A brilliantly well-crafted simulation/management game in its own right, made even better by the political message it carries. Another reviewer called OvC a "simulation game when in reality it's a critique of American healthcare," which I wholeheartedly agree with (it's more the US "pharmaceutical industry" than "healthcare," but it's all the same). This isn't the first game to illustrate the cutthroat dynamics underlying the US economic system, but it's nevertheless a very engaging way to spend an afternoon.
I would, however, caution the player against playing too much of this game in one sitting. My hats off to Brody Rampono for what is clearly a labor of love, but there are a few elements that begin to gnaw away at your enjoyment after, perhaps, the 90-minute mark. They won't be noticeable during your 1st or 2nd playthroughs, but anyone who has completed their 3rd run will start noticing them.
The primary issue is the RNG. Scroll through the reviews for ten seconds and you'll see plenty of people complaining about this. Surprisingly, my very first run ended quite successfully. My subsequent runs, however, were inevitably tarnished by bad RNG. Admittedly, the RNG had only dug a hole that my overspending had already created, but it's frustrating seeing one bad roll send all the work you've put in into a death spiral. My very last run ended like that and I had to quit the game out of frustration.
That said, the RNG can be quite fun... occasionally. There've been a few times where I was pressed to my screen during the final parts of a drug trial, sitting on 16 breakthroughs and 15 side effects, COMMANDING the frail old rats we've subjected to the drug not to die before the end of trials. I swear I'd have been doing CPR on those little rodents if I could've. See, look, Animal Ethics litigators, I didn't want to give male-pattern baldness to every male rodent in a 20km radius. I was just trying to find a pharmaceutical cure to the obesity problems that I helped perpetuate. I'll have you know I audibly cheered with every new seven-syllable drug I produced and sent to stores to help Americans (to part with their money).
Secondly, there isn't really any true feeling of "progression" in the game. Granted, there are new characters to unlock, but I was only able to unlock two by getting lucky twice. It would take far too much time and a developer's level of knowledge of the game mechanics to attain all seven characters in what is, admittedly, a rather repetitive set of game mechanics.
Don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful game. Dead simple and a lot of fun. You could already be having fun and experiencing the game yourself in the time it took you to get this far in my review. Rampono clearly must've had some exposure to the industry or has, at the very least, a fair amount of knowledge on the subject. The gameplay led me less to a feeling of resentment against the specific CEOs of pharmaceutical companies and more to a general hatred of the unsustainable business models these CEOs are forced to work inside of.
What's also nice is that the game manages all this without totally depressing you. I can see the argument that the state of the US pharmaceutical industry should bum you a bit but then I'd just feel depressed. Then I'd look at the TV. Then the TV would tell me to buy Low-Mood Pills. Then those low mood pills would give me hair-loss side effects. Thankfully, the TV says, these a pill for that! Oh wait...
Fianlly, as you play this game, you'll start to see that power truly does corrupt. After enough time, one finds their loyalties shifting away from the common people and towards the CEOs, the true victims in all of this. Just one more drug. C'mon, man, just ONE more. DON'T STOP KILLING RATS UNTIL WE'VE CAUSED AND CURED EVERY DISEASE KNOWN TO MAN, WOMAN, AND RAT.
At the end of the day, Every CEO is just one miracle drug away from getting fabulously rich.
