Management games have tasked us with running theme parks, taking sports teams to glory, and building public transport empires, but only one has you hunting for black gold. In the charming but challenging Turmoil, your goal is to become a wealthy oil baron, and now you can grab this highly-rated and strategic management sim for free over on the Epic Games Store.
Turmoil’s been around for a while now, but it’s still a brilliant management game with a unique style that will put your multi-tasking, resource control, and disregard for the environment to the test. Inspired by the American oil rush of the 19th century, you’ll gradually expand your empire with new rigs, Frontier-style buildings, and fleets of horses and carts to whisk your precious oil away.
As you prospect for new oil deposits, you’ll be tasked with setting up intricate and efficient networks of underground pipes to not only locate the oil but bring it up to the surface, where it is then stored in silos. With fluctuating oil prices, you need to be on your toes to sell at a strong price, but waiting too long could see your storage reach max capacity, and that means no more drilling until you’ve shifted it – or spending your cash on more silos.
The single-player campaign mode tasks you with essentially becoming the wealthiest oil mogul in the West, building up your town, growing your operation across various locations, and ensuring rival barons don’t squeeze you out. There’s also a mode that gives you a randomly-generated level and tasks you with making as much money as possible in a year.
However, you can also get competitive, because Turmoil lets you play against friends or random players online in a race to create the biggest oil empire possible. It’s a brilliant little management game, and it’s got a very commendable 92% user review rating on Steam. However, Turmoil has just become available over on the Epic Games Store, and to celebrate, it’s been bestowed the honor of being the platform’s free game of the week.
That means that you can get Turmoil for free to keep on the Epic Games Store right now until Thursday, January 16. Head on over here if you want to add it to your library.
Epic has also revealed that the excellent puzzle game Escape Academy will be next up on its conveyor belt of freebies.
For more great titles like Turmoil that will test your decision making and resource management, check out our recommendations of the best strategy games and best 4X games.
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