The Oil Blue: Steam Legacy Edition

The Oil Blue: Steam Legacy Edition
N/A
Metacritic
70
Steam
50.75
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$1.24
Release date
6 August 2015
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
70 (124 votes)

It is the future, and the world is in grave need of oil. You and a crew have set off into the ocean, reclaiming old island drilling sites for oil production as you work for the UOO, the biggest oil supplier in the world. The working conditions are dire. You have no choice.

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The Oil Blue: Steam Legacy Edition system requirements

Minimum:

  • OS: Windows XP or Higher
  • Memory: 500 MB RAM
  • Storage: 300 MB available space

Recommended:

Recommended requirements are not yet specified.
Updated
App type
Steam APP ID
386700
Platforms
Windows PC
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GahDangit
GahDangit

All I can really say is, wow! i never thought that i could be sucked into a simple(not simple) indie game so fast. The over-all concept to this game is TIME MANAGEMENT. Though the oil pockets are generated at random, if you manage time spent between rigs, swapping cells, and repairs.. you may very well find yourself achieveing your quota a day ahead of schedule. Good Luck and happy drilling.

BoredZero
BoredZero

9/10 Would break drill derrick again.

Pipe!
Pipe!

Really fun game for a nerd like me. It is quite stressful so my only complaint would be the FUCKING LEVEL UP SOUND! It is like a nail gun placed into my stressed brain.

Fubar
Fubar

I basically want to quit life and become a petroleum engineer.

10/10

Cherrythepie
Cherrythepie

"Your performance was adequate. OK, not great." -Lrrr, Ruler of Omicron Persei 8.

Irythros
Irythros

Pretty interesting. You get up to 4 different types of oil drilling machines each with their own way to micromanage. Using them in certain ways increases "temporary damage" and if you dont mitigate it, it does "permanent" damage which can be repaired only once per day. The hard part? You have up to 4 different types but so far I've gotten up to 7 total slots. Trying to micromanage the drilling and damage mitigation on that many is stupidly hard. The amount of oil you need goes up as well.

10/10 Oil storage is full

claptrap22
claptrap22

Many games claim to be easy to understand but difficult to master. The Oil Blue appropriately earns this description. I've been on Steam a long while and I rarely write reviews, but I am taking the moment to commend this game for being original and compelling in its mechanics. Do not let the screenshots and video fool you - this game is engrossing and rather tense yet never feels unfair. Your main aim is pretty simple: find oil, pump oil, transfer oil, sell oil. But in the midst of doing that you must manage your machines' efficiency and stress. I hesitate to say these play out as minigames since that always sounds to me cheap or cheesy but in this case the mechanic is apt. The game's main skill demand is not coordination but rather time management and timing. You can probably not do better for the price. If I had paid $10 I'd still be quite happy.

revalation
revalation

Brilliant little strategy game , i dont often leave reviews but i think this game is worth it especialy for the price will give you a good few hours of fun and for £4 you cannot go wrong.

Mimer
Mimer

This is a multitasking game primarily. It is a series of minigames where you have to keep track of the other minigames and few things are automated. It is quite fun and cleverly made and the level up system makes you earn more money while increasing the pace of the multitasking.

Definitely recommend it as a challenging game, given the fair pricetag. But as I said, it's a multitasking game, not a business game nor a strategy game.

SlothDemonZ
SlothDemonZ

A strange mix of minigames and timing. Honestly, the atmosphere and tutorials sell it. My only real complaint is the random generation of the level scan screw you hard. My game went from peaceful to hardcore in a single level. Now this can be a good thing to some but, the big difficulty spike was unappreciated by me. Besides that one issue everything else is great the systems are themselves simple, press this button when it lights up, the gauge will let you know when it is close, but, then what if there are two buttons? Or six? Across three different consoles? Whilst you try to watch the price for these goods? The simple systems add up and time management, along with risk management later on, is the key to success. Honestly, it is a little ironic that a game is teaching time management, when I should be doing my homework. 10/10 Would skip class for!

Bad Whippet
Bad Whippet

What is it?

This is a neat little game that sits somewhere between casual simulation and frantic time management! You will be sent to a randomly generated island which will have an assortment of different equipment panels for you to use, and you will be given targets for a specific period of time (e.g. drill/sell 150 barrels in 7 days, or make a certain amount of profit). It is up to you to juggle (sometimes frantically) between the different platform control panels without missing an opportunity to suck more oil out of the ground, but at the same time leaving no machine unattended beyond its stress point, otherwise you will be spending more of your next shift fixing rather than drilling - and there's no profit to be made fixing! You can use your profits to buy upgrades that last for the duration you're at that particular island, but a new island means new (and very basic) equipment, and with a harder objective to meet!

What's good about it?

What this game does REALLY well is emulate basic controls of different pumping equipment such as groundwells, pump-jacks, oil derricks and rigs, and there is a real challenge in reaching your target objective. How realistic they are, I don't know - but the important thing is that they feel industrial and clunky which creates a great illusion of some kind of reality if not actual reality. The screenshots above really don't do it justice; the panels for operating the machinery and the mechanical sound effects create a surpisingly convincing environment. The 'islands' are randomly generated and infinite, so you'll not run out of scenarios to play (each new island starts your equipment at its basic non-upgraded level). The game has that quality of "just one more go" about it - and just LOOK at that price! Bargain! Oh, and it runs in Windows 10.

Anything not to like?

The only frustrating parts of the game are a couple of the 'repair' mini-games that can be very hit-and-miss at first, and sometimes are solved purely by luck (I suppose the lesson here is "don't break the dratted drills then")! Be warned that meeting your island's objectives becomes hard real quick so it pays not to be too fond of meeting objectives 100% (just play for the fun of it anyway). Once you reach rank 10 or above, it becomes much easier again. There are areas where I think the game could be improved to be an even bigger and better game: adding a competitive AI company or two; using a map that players must conquer by buying up drilling rights for each island, and making more of the oil selling price. However, this is an older game recently released on Steam and I believe the original assets no longer exist, so this game is truly in its final form - but that isn't a bad thing as it's still a fun, enjoyable game.

In summary

This is a really neat little game for the price and shows again that originality and creativity sit in the hands of indie developers who really deserve support for titles such as this. It's an ideal diversion game when you're not in the mood for something bigger. I would recommend this game even at twice its price and I hope there will one day be a sequel with more ideas squeezed in.

MaDmandan
MaDmandan

this is an awesome management game based on a second oil boom. I love the setting and leveling system, making this game unique and dynamic through the levels. Some say the quotas to fill are challenging, which is why I love this game and
recommend it to anyone who likes management and time trials.

Halv5
Halv5

Hard, fun, challenging, totally suprised me, definetly worth the money!

Zava
Zava

Excellent time management game. I normally play this sort of thing while watching TV, but you can't do that with this game! One moment of lost focus and you've broken a machine. The day length is just about perfect - it's about 5 minutes per day. Enough time to screw up or to get into a nice rhythm but not too long. The interfece and the buttons are nice and solid. Very pleasing beeps and clicks when you operate machines.

I just wish the status bar above water was still there when you go below to the machines. I'd like to know how full my storage is and how much time is left during the day.

Voelkar
Voelkar

The game is pretty simple: Drill for oil and sell em in a limited time.
But man, if DS would be a simulator this would be it.
It all starts nice and easy until the game is going to be total duche:
1. Island: 8 barrels of oil? Pff I can handle this
2. Island: 50 barrels? Sure. Nice and steady
3. Island: Are you kidding me? 168 barrels???
...
6. Island: FML

But still, I love it, every new Isalnd is random generated (not the look, but the loadout of every Island + it i open ended)

Graphic: The artwork is just a delicious meal for the eye but the resolution is kinda small. 7/10 (would have been 10/10 but meh, the resolution..)

