Traders of Bargleflab (Oculus Rift)

Price at Time Of Review: £8 ($10)
Comfort Rating: Green (No Movement)
Genre: Real-time strategy (RTS)
Supported Platforms: Oculus Rift, Rift S
Supported Controllers: Gamepad, Oculus Remote, Touch (as gamepad)
Best Playing Position: Standing, Sitting
Multi-Player: No
Age Rating: PG

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Description: Can you unravel the mystery of Farslouch while toiling endlessly after new wealth for your saucy and contemptuous master, “ol’ Swashcanon?” In an unspecified time period, in a world not so different from ours, a young smart-ass arose from the Merchant Guild who believed that he or she could manage a fleet of trading ships better than anybody had before. That young smart-ass is you.

Guided (barely) by a condescending financier who alternates between father figure and tormentor, you will issue and continually update orders to a fleet of trading ships in a bid to earn enough wealth to pay back a suspiciously unspecified amount of debt. The game mechanic is relatively simple and each level is a race against time to earn enough wealth to allow you to progress to the next level. You will be forced to think ahead to plan your routes and act in the moment to block the advances of pirates.

Review: It is no secret that I really enjoy strategy games in VR, so when I heard about the Traders of Bargleflab I was instantly looking forward to playing it. You play the role of a “smart-ass” who said they are the best Merchant Guild trader on the high seas. But that is not the high seas of Earth, this is played on a table shaped island that just happens to be floating on the back of a giant space turtle! I’m not sure what the developers of this game were on when they come up with that theming, but I want some!

Gameplay is a pretty simple trading strategy game. You buy wood, pelt, etc from one port and sell it at another for an inflated price. It’s how the world goes around and it’s how the game is played. But in this game pirates will try and stop you and you have a set time limit to reach the goal amount, so it’s a good job there are plenty of ship upgrades to help. To be fair I got the hang of the game the moment I had finished the tutorial and was soon completing the levels. Even if you do finish all the levels in double quick time, you can always up the difficulty level as well.

While nothing much to look at, Traders of Bargleflab is a good laugh at times with some truly funny lines coming out of the pirate’s mouth. Sadly I don’t think it’s worth the asking price without a multiplayer mode, but get this game in a sale (provided you enjoy strategy games) and you will find some simple swashbuckling fun here. Just don’t expect too much gunpowder bang for your buck.