Review: Schedule I Is a Multiplayer Co-op Black Market Econ Simulator

A spiritual successor to the Drug Wars game that proliferated on high school graphing calculators

Schedule I is a computer game that lets you rise from a lowly weed dealer to be Walter White or Tony Montana.

More specifically, the game is a black market econ simulator in the tradition of Drug Wars—a buy-low-sell-high drug-dealing game that was, to the chagrin of DARE, very popular on high school graphing calculators.

Schedule I's gameplay is straightforward: Sell drugs, buy better equipment, hook new customers, and dodge the cops. The gimmick is that it doesn't skip over mundane tasks. Instead of clicking "grow OG Kush" from a drop-down menu, players have to plant seeds, water, trim, and package bud before they can sling it.

Black market econ simulators give insights beyond the typical computer game, illustrating how rational actors navigate and price-in prohibition, including violence. The graphics, though, have a goofy South Park aesthetic that keeps it all lighthearted.

Best of all, there is multiplayer co-op support, so you and your crew can build a drug empire together. Go ahead, all the cool kids are doing it.