Sound: It's pretty good and realistic 8/10

Gameplay: I love it. It's hard but it is just fun 9/10

All in All I give it 8/10

wallnera
wallnera

Funny and suprisingly engaging game - though riddled with frequent crashes, particularly when doing repairs (when one has to switch valves on and off).

boomermojo
boomermojo

This is one of those juggling games. Think the offshore oil rig version of plants vs zombies.

There are a few problems with the interface however. The most basic machine, the ground well has up to 19 speed settings. It requires almost no supervision by the player so if you want to set it to max speed you need to click 19 times. Its simply tedious.

Same goes will selling the oil you produce. First of all the oil price is irrelevant once you move onto your 3rd island as you will be producing so much oil you want to sell it when you get 10 seconds of downtime to prevent reaching your max storage capacity. That and the only thing you can spend money on is upgrading your drilling equipment, the cost of which doesn't even come close to the income you make (even if you happen to sell the oil at a ridiculously low price).
Secondly there is the tedious feature of not have a 'sell all' button for your oil. You could have up to 55 barrels of oil and need to frantically click 55 times (any oil produced while at capacity is thrown away) just... because?

All in all, its a decent game if you're into juggling tasks.

Hopskotch
Hopskotch

Hour for dollar, this game is going to outperform most other games in your library.

This is a very addicting, fun, simple interface, yet challenging and at the same time not discouraging and open enough to allow you to play your way and have a bit of fun with developing your style. That said, it does allow you, and ecourage you (sometimes force you), to go outside of your comfort zone and learn the other machines.

Timing, time management, a tad bit of maket watching, and focus on efficiency is going to be your key winner here. Many different ways to get to the end of each stage, and your skill is going to be a big part of it. There are some mild RPG elements to level up your machines and get perks along the way, both for the machines themselves as well as permanent upgrades for you.

All in all i would say this is a very fun and entertaining title to pick up, and for the price (esp. on sale) it's really a no brainer. It hooked me for 5 hours on the first load.

Scorpion
Scorpion

This game is so cheap and fun that America is drilling more oil!

10/10 would invest $5.50 per share... I mean... for this game.

ATARI
ATARI

I am pretty disapointed that there is no high resolution option for fullscreen. I though steam was for Computers, not mobile phones.

OnlyBird
OnlyBird

Amazing game, really can't stop playing it!

ThaDollaGenerale
ThaDollaGenerale

Between the incessantly hard repair screens and the frantic back and forth between all of your drilling rigs, this game provides no opportunity to actually have fun drilling oil.

The UI design leaves something to be desired since you have to click on tiny buttons to get through every. single. screen.

Keep your four bucks and get something else.

Noxis
Noxis

I'm surprised that no one in the review section has mentioned that this game feels like a poorly ported tablet to PC game. Pixelated resolution / crap options menu, no key bindings, unnecessary mouse clicking, '1 hour remaining' message obscuring your way while your trying to play, setting speeds on the machine which reset every day (where the hell is the 'set to max speed' button on here). This either needs patches or mods in order to make it an actual PC game.

If your going to play through this tablet like-game then use the 'Control Panel\Ease of Access\Ease of Access Center\Make the mouse easier' option so that you can use your keyboard instead of giving yourself repetitive strain injury from left clicking. A mouse with turbo click or turbo click program will help ALOT!

Hans Bond
Hans Bond

Small casual game. Really fun, i recommend.

Deliant
Deliant

I'm adoring this game.

Like several people, I ended up discovering Oil Blue after having a ton of fun with Cook, Serve, Delicious. I wanted to know what else the developer had to offer. Back then, however, I couldn't seem to find a copy anywhere. Was so thrilled when I saw it was on Steam (and for a pittance).

If you like "Cook, Serve, Delicious", "Papers, Please", or other types of timed management games, you'll love this. There's more to it than that, though.

Cook, Serve, Delicious has a very light atmosphere - Oil Blue does not. For those who were hoping for something a bit darker (literally and figuratively), you'll find it here. There's something lonely and a little eerie about starting your drilling process at the start of the night, suberging yourself to push huge drilling machines into motion, only to resurface when you need to sell your drilled oil or to fix a machine.

The game is as engaging as it is entertaining, but you'll come for the gameplay and stay for the atmosphere.

I desperately hope Vertigo Gaming does another pensive title like The Oil Blue!

Black Magic House
Black Magic House

Its a good game however I cannot have the correct resolution and the achievement is broken...

thats why its cheap. The person who made that game were just rushing through to make profits.

Shock Trooper
Shock Trooper

9/10

Very fun game. Played it for hours without becoming the slightest bit bored. excelent artsyle and execution. The machines are fairly simple to learn and use but when you have 7 going at once things get out of control quite easily. Would definatly recomend

Two-Ton Teuton
Two-Ton Teuton

It's like Cook, Serve, Delicious but you're operating industrial drilling equipment, and serving sweet crude. A+++

Celyia
Celyia

It's a cute game. I spent a few hours messing around with it and enjoyed myself. This isn't a game you play while you watch TV. You actually do need to pay attention or you're going to find yourself missing deadlines and mucking up your machines.

There are some inconveniences, though.

- Popups that you can't dismiss will obscure buttons you need to press right then.
- Some minigames rely more on dumb luck than any skill. When you have literally seconds to do repairs, it's a bit obnoxious to try to fix something when the controls aren't entirely reliable.
- Accidentally click off the instructions on how to do a minigame? No easy way to get them back without restarting.
- No quick way to exit the game. You actually have to go through the menu to turn it off.

It's a good game and, well, even if I never open it again, I got my 4 bucks worth out of it. If the dev created a more modern sequel that didn't scream 'tablet game', I'd be interested.

bsjinx
bsjinx

Anyone who enjoys puzzle games will enjoy The Oil Blue. A mix of difficulty levels that requires you to master multiple modes of problem-solving, and a story that serves the game well enough to hold it together. I recommend this game highly.

MyNeckBackPussyAndMyFaithInJesu
MyNeckBackPuss…

It's like Papers Please but with more gameplay, longevity and complexity. I'd absolutely recommend it, especially at its low pricetag.

Bassam
Bassam

Played for a bit, made so much oil that the U.S. Army invaded my steam account!
11/10 would have the U.S. army bless my steam account with democarcy again.

Serious review:
At first, I only bought the game to make a funny review, but this game is good and deserves some real insight:

STORY:
The game is about going to abandoned islands with oil extracting equipment on it. Each time you reach an island, you get an objective such as produce and sell x barrels of oil in y days, or make z amount of money from selling oil in y days. After y days, you either fail or succed. In either cases, you move on to a new island, if you succed you get bonus cash per day for the rest of your compaign, or royalties.

GAMEPLAY:
You manage up to 4 different types of machines, at the same time, and each one of them has its own method of operation. you can have 2 and maybe more of the same machine on one island. The machines produce oil depending on how well you manage them, and they are prone to get damaged. If you put too much stress on a machine, you'll be forced to repair it, which leads to a handful of mini-games to make your repairs.
The main goal is to produce and sell oil barrels.

DIFFICULTY:
This game is not for multitaskers. It wants your undevided attention, and some times your soul. It's not hard by any means, but it gets hectic when you have to manage 4 different types of oil producing machines at the same time.

SOUNDTRACK:
The music is fine and you can hear it for hours without problems. However, the alert sounds can be confusing sometimes.

