Final Stretch-Horse Racing Sim Review

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(More customer reviews)This game wasn't quite what I was expecting, but now that I have figured it out I am really enjoying it!
The basic idea of the game is centered around horse racing. You have three options: You can be a stable manager, a jockey, or a better. If you choose stable manager, you actually can do all three!
I've found the jockey option to be quite maddening. It drove me absolutely crazy. I rode horses in about a hundred races and finished dead last, or second to last every single time. I tried every strategy I could come up with and could not even ONCE win a race with any horse I tried. And that was on easy level! I think this portion of the game needs serious work - it's way too difficult.
The betting portion is just "ok." You can bet on horses when you're playing the stable manager version as well, so I don't see the fun in playing where you JUST bet. Especially since sometimes it seems completely random which horse wins a race (maybe like real life .. heh!).
The stable manager version is where it gets fun. While it has some serious downfalls, now that I've figured it out I've been having a fantastic time. When you're a stable manager you get to hire staff, build up your stable (buy and improve your buildings), buy and train horses, board other people's horses for cash. You can also go to auctions and buy horses as well as breed and race your own horses.
I'll talk about the cons first.
STAFF: Basically you have no control over your staff. You can hire them, give them raises, and that's about it. You also can choose which Lad works with which horse. I was hoping for more control over staff, and for the staff you have to make a bigger difference.
INCOME: At the start of the game, it is VERY difficult to balance your income and expenditures. I "lost" the game at least 3 times because I ran out of money. The only ways to make money are 1) race 2) sell a horse and 3) boarding. Once you get in to the game and get some international level horses, racing brings in a LOT of cash. In the beginning though, you only will get $2000-$10000 per race if you WIN (which is hard) and you have to subtract from that the fee to enter the race and the jockey fee. Selling a horse is an option, but in the beginning you may have one or two horses... so selling isn't really an option. The last way to get income is boarding, which hardly covers your expenses. For the first hour I played I basically just clicked "next week" dozens of times trying to make enough money from my boarders to afford a new horse (since I had sold mine to pay off my negative bank balance and have an extra stall to board). I think that there are some serious issues with money making in the beginning, and once you get nice horses it becomes too easy to make money.
NO TUTORIAL: This game isn't easy to figure out. The manual is horrible, there is no tutorial and when you hover over a button, there is no indication of what it does. I had to learn by trial and error.
PRACTICALLY NO GRAPHICS: The only time there are any graphics is during a horse race. Even then, it's kind of boring. Every horse looks exactly the same (different colors, same exact body/movement).
HORSES DIE YOUNG: My horses tend to die at age 14-15. In real life, it's normal for horses to live well past 20! I currently own a horse that is 23 and still going strong!
Ok, so those are all the bad things. There are plenty of good things too - else I wouldn't have given this game four stars!
Once you get lucky enough to have an upper level (national/international) race horse, money comes easily and you can afford to buy more horses and rely less on boarding for income. An average purse in an international race is $500,000-$1,000,000!
I've been having a LOT of fun breeding my horses, training and racing them. It's become quite addicting! The training part of the game is fun. You get to pick which activity you want your horse to do each week, and you have to pick well to optimize your horse so that he is in top form and healthy for the race, yet still has the speed and stamina to do well.
People who like games that are heavy in graphics will probably not enjoy this game. This game is mostly text! I occasionally watch my horses race, but normally I skip the race and go right to the results. For those who enjoy text games, and also those who enjoy horse racing and strategy games, this game is a lot of fun! You just have to get past the awkward trial and error learning stage and then the game becomes addicting and incredibly fun!

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