Project Highrise

SomaSim, 8 euros

There is something about Project Highrise's calming aura that makes for a great relaxing experience whilst at the same time being a very challenging management game.

One of the game's main highlight is it's approach to difficulty: new players on normal difficulty are destined to go bankrupt and start over a couple of times when trying to grasp the wealth of interactions the game tries to communicate, but this however almost never gets frustrating, as the game has a very organic way in communicating to the player what makes a successful building. Once the initial hurdles are overcome the player is encountered with advanced unlockable tenants that require extreme amounts of planning, and further options to customise and "beautify" their building.

This brings me to the games aesthetics, visuals and sounds work greatly in conjunction to create one of the most immersive games in the management genre. When starting it is puzzling to not use the "accelerate time" option to advance as in normal speed the simplest of tasks would take hours to complete. Later in the game it is almost irresistible to return to normal speed and follow all the little people going about their business in your building. Rarely does it feel like you are interacting with a simple UI and score count as every click has it's own corresponding sound, every room has their own visual detail and every person on screen has a name and task they are carrying out.

This does not mean the game is flawless, at times there are mechanics which can feel contrived as tenants loose their patience very quickly over minuscule detail like not immediately having access to "floral arrangement services" and moving out within 4 hours of moving in. Or at times when trying to reach late game unlockables the player can encounter a long jungle of menus. These instances are patched up by the fact the game let's you do most things whilst in the "freeze time" state, but this solution does most of the time break the immersion.

Project Highrise delivers on it's promise of making the player feel like a building manager, whilst also being a surprisingly challenging game for it's genre. Although there is not a humongous amount of content, the game more than justifies it's asking price.

6/10