SCORE:
7.9 / 10
Very decent for its pricetag, although some sounds and interface issues should be fixed.

Baggy1979
Baggy1979

well, its kinda a sim/management game, where you basically drill for oil, with various bit of equipement, kinda cool concept and quite interesting too, above all i am actually having fun playing it. maybe i just need to get out more >.> who knows? :-D

`Loam
`Loam

I watched someone play this game before buying it. They said it was relaxing.

This game is nothing short of absolute chaos,

But it's a fun chaos.

The kind of chaos where if your concentration happens to slip at any point, or if you're not in complete control, your entire flow is thrown into jeopardy, and in turn you risk jeopardizing your assigned task, or at the very least making it much more difficult for you to hit your objective. As a result, there will be doubt at the end of each work day. Failure is not an option at any point here.

The kind of chaos where you're constantly second guessing yourself... 'Did I check that already?' 'Can I leave that alone?' 'Should I power that down now? or wait?' 'What about this, should I use this? Or will it be too much?' 'Did I sell those barrels left over from the day before already? Should I do that now or wait until the market's better?'
Until it all stops... And the work day is finally over.

The kind of chaos where you're running around yelling and screaming at bells and whistles while various bells and whistles are yelling and screaming back at you. You can imagine your character scrambling to hit this button, release pressure on this machine, start transferring oil from that machine, fiddle with this other machine.

10/10 Micromanaging is tough

Note: In the video I watched, the guy said it would be very cool to see this game in a touchscreen environment, which I can agree with. I personally think a VR environment would also be really cool, albeit it might be a stretch to implement. Special VR version perhaps?

Ra-Ra-Rasputin
Ra-Ra-Rasputin

A UI based game where the UI is oftentimes unresponsive, and inexcusably slow.
The gameplay is intended to be frantic and fast, yet there are these bizarre "artistic" choices made with unskippable, slow pans of screens, fades, or absurdly unresponsive buttons in scenarios where there's no reason for them to act like that. (try selling 25 barrels of oil right this instant when the UI responds to about a single, or if you're lucky, 2 clicks a second)

Also, you're running a game that's literally a couple of scripts, with ascii and graphics based on primitives such as lines, triangles et.c., can you really excuse 5-10 seconds of loading screens between each session? What on earth are you loading?

There's also bizarre, and very abusable glitches, like i managed to set all my battery cells in one of the drills to be above 700 each day, while they're clearly intended to be capped at 100. Guys, come on, there's some excuses you can make in a budget, indie game, but did it really take too much effort to write something akin to "if(cell[n].value > 100) cell[n].value = 100;"? You had 5 years to fix this bug.

There's also the matter of a keyhole view to this game. It looks like it's on an 800x600 or 1024x768, hard to tell, whatever it is, it's occupying a small box in the middle of my monitor, that refuses to stretch in any other way than fullscreen. (which is probably one of the aforementioned resolutions).

At its core, it could've been a decent timewaster, but now it's little more than slightly poorly put together flash game with a pricetag hanging off it. Steam used to have a quality standard, this just leaves me miffed. This is the first, and hopefully the last time i'll have to resort to a refund.

ozzy
ozzy

A really great game, But NOT for the easily Stressed!

PMass
PMass

Easily woth the $5. Excelten replayability

Pyropup55
Pyropup55

Very interesting game. Can get little hetic while you have mulitple drills going, but for under five bucks, you're not going to find a better game!

Duke
Duke

The Oil Blue is definatly a good game. Anyone who has played Vertigo Games' Cook Serve Delicious will be instantly familiar with the formula in The Oil Blue.

You are an oil surveyer for the UOO, and your task is to reclaim islands in the Pacific Ocean for further oil drilling. You do this by employing a variety of machines like the groundwells and oil derricks. In total there are only four different machines but each one has a unique interface to interact with, and all of them pump oil differently. Some machines require more attention than others and it's your job to balance your time and attention spent on them.
It is this element that makes this game instantatly feel familiar to anyone who has played Cook Serve Delicious, the frantic minigame centric styled gameplay.

The Oil Blue has many positive aspects such as the soundtrack, the art, the strange feeling of isolation drilling on these lonely rocks of land, and the wonderful sounds the machines make. In terms of gameplay The Oil Blue will certaintly offer a challenge to new players, as you frantically try and micro-manage your various machines to pump enough oil to reach your quota within a given deadline. The Oil Blue offers a perfect feeling of stress to meet a deadline, all while you cant help but enjoy yourself as you press away at glowing buttons to pump more oil.

The Oil Blue does however have some less than stellar aspects that need addressing. For starters there are no resolution options, no rebindable keys, and very limited audio options. The repair minigames are also not very impressive, as your machines drill they incure stress that needs to be repaired, so it happens often and there are only a handfull of minigames that you will play a lot of. So you quickly come to master these minigames and they will quickly offer no enjoyment or challenge, and will just feel like a waste of time. Thankfully as you rank up in the game you can auto-repair your machines for five thousand in game dollars, which allows you to bypass minigames you dont enjoy. I also personally found the game a little too easy, as within a few hours I had unlocked all machines, all seven slots for machines, oil rigs, and before I knew it I was a multi-millionaire sitting at rank 5. So if you are skilled and get the hang of the game it becomes very short as there becomes very little to unlock past getting all the machines and all seven slots for your machines. I still enjoyed the time spent getting there, regardless of how short it felt, I just wished the progression had more things to unlock.

Overall I would still recommend this game to anyone that wants a quick gaming experience, for it can be very easy to pick up and play for short sessions, offers a good frantic challenge, is inexpensive, and will run on pretty much anything. Given everything I've said I would definatly recommend The Oil Blue.

Ol' Uncle Sheo[Gurren]
Ol' Uncle Sheo…

This isn't really my thing, but it's a great game for what it is. Basically you're just manning a host of different machinery in order to produce oil, which you will then sell for a profit. You have quotas you have to meet by certain dates as well, such as "Sell X amount of barrels in Y days" or "Make Z dollars in AA days". It's not the kind of tycoony game where you can just set your computer aside for a while and allow your company to accrue money passively however--you're always going to have something to do, every second of the game. There's never a dull moment.

I'm sure there's some kind of deeper message to the game, but I'll be damned if I played it long enough to really discern that meaning.

Kemo
Kemo

The Oil Blue is a time management game developed by the same guy who brought us the oh so glorious Cook, Serve, Delicious. In The Oil Blue you play as one of the many people employed by the United Oil of Oceania company in a world in desperate need of more and more oil. Your job involves you travelling to different islands where oil drilling once took place in order to reclaim the equipment for UOO and use it to complete objectives set for you for that specific island.

Please take a couple of things into consideration when you read my review. Firstly, the original source code for the game was "corrupted years back" meaning the dev cannot update the game beyond what he already has, this means the negatives in my review have very little chance of ever being rectified. Secondly, in case you hadn't guessed, this game is pretty old and therefore it's doesn't have amazing graphics or HD resolutions, if this is a glaring problem for you then it's best not to bother with this review because I quite like how it looks.

