Mr Viral
Architect Life Review
My favorite part of playing The Sims was always designing and decorating the living spaces. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. My routine was to punch in the cheat code that gave me millions of Simoleans, then spend hours building, decorating, and furnishing my future Sims’ house. Eventually, of course, I had to move my toon family into their house, with their pesky and unreasonable needs for stupid things like food and the toilet. The relaxed and absorbing building process is the engine that makes sims like Planet Coaster or Cities: Skylines so appealing. It’s at the healthy heart of Architect Life. It’s a little like The Sims with the building part siloed off into its own game.
Difference in the Details
There’s one difference, though. In Architect Life, the actual construction is done by unseen and impossibly affordable builders. Your task is simply to design a 3D architectural model, a kind of riff on the detailed foam board replicas that architects love to make. Side note, I’ve designed a lot of theatrical sets and built cardboard models, a process that I really enjoy. I have the accidental X-acto scars to prove it.
In Architect Life, you can build your model in either an overhead plan view or in 3D, and of course, both are useful to the process. As you build, the game calculates details like angles and square footage, costs, all important elements when you are building to a particular spec. You lay down a foundation, interior and exterior walls – a distinction the Sims never made – a roof, doors, and windows. Then, you add furniture, heating and cooling elements, lighting, and other interior objects. Architect Life somewhat unrealistically blends two different professions here. Most architects probably don’t concern themselves with which color their client will paint the wall. You can also design some elements of the property beyond the home or building itself, adding trees, fences, and more.
Step 2
Once you’ve completed the design process, the game turns it over to the builders and renders your plans into the finished structure, complete with all the decor and furniture you added. This allows you to do a walk-through and see where things work or don’t. You have to flip back to the plan mode to make modifications.
The game is called Architect Life for a reason, and that refers to the Career Mode, which starts the player as a beginner architect and throws at them a series of projects of increasing complexity. Projects have requirements and limitations, budgets (of course), and specific property challenges. The game leads you along towards completion with a number of checklists. The Career Mode in Architect Life is similar to that in other building sim games like Planet Coaster or Planet Zoo, minus the annoying attempts at humor. There’s no voice acting or attempt at creating a fiction, just a series of assignments. I didn’t mind the lack of context, but some might find it a bit dry.
If nothing else, the Career Mode really teaches you the tools and to think creatively around design challenges. For the truly impatient, there’s also a Tutorial, which introduces the absolute basics of the interface and how things work. For me, the Free Mode is where I spent the most time, creating the kinds of homes and businesses that my budget will never allow. You can also add some challenges to your Free Mode projects.
A Few Splinters
Given that Architect Life is coming to consoles, controller implementation is part of the package, and it works relatively well, just as it does in several other building sim games like Planet Zoo. I still found the mouse and keyboard to be quicker and more intuitive.
However, my biggest complaints about Architect Life are imprecision and issues with smooth control. Objects like windows and doors seem to snap to walls in ways that don’t allow creative or precise placement, and there are some inconsistencies with the camera. What appears to be like correct placement of walls in the 3D view has to be corrected in the plan view. Perhaps the package will be expanded over time, but the number of decor options, appliances, and furniture is nowhere near the amount in The Sims 3 or 4, even in the base game, let alone the expansions. Architect Life obviously aspires to lean towards a fairly casual sim experience, while hinting at the complexity involved in actual design. I’m not sure budding architects will use it any more than roller coaster engineers would use Planet Coaster. It’s a taste of the real thing, I guess.
All that aside, tinkering around in Free Mode is much the same chill and fun way to spend some time as in other building sims. The game allows for the player to design some fairly complex and impressive structures, even if the tools aren’t always entirely cooperative. Anyone designing a dream home or business could certainly use Architect Life to make a first pass at realizing their vision.
***PC code provided by the publisher for review***
The Good
Easy to understand
Enjoyable Free Mode
Lots of design options
Attractive graphics
78
The Bad
Dull campaign
Camera and object placement issues
Limited objects
Bare bones presentation
