"While the concept of Dealer's Life 2 is intriguing, the execution is disappointingly dull, making it unsuitable for all but the most casual of gamers. "
Dealer’s Life 2 is a very entertaining game with a very small amount of unique content; as a result, what starts as fun entertainment quickly evolves into sheer monotony, and by the time I had reached the later levels, I just wanted it to be over with.
A big part of why I felt this way is because the first one to two hours of the game are full of exciting finds, upgrades and discoveries; however, every hour after that gets progressively slower until even a huge find or fantastic deal is only a tiny fraction of the money needed to do anything worthwhile.
I remember the first time I found an item that sold for £20,000 profit; I felt like a king and immediately upgraded my character and store. When I hit the jackpot and sold an item for £1 million profit, I upgraded all of my stats repeatedly, hired better staff and upgraded my store three to four times.
However, by the time you get to mid-game, selling an item for even £10 million profit is next to worthless, with mid-game attribute points costing that much and more and shop upgrades being well north of £100 million.
To make matters worse, many buyers still bring in terrible-condition, rare or lower items worth £10,000 or less, meaning I am forced to examine hundreds of worthless items per hour.
This is especially frustrating when you consider that my weekly rent and inventory limits require items that sell for £600,000–£900,000 profit minimum if I am going to make rent and save towards future upgrades.
While there are breaks in the monotony, such as storage auctions and buying and selling at conventional auctions, players are limited to selling one item per week, drastically slowing down the money-making process.
If I had made Dealer’s Life 2, I would have allowed players to list every qualifying item at auction at the end of every week, ensuring that time between upgrades is a matter of minutes instead of being stuck at the same location grinding for several hours, only to be forced to do it all again at the next location.
Each potential customer has unique preferences, tolerances, finances, interests and personality, ensuring that negotiations are never stale.
From tight-fisted collectors who know what something is worth to clueless bystanders who would sell you the crown jewels for 80% off, players never know who is coming into their store next, which goes a long way towards keeping the game fresh, however, only when played in small doses.
Dealer’s Life 2 is full to bursting with pop culture references, from off-brand movies such as Revengers (Avengers) and Shark Movie (Jaws) to slightly off celebrity names such as Patrick Steward and Marco Pol. Oh, the developers have found a way to avoid infringing copyright while being very amusing in the process. Besides, who does not want to own a vintage Lintendo 64?
Haggling, bickering or negotiating — no matter how you say it — the act of trying to get a better deal is a favourite pastime of many, and being able to do so as often as you want with a diverse array of characters is a great activity for fans of the pastime, even if it does get old after a while.
Not every item you have invested your hard-earned money in will be legit, and even three-star experts can occasionally fail to spot a fake until it is too late.
Upon finding out that a priceless rug that belonged to Barrack O’rama is a fake and likely came from Walmart, players have two options: mark it down as a replica, taking a huge loss in the process, or attempt to pass it along at full price, risking heavy reputation damage every time they are caught doing so.
Some female characters are just a little too sexualised for the genre and audience and border on being disrespectful, with massive breasts and ample cleavage on display. While this was undoubtedly done in fun, I feel sexualising women while for the most part not doing so to male characters sends a bad message.
Dealer's Life 2 is a simulation game developed and published by Abyte Entertainment, it released on 15 February 2022, and is available exclusively on PC.
On average Dealer’s Life 2 takes between 8 and 12 hours to complete.
Estimated completion times are derived from various sources and may vary based on the skill level of each player.
Dealer's Life 2 supports the following peripherals:
Dealer's Life 2 is unrated and contains:
Dealer’s Life 2 is a decent casual game, and there are some good things about it; however, I cannot recommend it due to its lack of content, no sense of progression and repetitive gameplay cycle.
We found Dealer's Life 2 to be a poor game, meaning that while it has some redeeming qualities, it's ultimately disappointing and not recommended for most gamers.
"While Microsoft Flight Simulator is not for everyone, the fact that the franchise has existed since 1982 is a testament to its exceptional quality and the multi-decade loyalty of its passionate community."
"Wild West Dynasty is a perfect example of the dangers of franchise overreach when combined with lackadaisical mediocrity and low production values."
"Campfire Cozy Friends is certainly interesting, but the developer's lack of transparency regarding its future business model beyond "free to start" and certain in-game mechanics give cause for concern."