+The drilling machine interfaces are well done and are, for the most part, easy to use though a few things here and there are slightly confusing (such as some of the displays aren't clearly marked as to what they are)
+The backgrounds visible behind your drilling machine interfaces are all very nice and there's a good amount of variation when it comes to the appearance of the islands
+The game's tutorials, presented in the form of earning your licenses, are very helpful and give detailed instructions on how to run each machine
+The game has a fairly good upgrade system. When you're using the machines found on any island you gradually earn experience points for each individual machine as they are used, once you have enough experience on a machine it levels up, granting you some form of upgrade to it but these upgrades only last while you're on that island. A few people have said the fact the upgrades are only temporary are stupid, I on the other hand think it's rather clever, considering the fact you take over different machines when you get to the next island. However, there are also permanent upgrades which can be purchased for each type of drilling machine, though you do need to be a certain rank (ranks are for your character and are completely separate to your machines) in order to unlock the ability to purchase upgrades
+As mentioned the game also has a ranking system for your character, new ranks are unlocked by earning a certain amount of money and each rank gives you some form of a boost, such as a higher chance to find a certain type of drilling machine
+The price of oil fluctuates between $100 and $200 constantly in the game which adds a nice bit of risk as judging when the right or wrong time to sell can have a serious impact on your profits
+Although you leave behind an island and all the work you did there when you reclaim a new island for a new objective you do still get money from those islands in the form of royalties
+Though your time on each island is limited to however long you're given for your objective there is no end to the game, you can carry on playing for as long as you like meaning this game has near endless content, though of course there are only so many upgrades for you to get
+The game's sound track and sound effects are good and fit in with the game well

+/-The game has a huge difficulty spike where the first couple of islands are relatively easy but then after that they increase in difficulty incredibly quickly, personally I would have preffered to be eased in to the more difficult levels but others may not feel the same

-The game has a stress system for all but one of the drilling machine types which adds a nice layer of challenge but, when your machines reach a certain stress level they have to be shut down in order for you to repair them (you can also perform repairs before turning the machines on when a new work day starts), the problem I (as a few of the other reviewers have mentioned) is that the repair mini-games you find yourself tasked with often feel far too difficult and in some cases purely rely on chance that you hit the right button combination to successfully complete the mini-game
-Steam achievements can only be unlocked by using a tool provided by the developer which scans your save games in order to find which achievements to unlock. Any achievements you have earned will be unlocked at the same time meaning it can end up looking like you've cheated with your achievements
-Due to the game's age the Steam Overlay doesn't work properly which means you can't use the Steam Messaging system or take screenshots

Verdict:
Worth Purchasing (7.5/10)

The Oil Blue is a great, if not a little chaotic, time management game with a nice look to it, a good upgrade system and lots to do. If you're a fan of other time management games, in particular Cook, Serve, Delicious then you're definitely going to enjoy this one!

No drama, Just Reviews.

El K.

MarQan
MarQan

An awesome SKILL-based game!

This is not your laidback AdVenture Capitalist.
The better you are at the game, the better results you get.

Skills you need:
- multitasking
- time-management
- speed
- a crazy good short-term memory

On higher levels the maximum potential efficiency is beyond human capabilities, so if you can get into these kind of games, The Oil Blue is a pretty good one to push yourself.

I do recommend reading the developer's post however, it puts things in perspective about the game:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/386700/announcements/detail/10618556319…

|¤|Soldier Boy|¤|
|¤|Soldier Boy|¤|

The key to making a good time managment game is giving the player the information necessary to correctly split their time between tasks. The Oil Blue does not do this. Simply giving the player a blinking light for a second indicating that something is going to need to be done in a few seconds isn't enough when transitions take time. Clunky transitions between menus for selling, repairing and drilling are annoying as well. Many of the minigames are also very frustrating, in particular the repairing minigames are horrible.

Worse than that, the dev says he's lost the source code to the game. As a result, you have the option of playing a blurry, pixelated game, or a tiny windowed game. In short, avoid The Oil Blue, and spend your money on something else.

Elg
Elg

Forced tutorial, 1920x1080 is just stretched 800x600something.

HayneLarris
HayneLarris

The gameplay type is exactly what I expected (and what is marketed,) so I won't say to much about it- although it is bland and clunky, even for a micromanagment/tycoon game.

What really gets me is the 'backend.' The default resolution is something around 600x800, and even when you crank it up to 1920x1080 (most likely even lower,) the hud/gui do not scale well. The words, buttons, menus and the like are all incredibly pixelated. I think the game atmosphere (background, textures etc.) are suppose to be an 8/16 bit art style, so that didnt bother me as much.

If this gets fixed my complaints will be reduced to near none, but until then I think I will be shelving this game.

Alpha Dog
Alpha Dog

its okay but it is way too hard to play without upgrades on your stuff i would try to put oil in my barrel and had to do autoshutdown because there so many controls it goes to fast. But for this price its not worth it it worth about $ 1.99

bkonig_10
bkonig_10

The Oil Blue is a great game that could use a few improvements in a sequel (I would usually say update, but I realize that is impossible).

Graphics: The graphics are serviceable and fit the mood. The old timey look of the interface for the machines is nice. There is a ton of blue.

Music: The music is suitably disturbing on the opening screen with some nice, more relaxing sounds for the actual days. The unlockable music is great as well.

Gameplay: Pretty great set of tasks for the drilling. The groundwells are a very simple risk/reward drill with you having to decide how much attention you want to give it vs. how fast you want to pump oil. I usually erred on pumping somewhat slow with a level 10 at max upgrade.

The oil derrick seems to require the most attention, which is why it is considered the hardest. I honestly mostly ignore this for the two to follow.

The pumpjack is probably the easiest way to get a ton of barrels. It requires the least attention and has the best reminder system.

The drilling rig is fun - it is basically a touchscreen minigame. It requires a lot of attention when you actually find oil, as it builds stress quickly, even when fully upgraded (because of the increase in oil found). I found that it has the highest potential to give oil of any of the drills.

The repairing minigames are okay too, but a few are slightly bugged (the making-a-square-of-lights repair minigame occasionally doesn't visibly switch squares if pressed too early, but still works).

The game provides quite a challenge, as it is very difficult to keep up all of the drills going well at once as they should be. It is a little stressful with all of the horns and such, but once you realize that having a few machines in the red is less bad than making sure you sell barrels, it becomes less so.

Minor Quibbles: The way of selling oil barrels should be changed in a sequel to allow for the up arrow on the keyboard to be held or to provide a sell max oil button or something. It is not a big deal when you only have 20 barrels of oil in storage, but when you have 75 barrels of oil in storage and it is maxed out, it would be nice to be able to sell them all immediately or hit the up arrow.

I have a similar feeling about the upgrades - when you can only buy upgrades to one or two machines, it is not even a problem, but when you have 8 to upgrade to level 20, it takes a while to buy all upgrades (though by the time all of the manual upgrades unlock, you have tons of time to do this and repair everything, so it is less of a problem).

My only quibble with the drilling machines is the reminder bell for the groundwells - it occurs when there are ~5 charges left in a battery, so it is thoroughly not useful after the first few levels of upgrades. It should activate with around 20 to provide time to make changes. All other alerts are appropriate.

Lastly, when you upgrade a machine, it brings up an info block about the upgrade you have just bought, which is helpful when you get automatic upgrades but a little annoying when you manually buy upgrades and have 100 to click away (but again, you have tons of time before the day really starts to do this).

Overall: I would give The Oil Blue a 9/10. It is not a game for the easily stressed, but it is fun and each day is pretty quick. I hope for a sequel that improves on the minor quibbles and provides a larger number of drilling machines.

Kalikars
Kalikars

The Oil Blue is a realtime management sim based on collecting and selling oil using combinations of 4 different machines, working day to day, island to island. But you might've gathered that from all the other reviews, so let me explain what I think about the game.

