It’s out. Who will take one for the team and post impressions?
I only look to RPS for news on upcoming titles. Their reviews and opinion pieces grate on me. They aren’t nearly as clever as they think they are.
[corrected because I’m getting older]
Ah right. Conversely, their reviews are the only ones I bother reading!
Especially Alice O’Conner, or whatever her exact name is - I can always tell an Alice post because it takes two paragraphs to get to the damned point.
Sorry, been wanting to vent on that one for like a year now or so.
I love that kind of nonsense though. British games journalism has always been a bit peculiar, since Your Sinclair in the 80s. It resonates with me. Each to their own mind you eh! Luckily the internet is big enough to cater for all tastes (ooer).
Yeah, that sums up RPS quite well for me. Not too long ago, I’d read it often. Nowadays? Pretty much only The Flare Path, because Tim Stone is kind of a genius.
This definitely looks interesting, and I’d hope it’d be less of a mobile-influenced F2P timer-waiting game than that cutesy Star Wars SimTower-alike on Android/iOS from last year. SimTower (and Yoot Tower along with it) was one of my favorite games growing up, so something that could scratch that itch would be amazing. . . though the RPS piece suggests it doesn’t, quite.
If I ever became a hyper-capable indie game dev, Sim Tower would be the first thing I’d bring into the modern era. Followed by my own take on the “Fantasy Star Control-alike” Stardock attempted with Sorcerer King ;)
I preordered this and I am on vacation so I will fiddle with it today inbetween my learning Prismata! :)
I played this a bit at PAX and it seems like an excellent game. Great tutorials that get you into it, lots of complexity that will probably mean depth, and a nice call-back to SimTower which I absolutely loved.
My only concern is that the art style is really difficult to read. It’s hard to distinguish between different types of rooms on a quick glance. Hopefully it’s something that gets easier as you play more.
[quote=“rhamorim, post:7, topic:125654”]
Not too long ago, I’d read it often. [/quote]
It bit the dust when the principals got their dream jobs and only John Walker was left at the rudder (Keiron at Marvel, Alec at gamesindustry.biz, Rossingnol at Big Robot, and Quintin Smith at Paradox/ShutUpAndSitDown.com).
I stopped reading RPS regularly when John Walker put himself on a pedestal with the Peter Molyneux bullshit and other such stories where he tried to make it more about himself than the subject he was writing about.
I went through all the tutorials and it does a good job of explaining the basics. There appears to be three kinds of currency:
Cash
Influence
Prestige
Cash allows you to create new floors, establish different types of spaces (office, apartment, utilities) and so on. I did not see a way to hire more staff (but I would think it must be somewhere).
Influence allows improvements to the highrise.
Prestige will bring in a more upscale clientele.
I agree with @LMN8R that this art is a bit washed out and makes it hard to know what is what at a glance. I wish there was an overlay that would outline or highlight in different colors various type of spaces (office or restaurant or apartment, etc). I see a mod tab so maybe a modder will be able to do something that will help.
One thing the tutorial does not explain; why rent to one client vs another.
Example:
Other things I would like to know - each space is broken into segments so not sure if it is wise to just bring a phone line into certain pieces of an office to save costs and only add more phone line when need to expand.
I figure these things are to be learned in the game.
I think the biggest challenge is going to be getting the spaces to fit together. Have to have garbage collection, utility closet, and each item can take a different amount of floor segments
There are also missions/quests built into the game called contracts (for example city offers a contact to have the population rise in order to grow that region of the city). This is separate from scenarios that you can choose to play too.
Information about what is going on seems to be plentiful with overlays and report like functionality.
I think the game would suit anyone who likes to play around with logistics and for just my little time with it I can see my self playing it for a while (probably something I will play a bit each day in between other games). YMMV
I think the music is appropriate to the game (elevator music anyone)! :)
I ended up getting it after reading the positive press it’s been getting, and I’m really pleasantly surprised. I missed Sim Tower for some reason, but this has it’s hooks into me big time. I’ve only played the tutorials and dabbled in the sandbox for a bit, but despite some rough animation (which may be the fault of my below-minimum-specs processor and not the game), I like what I see so far.
I don’t really like it, I found it too easy and too limited. You can only lay down about half the tiles that you see on the building screens. You can only go 50 floors above ground, as far as I can tell.
It runs well I guess.
I think I’m with you Knightsaber. I haven’t played a lot, but it feels like you just kinda follow the build order - more offices to bring in money, make sure you have enough electricity and phones, add some food to get more advanced offices, build more offices, throw in some services like courier and copier, etc…
It’s possible I’m over simplifying since I don’t have a lot of time in it. Anyone liking this a lot that can add something here to explain why it may be better than it seems?
I enjoyed playing it for a few days. It definitely is missing a layer of gameplay to give it some variety game-to-game. The Impressions city-builders (I’ve been playing a lot of Emperor) are not dissimilar in terms of there being a basic discoverable shape to build every time, and a pattern to expanding, but they at least have unique demands for goods that crop up from time to time, as well as certain resources that the map provides or doesn’t. That’s the kind of thing Highrise needs to be great. But I think it’s still basically good if I want to groove in a building game.
Has anyone bit on the Las Vegas dlc? I enjoyed the vanilla game to a point, and wouldn’t mind something to spice it up a bit, particularly at $7.
I’ve not played vanilla yet, but I’m buying this anyway.
I’m trying to just play the DLC bits and am running into problems. I’ve build a hotel with 10 singles, water, power, housekeeping and bell service, plus a coffees shop and a sandwich shop - i short, everything I need (yes, a check-in desk too). Yet nobody is checking in.
What am I missing?