The Invisible Hand

released on May 07, 2021

Experience the obsessive life of a mid-level stockbroker, pursuing wealth and success at the cost of everything else... possibly even your freedom.


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I had some fun with it, but overall it feels kind of messy. The trading itself is easy enough for a dumbass such as myself to understand, and interesting enough to make me want to interact with it (or in other words actually play the game), but obviously it's no simulator. The center point should technically be the narrative but it feels so disjointed that I'm not even sure where to start. Sometimes it feels like a satire (mainly through stereotypical characters present in the game), other times like a critique (which includes some pseudo social commentary that never gets elaborate enough to actually say something interesting). The plot itself is completely non-engaging, even though the game does have original implementations of ways to tell the story (e.g. the incredible opening scene). I just wish there was actually a writer with ideas out there to complement it, because all you really get is Wolf of Wall Street, but with no fun parts and character archetypes you'd see in a movie LIKE Wolf of Wall Street.
Overall the game was an ok addition to a humble choice bundle, but I would be careful about picking it up full-price.

This game is currently in the Humble Choice for May 2023, this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before June 6th, 2022, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

Being a stock trader, only here you can’t lose.

The Invisible Hand is another Simulator game, this time it’s the stock market. You are supposed to compete against other stock traders, because… reasons, but all you’re doing is day trading and while the game starts hectic, it’s pretty relaxed for the most part, even having the ability to drink tea to slow down time or coffee to speed it up. The controls are pretty simple to learn, and the game has nice shortcuts so you can just click on the names of items to get to the correct sheets.

But man, everything here feels like a cheap simulator game. The models feel like they’re straight out of an asset store. The characters make an annoying sound to the point where I would have preferred silence, there are a few clever lines but nothing important is ever said. In the first hour of gameplay, the game makes it blatantly easy to make money, it tells you which stock is going to go up, and when. It gives your “hints” with indicators telling you whether it’s real or not. There’s almost no challenge whatsoever, and I think I’m almost halfway through the game. I’m at the third level out of probably four or five.

Pick this up if… Honestly, I wouldn’t pick this up. There’s a game called Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator that’s equally short, but at least that one has some fresh ideas. There are a lot of good economic trading games, but The Invisible Hand is just too easy and cheap to be worth the time. I’d probably recommend skipping this and looking into something with a focus on economics, maybe Offworld Trading Company, or god, I can’t believe I’m saying this but Capitalism 2. Yeah, those aren’t about sitting at a desk day trading stocks, but nothing is interesting here about that either.

If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/JFv65vCu_dw