Very nice
MUCH easier than earlier editions of this game, I remember trying to play an older version and never being able to make any money, even without debt. I beat it in about an hour on easy mode, but it was still enjoyable. For those of you who can't seem to make any money, take out a loan large enough to buy 10 cases of weapons on New Terra, ship to El Libre, and sell for nice profit. Return to New Terra, pay off your debt, and buy as many more weapons as you can. Repeat until you get enough to buy Alloy, and then keep shipping. Eventually you will have to pay off Meing, but you make it back fast enough. Keep trading up til you can buy 1 trionium, it'll fetch a nice profit at this point. Go from there.
As for the story, Tai-pan is a story of revenge pretty much. Your father was killed by Meing, you're out to avenge his death, blah blah blah blah blah. Read the book by James Clavell, it's damned good.
The game itself had pretty nice sound, a good responsive feel to it, nice graphics, and was pretty fun. The repeated pirate attacks get a little annoying after a while though, and the space music as well.