The Oil Blue is a genuinely fun game. Mastering each machine, meeting your deadlines, and balancing your profits, repairs, and oil reserves are core gameplay features that don't grow stale and continue to evolve until the very end of the game. The tutorial does an amazing job at teaching you the game, as it's perfect pacing allows the game to constantly flow on without making you stop or backtrack.

The environment of The Oil Blue, from the sound to the art to the story, is a very welcome experience that is honestly what attracted me to the game in the first place. I can't say enough about how well crafted the atmosphere of this game is, as experiencing it is the truest way to appreciate it.

Overall, The Oil Blue is a great game, recommended to be played by the single-player either on a binge or for a couple of spare minutes.

abenlen
abenlen

When I first started playing the tutorial it looked like a game that might be right up my alley. Create or harvest something, sell that something, then find better ways of getting that something to grow your fortune. Fun! But at the end of the tutorial I ran up against the fix-the-machines mini-games. While the gathering and selling part of the game was clearly explained, the instructions for the mini-games were short and not especially helpfull. I was mashing the buttons the sparse instructions indicated, with no clue of what I was trying to accomplish. I tried a few strategies with no luck, and after a few minutes just quit out of frustration. Since these mini-games are an unskippable part of the tutorial, it meant that the game was over for me.

I bought this game hoping it was an economic sim, which at it's heart is what it seems to be. But the under explained repair mini-games simply ruined the experience for me. With some sadness I asked for a refund. It's a shame too, since I think this problem could be fixed easily by simply making the mini-games skippable, or at least explain what the heck the player is expect to do exactly.

1/10

cgypunk
cgypunk

at first i thought this game was dumb and broken but once i figured it out it became fun

Question Mark
Question Mark

The Oil Blue really surprised me. I didn't know what to expect, and one of the reasons I purchased it was the obvious amount of meticulous work that went into the re-release of this game on Steam and the troubleshooting guide that you'll find on this game's Steam page.

You'll only point and click with your mouse, operating oil-producing machinces, then selling your oil barrels on the market, but somehow the action is incredibly compelling. It's very hard to describe why this game is so atmospheric, but for a few dollars you'll get a great little game.

I highly recommend this game!

xcomite
xcomite

This game is an interesting and mostly well-crafted challenge which is only good for a few nights of gameplay. For me, the game wore out its welcome long before the finish. There simply isn't enough variety there to sustain it. You can unlock every type of oil machine relatively early in the game, and there's really no-where to go after that. Every new island is more or less the same as the last. Once you have a good strategy established, there's really no incentive to change. You just keep rapidly clicking the same things every day and watch a number increase until you're done.

You can buy upgrades to your machine, but that just makes them do the same things faster while taking less damage - no additional features or interesting new mechanics become available. The strategic aspect of selling your oil reserves at an opportune market price is also broken imo.. The amount of oil you can store is so small that you're forced to sell it whenever you can. It just becomes another thing to rapidly click on.

I love little indie games like this, but can't recommend this one.

Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word

The Oil Blue is a nice little game, ideal for those hrs where you cannot think of anything worth doing at the moment. However, it is purely repetitive there is simply no depth to it whatsoever, and not really challenging also. I believe it is not worth the 5eur, more like 2 in my book.
if you want a simple game then consider buying it with the next sale ;)

El Cattivo
El Cattivo

Just a casual game. If you like simple clicking profit games like adventure capitalist, you really should buy the oil blue. Definitely a good choice then. Even better actually.
But if you are looking for interesting gameplay, ignore this game.

[-] You just use a couple of machines simultaneously by clicking their buttons at the right time to collect oil. There is not much of controlling something, mostly. You keep an eye on the machines wear and sell the oil on the market and repair the machines by doing a simple minigame. Thats all the gameplay has to offer -.-

Really sad

[+] because the game has (had) a huge potential for being well designed.
[+] It is authentic in a postmodern world, the story is easy but good.
[+] The machines relive the old and heavy characteristic and the sound of their buttons work nicely
[+] good athmosphere

[-] but for clicking again you have to wait for the buttons to cooldown which can be a real pain because time is limited.
I dont know what they were thinking. Thats not exciting or stressing, it is only annoying.

[-] no business or managing features at all. Just sell all the oil and receive money. Who cares how much money when you just end up gaining more and more. A mission can sometimes be about not making oil but making money in a specific time, which means you have to gain more money... whaaaatever. Just gaining by clicking. On every level.

[-] You level up in this game. I see that it is about your career ladder. Leveling up in the first mission like 15 times or whatever to improve your royalty and income. You can use money to level up machines, btw. They also level up by being used. Like 10 levelups for the machines each day. Increases their stats. Makes more money which the game makes you not even care about.

The only thing a professional oil blue player would think about is finding patterns of using the machines very efficiently and selling the oil for a good price on the market to maximize the profit. But i dont find that interesting.

pazartesi_gorusuruz
pazartesi_gorusuruz

Perfect game, originally released in 2010.

It's actually a time management game with a bunch of 'minigames' in it. Basically you are operating different types of oil machinery on islands. Each machine has a different behaviour, thus different things you have to look out for. After you drill the oil, you sell it. Sell enough barrels and you move on to the next island. There are no cons to this game except it becomes dull after you play it for an excessive amount of time. So don't do that.

Here are the pros:

- Pretty atmosphere
- Good soundtrack
- Lovely sound effects (I love the metallic-electronic-hissing-clunking sound effects of the machines)
- You actually feel like operating real machinery
- Single player ladder to climb
- Upgrade machinery for better efficiency
- Different islands with different machine setups
- The price of oil changes (goes up and down)
- It's completely bug free
- Different objectives to complete on each island (different objectives (oil or money) or time limits)

I play it for hours in one sitting. It's highly addictive for me.

10/10 I don't know what the hell genre this game is.

darthz42
darthz42

Easily worth $5, but picked this one up for a dollar on sale.

Usually the fairly simple, calming games are boring after a few hours, but I'm still engaged so far.
You can sit and just listen to the music for a while, or go full throttle and make hundreds of barrels of oil a day.
Honestly is really nice for relaxing after a long day of work or school.

Do yourself a favor and get drilling.

Edit: Found the alternate soundtrack, which I love to bits. Even more points from me.

Keonyn ♣
Keonyn ♣

Easily worth the price. This is a great game if you're just looking to fill some time with something both fun and challenging.

At it's core the game is basically a suite of mini-games, each on performing a different function in the overall scheme of the game, from equipment maintenance to operation to economics. What makes this game more than just a suite of mini-games though is the management of all those mini-games. Running one machine doesn't stop the others from running, and they will continue to do so even if you're not in that screen at the time. Running multiple machines at a time is key to success, but each machine requires a certain level of attention to keep them from not only producing oil, but from suffering damage as well. Damage can be repaired, but often only by spending time at the start of each production day, and the more damaged the machine is the harder it will be to repair.

Machines can also receive upgrades over time to make them more efficient, but this can also be something of a double-edged sword. The more efficient a machine is the faster it will do its work, and the more attention you will likely need to give it to keep it producing. So as your machines get faster, so must you in order to manage them. When all is said and done this can result in some pretty hectic gameplay that can certainly challenge the player. The machines you get per stage can also change with each play, so that adds some good replay value beyond just trying to beat a score.

Beyond the gameplay though, another part of the game that really shines is the interface. The audio and visual ambience of the interface on the machines is all very well done. From the hums and clicks of the machines to the almost dieselpunk appearance of the machine interfaces you can tell it was all made with great attention to detail. The hard work the developer put in to the ambience can not be overstated and shows a certain artistic appreciation that can often feel lacking in modern games.

