Fun fact: when I was in high school, I wanted to be an architect. Unfortunately, those dreams were abandoned when it became clear I didn’t have an artistic bone in my body. However, Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition seemed like a good way to live out those dreams. For one, nobody has to see my designs . . . except you, that is.

In Project Highrise, however, you are more than just an architect: you are a designer, organiser, lobbyist, manager, event coordinator, and more. Gameplay revolves around constructing the buildings of your dreams and making sure they run as smoothly as possible.

From the beginning, you have two modes of play available. Of these, “New Game” offers the most freedom. Although you can set parameters such as the size of the construction lot and the health of the economy, you’re essentially only limited by your imagination and cashflow. If you want to skip the unsexy parts of running a business (who has time to balance books!?), you can also play with unlimited cash. “New Scenario”, on the other hand, provides 29 predetermined settings. Each of these has additional restrictions, such as weak economies or limits on the facilities you can build. Scenarios also include a set of three goals. Upon reaching these goals, you earn medals which unlock additional scenarios.

Money, money, money.

If you’re not used to strategy games, Project Highrise might seem a little overwhelming at first. There is a lot to manage: you are the sole person responsible for construction, lot allocation, wiring, plumbing, maintenance, noise complaints, decorating – and that’s barely scratching the surface. Once you’ve got a handle on the basics and your building is turning a steady profit, you can launch into ventures like apartments, resorts, and event management. Naturally, each new feature you unlock requires more attention and more services – but keeping everyone happy is half the fun. The game also offers a handful of tutorials that you can access from the title screen. However, there’s no better teacher than experience.

And the game does a decent (if not perfect) job of teaching you. The hint system provides a small amount of guidance, predominantly drawing your attention to problems you haven’t come across before. Tenants, likewise, will let you know if they’re particularly unhappy about something, and before long, you’ll learn to anticipate their needs. The game also limits exactly what you can do, particularly at the beginning. For example, at the start of a new game, you might only have food stands available, with fine dining restaurants locked until you’ve grown your empire. This stops the game from feeling overly complex when you’re just starting out.

You can return to the tutorials at any time.

Progress in Project Highrise is measured in terms of prestige, influence, media buzz, and cold hard cash. The latter is, naturally, the most important in the game (oh, capitalism). To generate revenue, you lease out your building, sign contracts, and can even get a loan if you’re in a tight spot. Prestige, influence, and media buzz unlock various options that you can use to further your aims. Of these remaining three, prestige is the slowest to accumulate, but the most valuable. Increasing the prestige of your building unlocks different construction options, including larger offices, shops, and services like public transport and security. Media buzz is required for you to run advertising campaigns, while influence is used to unlock special upgrade tracks for aesthetics, lobbying, and operations. Each of these adds to the game’s depth and complexity, ensuring a different experience every time you play.

Additionally, the game offers a dynamic world that seems quite believable. External events such as strikes, inclement weather, and competitors’ mistakes have a flow-on effect for construction costs, maintenance requirements, and the economy. You have to continually adjust your playstyle to reflect the circumstances outside of your control. This adds an extra layer of depth to an already-complex world.

It’s getting hot in here . . . you’ll need extra electrical transformers to cope with the demand.

While the game itself is enjoyable, it does have some drawbacks in terms of its execution. Firstly, while the UI is compact and unobtrusive, the game sacrifices some player-friendliness to have everything so neat and tidy. Menus are hidden within menus which are hidden within menus, so simple tasks are often frustratingly more convoluted than they should be. For example, if you want to double check a certain tenant’s requirements before laying down a phone line, you have to quit all menus, press another three buttons, quit those menus, press another three buttons, and then lay down the wire. That’s at least eight buttons if you’re doing it the most efficient way. When you’re managing a building with hundreds of tenants, you do start to wonder if this could (or should) have been achieved more efficiently.

Additionally, there are many elements that simply lack polish. For example, I came across an issue where services that my tenants were demanding would not be reflected as such in the menus. I’m all about efficiency, so the backtracking involved in all the double-checking was frustrating, to say the least. Similarly, sometimes warning icons used to indicate urgent problems would persist long after the problem had been rectified. And, finally, the save management system was unexpectedly poor. As you can’t overwrite files, each new save – including autosaves – creates a new slot. Old ones – including autosaves – have to be deleted manually. On the one hand, this might stop you from accidentally deleting the skyscraper of your dreams, but it’s not exactly user-friendly. Or, you know, efficient.

I was decidedly not a fan of the save system.

Nevertheless, there were some lovely little details in the game. The graphics were cute and minimalistic, and there’s a surprising amount of detail when you zoom in. The music is also punctuated with ambient city sounds, which contributes to the atmosphere. However, the music got boring after a while as there’s only a single track. At one stage, I did end up muting the audio to listen to Spotify as I played. It’s a shame, especially since my first impression of the music was that it was excellent.

This office is getting run down . . . time for some renovations!

Criticisms aside, Project Highrise was fun, and I’ll definitely be returning to it over the coming weeks. Is it worth the $39.99 price tag? While it offers significant depth and complexity, a dynamic world, and hours upon hours of content, it’s admittedly lacking polish in a number of areas. I enjoyed it, but for the price, it’s hard for me to recommend wholeheartedly unless you’re a die-hard strategy/simulator fan . . . or, you know, a fellow would-be architect.

Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for another strategy game with a gorgeous art style, check out Bad North. Otherwise, for something completely different but very well-loved, Samy and I recently reviewed Pinstripe. And, finally, for even more great Nindie content, please give us a follow on Twitter! You can find me here.