If Steam allowed numeric ratings I'd give this game 6/10. Parts of it are fun and parts of it aren't. I did have a few hours of fun with the game.


Fun:

* drive big machines, dig big holes, build big things

* seeing a hotel, house, etc now permanently exist in the game world because you built it

* leveling up skills as you get XP and construction becoming noticeably easier

* the game is forgiving about smashing materials into buildings, smashing machines into buildings, abusing the machines when digging etc

* the bulk material handling (dirt, gravel, sand) is fun and realistic enough, ditto the wet concrete handing



Not fun:

* after a few missions the tasks became very redundant for me - there's a lot of concrete pouring, a fair amount of digging, a lot of preformed building section placement, a lot of moving a pallet of something a small distance. I think that a construction simulator could have more variation than this game has, although yeah, you'll be constructing a lot in this type of game

* there are times where if my character would simply bust out a good old fashioned shovel, rake, etc, I could complete a task far more quickly and easily than I'm able to in this game, because the game forces you to always use powered construction equipment

* the game leans heavily on preformed walls, ceilings, etc to make buildings, I'm sure because it makes implementing the missions easier and because you can sling that stuff around on a crane, but I don't know that many projects actually use those much.. a luxury hotel is built entirely of preformed walls, ceilings, etc? it just doesn't seem to make sense to me

* there are various bug-like things that make me wonder how much the developers played this game:

*** when you're in map view, dragging the map around is very slow, and you can't zoom out very far

*** the camera becomes very confused when you're tight in with something, and it always prefers to stick very tightly to the thing you're close to, when it would be much better if the camera zoomed out to give you an idea of WTF is going on

*** I'm not sure why the game has a day/night cycle - predictably, at night it is difficult to see things (there are headlights but they don't help much). As far as I can tell there is no time limit in the game, and there is no way to advance time more quickly (by meditating/sleeping/etc)

*** the lighting for switching from day to night is handled strangely.. it will get a little darker as evening comes and then suddenly it's pitch black, ditto for going to day

*** construction sites will have random things that completely block your machines, like wheelbarrows, lights, and whatever else. Some of these are placed in such a way that I guess the developers put them there because they thought it would make things "more challenging" for you to maneuver your machines around

*** you can't place your own lights/whatever on construction sites, or move anything that is there when you start around (lights, wheelbarrows, random "construction warning frames") - it would be particularly useful if you could place lights at night

*** the menu system isn't intuitive (some functionality is only accessible when you're looking at the map, and some is.. not), one screen confusingly shows construction equipment that is deployed whereas another screen shows all your equipment - one of these is under the Map window and one isn't

*** as far as I can tell, the only way to advance your XP and money at a reasonable pace is to do missions in "high" scope, but in that scope, you will be doing the same redundant tasks over and over and over (e.g. for the hotel building, you build 3 or 4 floors and for every floor you place preformed walls and ceilings and pour concrete).. so no matter what you do, you'll be advancing your XP and money slowly

*** there's no way to jump on the map to the construction site of one of your missions, you have to bring up the map and scroll around (very slowly) to find it

*** you can pay extra to have materials delivered directly to the job site, but even then the materials are placed a short distance from where they "really" need to go for the game to progress... again I imagine the developers thought this "increased the challenge" or something similar, but it's just not fun and it makes no sense from any perspective based in reality

*** you can't skip the game intro which includes old favorites like a "this icon means the game is saving" screen so you'll need to sit through ~30 unavoidable seconds whenever you load the game



Overall I had fun with the game initially but as time went on the redundancy and niggling annoyances caught up with me and I just couldn't play anymore. Maybe someday later.

If a person is a big fan of construction, I can see them enjoying this game. The basic functionality is all there, it has fun progression with gaining skills and construction equipment and company abilities, and the campaigns have a bit of lore for a bit of story.

certified bollocks game

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