So yeah, for the price you definitely get your monies worth on this one. Sure, you might not marathon a game like this for hours on end, but it's like something along the lines of Tetris or similar games, something you'll just pick up from time to time when you're just looking for something fun and challenging to do. This game fits that bill perfectly.

Rawbeard
Rawbeard

Non RTS Actions per minute training program.

Sol
Sol

What can I say about this game?

Let's start with the fact that apparently I'm a masochist for time management games. The creator of Cook Serve Delicious has returned with another game that's torture on the eyes and hands, and yet still so much fun. However, there are a few downsides, and I'll start with those first.

The biggest problem is that the source code was either corrupted or lost, so the game is what it is until the end of time. Acquiring your first island isn't really a problem, but then you can get stuck with four machines that are nigh-impossible to manage all at the same time, and can easily lose your next three or four. The biggest issue I had here was that the number of barrels you need to produce keeps climbing, whether you succeeded or not. It can get disheartening to get on a losing streak, wondering how in the hell you're going to make a hundred more barrels when you couldn't even get close to your previous goal. So there's a bit of an imbalance there, as well as a small amount of luck involved. My only other gripe is that while the tutorials to learn the machines themselves are pretty good, the mini-games to fix them are... less clear.

On the other hand, if you DO luck out on an island, getting equipment you can manage with no problem, you feel like a freaking god. Once you get a handful under your belt, the money comes pouring in, and you don't have to worry about the mini-games at all. You can upgrade your starting equipment (since it resets at every new location), and rake in even MORE cash. Once you get the gameplay down, it can feel kind same-y, but if you let a few days go by before playing again, the magic can totally be recaptured.

ThePCGamer
ThePCGamer

DISCLAIMER: This is a first impressions review, and NOT a full review, if you want a full review, then please read better reviews then mine

From the makers of Cook, Serve, Delicious comes a different type of game then from its successor. The Oil Blue was developed before Cook, Serve, Delicious but manages to keep the same mechanic that the other game offers

In the not too distant future, mankind reverts back to oil drilling and you have been assigned to go back to the old oil drilling platforms and start drilling oil and make profit for the company. The game can get repetitive but it is a fun game nevertheless

Everything is mouse driven, you have to make sure that all your oil drilling machines are in good shape and are doing the job correctly. Each day you have the ability to sell your barrels of oil for a cheap or rich profit and upgrade your machines

The music is the high point in the game for me, the music and atmosphere really remind me of Disney-Pixar's Wall-E, where Wall-E is in an abandoned Earth collecting all the trash and storing them into boxes (fantastic movie, go watch it!). The music especially makes me feel like I am in the near distant future where the Earth has changed and us humans have reverted back to the old ways, the atmosphere is hit dead on in The Oil Blue

The only thing that bothers me is the level of difficulty, I understand that Cook, Serve, Delicious is as challenging as this but The Oil Blue doesn't give you the chance that the other game offered which can put some people off. Another thing which does bother me is the level of repitiveness. Its the same thing over and over again which can make some people bored out of theirs minds after a while

The Steam Legacy Edition enhances the graphics and music and makes it compatible with more advanced computers, plus it adds achievements (which have to be obtained from another program, seperately)

The Oil Blue is not for everyone, nor is Cook, Serve, Delicious but the game does offer the challenge that most of us seek...

RECOMMENDED :)

THEPCGAMER'S BEST GAME IN STEAM LIBRARY! (What's this? :- Like some games get "Best Game of 2014" or "Best Indie Game", etc... So I have decided to make my own!)

EyegasmHD
EyegasmHD

Great game. Awesome setting/environment. No real high spec demands..a brick could run this game. I broke a sweat a few times in all honesty..I was surprised I liked drilling for oil so much...and i seem to tend to keep taking jobs even though my eyes are crossing..so it is somewhat addictive as well. I would pick this game up..its cheap..good...great addition to your collection..I play this when i am short on time..good for the 30 minute gaming rush...very original game all around.

ClapTrap27
ClapTrap27

Just not my cup of tea. I'm all for micromanaging, but this game takes it too far. Too much to do, not enough reward.

sleepy_worm
sleepy_worm

So much of this experience defies expectations. The sound design alone leaves me floored. This game sneaked by us all and we are blessed that there is a steam release. I drink my milkshake.

BaronVonCoco
BaronVonCoco

A multi-tasking management sim with very calming therapeutic music juxtaposed to the frantic operation of your oil drilling machinery. In a Papers, Please-way it takes some ordinarily mundane aspect of real life and somehow makes it compelling to engage in! A nice soothing balm to the andrenaline pumping madness of other games.

Apollo DarkKlaw
Apollo DarkKlaw

it looks like crap and only seems to run in 640x480

Budoman
Budoman

I don't mind most management games but this one after a while seems especially mindless and annoying. Hard to pin it down but it feels too much like pointless work.

KingIsaacLinksr
KingIsaacLinksr

A Paladin’s Steam Review: The Oil Blue. Intensive Drilling Micromanagement That Requires Almost as Much Work as the Real Thing.

    • Genre: Micromanagement Multi-tasking Strategy Game.
    • Developed & Published by: Vertigo Gaming Inc.
    • Platform: Windows only
    • Business Model: Single Purchase.
    Copy Purchased by Myself

Overall Gameplay Thoughts
Meet The Oil Blue, a game published in 2010 by the developers of Cook, Serve, Delicious. It’s a game about micromanaging up to four oil drilling machines in an ever continuing quest to make max profits from previously used drilling islands. Set in the near future, the world has become even more dependent on oil and corporations are racing to meet the staggering demand. One of the largest corporations, the United Oil of Oceana, has tasked the player to reclaim previously drilled islands and find enough oil within a certain time period. All the while, the player is able to race up the corporate ladder gaining more upgrades and features to make the job easier. Failure to drill enough oil in time means you get booted off the island with no continuing reward for your hard work. It’s a paper thin narrative and is largely unimportant to playing the game. It’s enough to give some atmosphere as to why you’re doing all of this.

There are two shifts to TOB: the early morning shift and the regular day shift. In the early morning shift, the player has a limited amount of time to repair and upgrade equipment. As equipment is used during the regular work hours, stress will accumulate and damage the machines. This early shift gives you the chance to repair that damage through different mini-games and QTEs. The challenge of these mini-games increases depending on how much damage the machine sustained. Once the day officially begins, the player is able to sell oil and manage the drilling machines. The player has approximately 15 minutes real-world time to drill as much oil as possible. However, the player can only store so many barrels at one time. So, a watchful eye must be kept to prevent overfilling the storage and losing oil. In order to reach the quest goal, you’ll need to use as many machines possible as long as possible, making sure none of them build up too much stress at the same time. It all creates a pretty intense micromanagement system that will require the player to develop a rhythm and keep ahead of any problems. Which can be really fun or too much stress that a potential player may not be looking for. There really isn’t a “conclusion” to this game, it just keeps on going.

Gameplay Examination
Read the review on A Paladin Without A Crusade to see what I thought about the game mechanics for The Oil Blue. It won't fit in Steam's review character limit.

PC Settings and Audio/Video

Game Options: What the User Can Configure:
Resolutions: Not Configurable. Fullscreen on/off. Art will stretch, creating black bars.
Graphical Options Included: V-Sync, AA, Rendering Quality. All options are on/off toggles. Rendering is if you need more performance but you should be fine.
Colorblind Supported. Console lights can be changed from green to blue.
Audio sliders: not included. Music is on/off switch. SFX can go from 0-100%. Music should have an audio slider.
Steam Cloud: Not available Saves can potentially be deleted by the achievements app, it’s a random bug.

