Interstellar Trader 2

Trading is by far one of the most profitable human occupations, as well as one of the most beneficial for the entire race. Thanks to traders, people from all over the world got to experience bits and pieces of other cultures, which were brought back by caravans from journeys to other continents. Hence, it would not be so far fetched to believe that the same might also function on a larger scale, with space ships carrying different goods between planets in an entire galaxy.

Interstellar Trader 2 is a turn-based strategy game that allows you to toy with this idea and make a name for yourself as a trusty merchant, one that is able to bring only the most sought after resources and objects to those who desire them. However, the game runs a bit deeper than that, since there are many other different ways you can make a living out of and earn some cash, whether it's by placing your savings in a bank account and waiting for the interest to slowly make you rich, or by working hard and transporting people around the planets, posing as a personal taxi.

To begin with, there isn't much of a background story, since you are thrown directly into the action and you must quickly figure out how to survive. Before you start, though, you are asked to choose from a small variety of ships, each one of which is specialized for a certain task, such as more seats to transport people, or a larger hull to accommodate a larger supply of goods at once.

The basic gist of the operation is to find rare items on a planet and quickly sell them on another planet, in order to gain a profit and keep on doing the same thing ad infinitum. However, it can also be a gamble to do so, since some items can turn out to be more than common a few months later and you are left with a hull full of useless junk. When this happens, you can turn your attention toward other ways of making some money, none of which are particularly fast, on the other hand.

Hence, you can deposit a sum of money in the bank and wait for it to gain interest, which constantly increases as the sum gets greater and greater. It is also possible to invest in various stock market companies and wait for their share price to explode, although, as previously mentioned, these methods usually take quite a while to pan out and they are rarely a sure way of turning a profit.

Lastly, Interstellar Trader 2 has all the right elements to keep you playing for quite a while, especially if you are a fan of the TBS genre and you do not mind the lack of 3D graphics, or the boring one-click battles. On the other hand, it could have used a bit more depth and a lot more options, because you can basically find out how everything works in a few hours, which severely reduces the overall replayability.