipedia

...