TOB is built on an older, now corrupted Game Maker 7 Engine. As such, that means that features unique to Steam such as achievements, overlay and cloud aren’t available. TOB has worked for me during the 12 hours that I’ve played it but I’ve had a few problems with it. First, after opening the achievement app that’s included with TOB, my saves vanished, costing me several hours worth of gameplay. Secondly, I’ve had a couple of occasions where the music and SFX wouldn’t work properly. A Windows restart and a few days away from TOB seemed to get it to work again. Finally, despite getting a single achievement for running the separate app, I never got any additional achievements. I’m not sure why. I would rate this app as slightly buggy and potentially unstable in the future if Windows makes any significant changes. Since the developers are unable to make any significant fixes to the game’s code, for now, it raises a question about how long it’ll continue to run. For the time being, it runs. Just be prepared.

Graphically, The Oil Blue goes for a realistic yet slightly stylized look that, despite its age, still looks pretty good. The machine control panels are fun to look at and control. The game in general pulls off the aesthetic well. It cements the idea that you really are drilling for oil on all of these islands and doing “hard” work. Even if it is largely about pressing buttons a lot. The soundtrack is pretty decent, going for an atmospheric electronic sound. The tracks play a little too often though so you may end up playing your own music instead at some point. But the game does a good job for itself.

Final Thoughts
The Oil Blue is an interesting first outing for Vertigo Gaming and gives players an approachable, enjoyable yet still intense micromanagement game. If this genre appeals to you, TOB is worth considering picking up. It’s still got good game mechanics, if some aspects of its management such as workers is limited. It looks good and sounds good. It’s intense if you really want to be good at it too. Of course, there are the concerns about its stability and some of the bugs I ran into. Its too bad the story is paper thin and you can’t spend your money on anything. But, all in all, The Oil Blue is a fun game that I enjoyed for the 12 or so hours I put into it.

Read this review and more on A Paladin Without A Crusade

CarlCX
CarlCX

A semi-satirical sim about being a lonely oil-drilling technician working for the worst companies on the planet doing the worst thing to the planet. True story: The creator of this game went on to make Cook, Serve, Delicious!, because the only thing more stressful and soulcrushing than working oil fields is fucking foodservice.

Doctorbowling
Doctorbowling

Do you want to manage your very own clusterfuck while hearing *beep beep* every 2 seconds? If so, than this game is for you!

Promitheius
Promitheius

Very good game, I'd Recommened it to any one interested in these types of games!

kelltrick
kelltrick

Collection of several simple mini-games, each with little to no actual interesting elements. Most free flash games are better than this.

i_love_bugs_and_slugs_666
i_love_bugs_an…

a different kind of game i've never seen before, it seems cool

iEuropa // Sargon
iEuropa // Sargon

This game is absolutely fantastic. It has so much of a great ambiance, the soundtrack is very very nice and the gameplay is very good. I really advise this game to stressed gamers that wants to release some pressure (lol sorry for the wordplay) since it would keep your mind busy while relaxing on the good soundtrack and the friendly ambiance.

Kingslayer9
Kingslayer9

TL;DR - Multitask oil machines to generate oil barrels to sell and increase rank and hit objectives. For £3.99, pick it up if it interests you.

Had this game for quite a while now, maybe 6 months or more and the last time I played it I didn't think much of it.

Only because I didn't take the time to learn it.

Now that I have I've come to quite like this game, it's simple yet engaging and any lapse in concentration will make things go out of hand real quick. You have 4 machines, all but one will be given to you randomly depending on rank and a random quantity, also depending on rank. The one I meantion you will 100% have on every island. Each one will have to be repaired at the end of the day, (If you have time) or at the given time at the start of the next day. At the start of each island you will be given objectives to hit, make X amount of barrels within X amount of days. There is no penalty to not hitting them, however if you do hit them, you do get a nice reward.

You start at rank 50 and work your way towards rank 1, how fast you progress will depend on how many and the price of each barrel sold on the market. That's the basic gist of it. However, for me at least, multitasking anymore than 3 machines at a time proves to be a challenge for me. The tutorial also does provide adequate information about how to run each machine and gives you a general grasp on what to do during the game.

I do recommend this game and at the current price of £3.99 I would highly recommend you pick it up if it interests you.

Unbreakable
Unbreakable

Beeing a fan of simulation and tycoon games and thinking about "oil imperium" when seeing this title, I figured I had to give it a shot. First of all, its nothing like Oil Imperium. This game is "only" about drilling and selling oil, nothing more nothing less.

The Oil Blue seems hard at first, but once you learn that you don't need to always utilize all the machines at the same time, you will reach the goal for each island.

The financial part of The Oil Blue doesn't seem completely balanced to me. Once you make your first 100k cash seems obsolete and you make tons more then you can waste. Some more ways to spend your dollars would be cool (except upgrades and machine repairs).

The mini games to repair the machines are allright, except for one of them where you are to switch lights etc, did not make any sense to me. Luckily I could randomly hit buttons and make it, and later on, pay for repairs.

One last thing, be sure to turn the volume down as you start drilling. The alarm sounds really, REALLY becomes annoying after a few days of drilling :) !

Good game 8/10

הפטריארך ✝†✝ שיקום
הפטריארך ✝†✝ שיקום

Terrible interface thats suffocating, Game has a very short play timer, not friendly for learning, very poor tutorial and no voice tutorial, struggles to go full screen, bare bones in the game settings, its more of a 2 minute race than anything, not that fun to play, overly repetitive and not very engaging, looks fancy but has no integrity. Do not recommend! I've played way better for free.

DragonElderX9
DragonElderX9

It doesn't compare to Cook, Serve, Delicious, but it's a neat concept. It's pretty fun to hop in for a few rounds here and there.

DJUltrakiller
DJUltrakiller

The setting of the game is, as far as I remember, drilling in a world where oil became a scarce resource. Your purpose is to hop from island to island and drill, baby, drill. It's a capitalist's dream to produce and sell to the free market directly, without any other jerk-offs like futures, or cartels like OPEC. You'll spend the 8 minutes that consist an ingame day shifting between working the machines and monitoring the market.

Prices never go over $200 or below $100 (both are capped but in reality price goes lower than that, but you'll soon find out especially in the later islands that you really need to squeeze the most money out of your oil sales, or you stockpile like mad and wait, especially because in the later islands the objective shifts from number of barrels to the money made out of oil sales.

The tutorial is very well laid out and prepares you for what is going to come. It takes you through the 4 machines, and you get your basic training in multitasking them. After you are done with the tutorial you become rank 50 in UOO, and you advance in rank based on how much money you make out of oil sales. That has several advantages, from decreasing the royalty tax (UOO takes a part of the latent profits earned from islands you've been on before and achieved the objective) to modifying the chance of finding either of the 4 types of machinery in the island that follows. This is good, because an island with more than 1 derrick is already one that will make you pull your hair in anger, but at the same time it doesn't make it idiot-proof where all your machines are groundwells.

3 of the 4 machines you got ingame to drill oil with experience stress, if used for too long break down and need maintenance after every working day (unless it hasn't been used at all). To maintain them you need to play one of the 5 (iirc) minigames, and depending on he level of stress it experienced the harder the minigame is. I personally recommend to never get the machine in the red, or else you'll have a fun time struggling with the mini-game, especially in earlier islands before you get your pre-work break extended.

Atmosphere-wise the game is pretty chill and serene, and is a pretty good one to relax after a hard and long day.

Overall, for $5 you get a very well-made game that can be played constantly and never gets boring. What I'd wish would be for the later islands to be less harder, though.

