Wall Street Trader from MonteCristo is exactly what it says it is. It's an in depth stock and investment simulation. It's very detailed, including seventy different choices from sixteen different markets for investing in. You are given just about any possible tools and situations to try and create a prosperous business by investing in what you think will do well. You get all the tools necessary to make sure you get good picks, from analysts to news reports to insider trading. Hostile takeovers and investment buyouts add to your ability to dominate your opponents.

The game itself looks well done and heavily uses movies, audio, and news clips to immerse the player in investing trends. It also includes tutorials when new options become available to the player. However, Wall Street Trader is a true-to-its-word sim. It gets long since the gameplay isn't real fast paced and the news interruptions don't really help to keep a high interest level. You spend most of your time sitting around watching your investments and deciding what you should buy and what you should sell. The depth of the game is good, but only a handful of players will get a real rush out of this game, and it isn't going to be the Quake II gamers.

The graphics are very nicely done. The detail of the animation and artistic console were much more than I would have expected from a Stock Trading sim. The console was a little on the "Industrial" look which doesn't take anything away from the game, but I guess they could have have used any theme and it probably wouldn't feel out of place. The movies are nicely done and the spoofed news clips of magazines are a nice touch.

Audio was well done. It's definitely one of the important aspects to the game. News blurbs are much better with sound. The atmosphere is definitely enhanced by events with audio. The background music is pretty good. It creates some ambiance to flavor the gamer's ear and add a little to the experience.

Wall Street Trader does feature multiplayer. I was sort of surprised by this, since long, time consuming simulations don't always have this option. It features all the normal multiplayer methods including TCP/IP for up to eight people. In addition, MonteCristo will be offering additional Internet multiplayer support through their webpage.

Being cast in such a narrow genre really makes this game for a select few. Although it is well done and detailed, it really won't interest the average gamer. If you are into dabbling in the stock market and want to try a well done simulation, this one is probably the best you'll find.

Highs:
Well detailed gameplay, graphics, and sound, Very intuitive

Lows:
Slow gameplay, narrow genre with few gamers that will be interested by it.