Buildings Have Feelings Too Review

What went wrong? It's all there to make Blackstaff Games Buildings Have Feelings Too an enjoyable and relaxing strategy game, but it soon becomes a frustrating chore.

Buildings Have Feelings Too, a game that combines management and city building, is set in an abstract 20th-century Britain. The game will have players traverse a variety of neighborhoods, completing various quests and objectives. They will usually open businesses and put down buildings to improve the neighborhood's appeal.

The best elements of Buildings Have Feelings Too are audio and visuals. Its charming aesthetic and playful dialogue between the anthropomorphic building gives it an endearing quality. The music is very good with melodies that fit each neighborhood. It's a refreshing twist on the city builder and management genre.

This is the part that gets most of the criticism. While the core gameplay is functional, there are significant design flaws. The large number of buildings available and the variety of businesses that can be accessed over six types of business means there are plenty of things to build and see. Space is scarce and businesses have narrow effect ranges. This encourages efficient and creative planning. It is a wonderful feeling to place a building in the right spot to make its neighbors happy and to lead to an upgrade.

There are however a few issues that make the gameplay loop less tight than it should be. To prevent buildings from being destroyed by auto-destruct, buildings have a rating of disrepair. To repair a building, you only need a small amount of Bricks (the in-game currency). This, or manually destroying the building and replacing it with a new one at no extra cost. Poorly maintained buildings don't have as much impact on management as developers seem to intend.

Additionally, different building types can have Infrastructure Permit slots which can allow for additional effects. This is because players don't have enough control or knowledge to maximize the permit's impact on their decision-making. The system is essentially unguided, so players are not fully aware of all the options available.

Another issue in gameplay is the missing opportunity to interact between buildings and the people. This is basically a resource that certain businesses produce. This is because there is no two-way street system in which buildings can affect the population. This makes every neighborhood feel the exact same, and it reduces strategic decision-making depth.

Buildings have Feelings Too is a frustratingly buggy game. There were a variety of bugs, from simple UI elements becoming stuck and obstructing text or vision to language switching without reason and music to ambient noises cutting off after saving. Some bugs caused me to lose my save files, preventing me from traveling from one area to the next. The game would also get stuck in an endless saving loop, causing me to have to start over.

Unfortunately, performance is a mixed bag. The game ran well for the most part with no frame drops and stutters. However, in some neighborhoods, it would stutter and crash, requiring a program restart. Some input lag and long loading screens were other annoying performance issues I experienced.

Buildings Have Feelings Too, in addition to the many bugs it has, also has balance issues that limit its strategic and decision-making capabilities. First, all essential operational resources such as bricks and buildings are too easily available. It is easy to get rich quickly, making it an obstacle in the construction of cities.

Not only are Bricks inconsequential but they also de facto lock down older businesses as they unlock more prestigious ones. The majority of unlockable businesses are more resource-efficient than their older counterparts. It's not easy to upgrade newer businesses. However, this doesn't mean that you should abandon the more efficient and simpler early businesses.

Strangely, certain sections of the game restrict certain types of building, while others do not. Although there are many buildings, it appears that the developers encourage players to use all of them. However, there is no incentive. Because of the limited space available, it's not practical to build anything larger than those with smaller footprints.

However, the most important issues with this game are its controls, UI and presentation of information. The main theme of the issues can be summarized by saying that Buildings Have Feelings to was designed for consoles, and the PC port was an afterthought.

Most controls on PC are tied to the keyboard. This can be frustrating for strategy management games, as it makes it difficult to move complex structures and is often clunky. It will also take some time to get used to. Some sections, like the in-game Pause menu, require the mouse even though everything else uses the keyboard. The worst thing about the game is the inability to use the PC's best features for player flexibility: there are no control options, key rebinding settings or indications of controller support.

The inefficient and tedious UI is added to the already awkward controls. The UI is essentially a series of menus upon more menus. This forces the player to comb through many elements in order to find the right information. Although the UI looks nice and is stylized, it undermines the UI. What else can go wrong with an unhelpful interface and awkward controls?

The way the information is presented is one of the most serious of the three failures. The tutorial is explained in a series dialogues and pop-ups that provide information about the game's principles. It is also clear that players have the option to go back to the Guides section in order refresh their memories. Some tutorials are not included in the guide, or have unclear and confusing wording.

Poor information presentation also shows in the fact that the game doesn't clearly state its ultimate goal. Are you a casual narrative city-builder who completes quests? There isn't enough role-playing or narrative content. Are you trying to increase the game's appeal? How important should players place importance on the neighborhood? It doesn't appear that there is a leaderboard, or other system that tracks appeal progress. Neither does global neighborhood appeal seem to have any practical and tangible impact. This makes player involvement seem a bit void and ineffective.

Buildings Have Feelings Too has a confusing language that can block player progress. One of the final stages of the game had me at a crossroads. A quest was formulated in a way that was completely different to the rest. It made my English comprehension questionable and prevented me from moving forward. The developers either didn't test how players perceive the game's text or it is just broken. It's an important issue.

To add insult to injury, there's two other issues that will seal the deal. There's an overall sense of the game building towards something, and eventually opening up to challenge and test the player's abilities. Given the lack of goallessness in the game, I cannot predict what would happen if I could not get there.

A lack of space for experimentation is the second problem. The ability to experiment with new strategies and come up with creative solutions to improve their city, and to keep the buildings (or other interested parties) happy and well-tended is a vital component of management and city builders games. Buildings have Feelings Too has only three save slots. Each slot does not quicksave, so players cannot jump back to earlier stages.

There is no easy-to-use system that allows players to quickly reorganize their neighbourhoods or move their avatar around to shift buildings and businesses around. Players will need to wait for their avatar's movement to be completed before they can move around. This is while awkwardly going through each stage of the multiple-stage demolition process. Any major restructuring that follows the placing of buildings down will not be possible unless the player has a well-planned plan.

It is heartbreaking to see Buildings Have Feelings Too in its current state. However, it is clear that the developers truly care about their game. It lacks character, charm, and flavor. This is due to poor gameplay design and terrible technical implementation. The game will make players spend less time playing it than they do enjoying their time with the game. While Buildings Have Feelings Too might be more successful on consoles than it is on PC, it's still a difficult game to play.