Nathaniel Prime
Nathaniel Prime

This game is pretty fun at first, but gets monotonous fast. The setting is that you are drilling oil underwater. There are four types of machines you use to get oil, and each of them have their own little minigames you play. You will soon be managing three or more at the same time, so this is basically a "Diner Dash" style multitasking game. The problem is that it doesn't change much and you end up doing the same thing over and over again.

Also, it doesn't upload your saves to the cloud. Really? Who doesn't do that these days? I switched computers, lost my saves, and decided not to start back up.

slevelneves
slevelneves

Not bad. Not good. Just playable. 5/10

TheWonderCraft
TheWonderCraft

This game is one of the more fun games that Ive played while I was Bored. Its interesting how fun fraking oil can be. I would definately reccomend this game to you guys.

Aleksandre
Aleksandre

If you seek for patience, strategy, and fast thinking excercise, then this game is for you

4KbShort
4KbShort

Note: This game has NEVER been on a mobile device. I asked the dev directly if it would ever be ported because it would be GREAT on a mobile device with touch screen controls and he responded that it was not something he was planning in the near future. With that out of the way a review:

The graphics are clean and moody with the game taking place only at night and with dark colors and static backgrounds. The music is peaceful and relaxing. The game plays through days with each day lasting a few minutes. The machines are easy to use and you can use as many of them or as few as you desire on each island. So if you find yourself overwhelmed you can change the difficulty on the fly by simply not using some of the machines.

The point of the game is to make enough money or to sell enough barrels of oil to make an island profitable. Failure does not come with punishment and rewards follow you through the game. The islands are randomly generated and can sometimes be impossible to "win". You can work towards a higher rank by making more money, but once you reach rank 1 there's not much else to do. You can unlock some art and other information on the game by playing through it normally and shows some insight not only to the game's development, but game development in general.

Overall a good little game to play for a few turns at a time when you want to relax and would make an excellent mobile port.

Hovado_Lesni
Hovado_Lesni

Nice game but the repairing mechanics are just stupid.
And it gets repetive
I got it on sale and so should you.

Trygve
Trygve

The Oil Blue is an early Vertigo/Chubigans game. It's a fun management game, and it exhibits the foundations of the emphasis on world atmosphere seen in the later CSD games. The gameplay is good and the aesthetic is genuinely interesting.

It's also a little rough around the edges. Some of the minigames (specifically the repair ones) are a bit wonky, it can't be played fullscreen, and the code got corrupted years ago so the dev can't fix it. Worth it at $5 for CSD mega-fans, worth it on sale for fans of the genre.

defaultusername
defaultusername

A beautiful and calming game, achievements are 100% broken so don't expect to get any.
Still, it is beautiful.
EDIT: achivements can be unlocked by launching the achivement unlocker program (try launching in offline mode and the window will come up) which will instantly unlock all of the achivements you have earned.

Ripperljohn
Ripperljohn

Simple and rather repetitive clicker-game.

If you like games about accumulating cash, this is a nice one.

Akulav
Akulav

An interesting concept for a game. Requires some serious multitasking skills.
You operate machines to drill oil. The machines differ in difficulty to operate, speed of getting oil. The game is more complex than it sounds.

SwedishChef
SwedishChef

Simple, pretty and a good way to spend some spare time.

SugarySnax
SugarySnax

It has a tutorial which is kind of rare these days, but the tutorial is a little rough. You have buttons to progress the tutorial, but its not consistent. Sometimes completing and instruction progresses the tut and sometimes you have to find a checkmark button to click. Sometimes its on the lower right and sometimes its somewhere else so right away the game has you going, wha, where, wuduwy do? Then the game starts and they pile on extra stuff way too fast. Plate juggling is what I call it. You have to keep the plates spinning so they stay on the end of the stick. If they slow down, they fall and you lose. That's how it worked on Ed Sullivan show in the sixties. In this game you have to keep all the machines working and they throw them at you right away. An oil pocket is a white square. The drill is white squares. I didn't catch that at first. They could make the drill more drill shaped, but its just a square. The drill needs to be put into position.

I like management games, but I'm not seeing a lot of relaxation in this game. It seems to rely on pandemonium and stress, which is plate spinning as far as I'm concerned. Probably it would be something a younger crowd would like.

The price of the game is fantastic, especially on sale and some of the stuff looks good and is atmospheric. There is a learning curve, but its probably not too bad. I'm not loving it right now, but I may like it more as time goes on. I might also just quit playing it because I just don't like additional tasks constantly being forced on me. Kind of a weak recommended right now.

IL PALLINO
IL PALLINO

TL;DR

For people who enjoy hardcore clicker games: 4/10: Will gladly drill, baby, drill, but a point had to be deducted for the resolution not being optimized for modern monitors. (i.e. Steam abandonware.)

For people who enjoy managmeent sims: 3/10: The game is deceptively flagged for strategy and managemet. The only "strategy" to speak of is the order in which the player operates machinery and sells oil. The only "management" the player will be doing is managing their ulcer from trying to play a bunch of clicker games at the same time. Groundwell operation and selling large volumes of oil may wear out the player's left mouse button.

Overview

Someone has a messed up idea as to what a management sim should be. Rather than having to make decisions and boss people around, The Oil Blue instead expects players to do all of the work drilling for oil. Drilling for oil is great, right? Not in this game. The player has as many as four varieties of oil machinery to pump oil with, and while the mini-games are alright in themselves, the player will become overwhelmed on the third island once the quota jumps, and the player finds themselves struggling to watch a piece of machinery for long enough in order to press the pressure release button to minimize stress to the machine in question.

Graphics and Sound

Graphics are basic, and while the control panels set the mood, there's just nothing that stands out as special. While the Steam overlay does work with the game for taking screenshots, the screenshots have an odd look and alt-tabbing to get to the overlay doesn't quite work right. (Players will have to upload screenshots from the game library in the Steam launcher.)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2756556550

The sounds are all basic, and there's nothing special nor game-breaking about the sound effects heard in the game. For some reason, there's no loud mechanical sounds whenever machinery breaks.

Positives

A management game involving drilling for oil is something the gaming market needs, but this obviously isn't this game. but this may be moot since The Oil Blue is not really a management game.

However, the way the game makes the player see dollar signs and try their hardest to make as much money from islands as possible is the mark of any game that holds ol' Il Pallino's interests.

Negatives

Is there anything worse than a developer who sells old games on Steam that aren't optimized for modern computers and/or modern monitor resolutions? Maybe BCH Waves Studio made the worst visual novels of all time, but they don't count since they were banned from Steam.

Click on groundwell(s) to start, click on the oil derrick(s) to start, click on pumpjack(s) to start, click on offshore well(s) three times to start, then monitor everything as much as one should while giving some attention to the derrick(s) and offshore well(s) to depressurize them to reduce damage while hoping one has enough time to not miss a beat in click on which deposits to drill with the pumpjack(s), and also hoping the player has enough time to monitor the groundwell(s) to switch to one or more fully-charged batteries. Does playing all of these mini-games at the same time sound fun? It isn't. One will also have to be mindful of how much oil they have on hand and make a trip away from all of the multitasking to go to the market screen so they can empty their reserves. Day two is more of the same except with maintenance of machinery which use a different set of mini-games.

Conclusion

If the player wants the simultaneous clicker game experience, there's a bunch of free clicker games on Steam the player can download and try to play all at the same time.

The honest word of Il Pallino... OR ELSE!

This review has been provided independently by an admin at REXCurse (REXnetwork).
No compensation was provided.

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