man i have been been having quite a bit of fun with this game, relaxing, yet satisfying, scratches the weird itch i have to play work related games outside of work. has a few bugs, but its definitely not hard to look past them to enjoy the game. i would love to get approved for the playtest on house builder 2.

Game is all over the place...but it's ok. Kind of just enough to pass, there are a lot of levels, which are varied enough, many added by the DLC/Updates, but up to you whether they are necessary or not, as the base levels are plenty, in terms of satisfying the game play loop I believe. It's pretty simple, and casual, which is kind of what I was looking for in a game like this, pretty much just for unwinding. However, like many have stated for various reasons, it kind of earns the mixed/mostly positive status it currently holds, based on some design choices, but mainly bugs alone.

Some of the odd design decisions that sort of break....immersion?? Or just kind of cause a feeling of active confusion. The levels vary in size, but sometimes you find yourself running to another area of the map for supplies, or to access a game play function as part of completing a level...and other times the map box is similar in size, but you are just given a wide landscape for.... exercise?? There is no real function, at least in the "campaign" version of the map (perhaps in the creative mode it is used for sandbox capacity, so correct me if I'm wrong), and some of the levels just feel pointlessly over sized, the working area is a quarter of the size of the overall boundaries. There are some artifacts hidden across the maps, in widely varying amounts it seems, which you can collect for some real easy (and pitiful) cash, not that you really need them anyways, so again it feels just kind of redundant. The perks do come fast as stated by others, and they are helpful, it just seems they are really only limited to very small portions of a limited amount of levels, so you feel like you have a lot of perks, but only actually use 1...or 2 say, in each level. They are also spread to rank levels of 2, and 3 in some cases, and are obtained so quickly, it just seems like a flip obtaining the first level.

The bugs are what are most noticeable in affecting the overall quality of this game I feel. I have probably had a 7/10 experience when it has come to bugs (at only about 10 hours currently), aka, nothing majorly devastating. I will preface to say, one of the devs (or...the only?) , is pretty active in responding to a lot of peoples' issues, myself including, as I am pretty sure I encountered a potentially minor bug, but that is to be disputed as I was early in the game. So while the customer service is decent, the quality a little hit or miss. For example, the sound worked the very first time I loaded the game, and playing with the options, cut out, and every time I start the game, I have to adjust the sound slider a little bit, to get the volume to kick on. Just too lazy to search it right now, but I doubt that's a planned feature. Also, when dumping materials, if it is not a full stack, it will just dump everything in piles, sometimes stacking 30 feet high, sometimes by single amounts per click, the physics blasting everything all over the place, as it has very delicate clipping/hit detection (which I was also able to exploit for fun on top of it). Some materials, if carried by hand, can be unwieldy, and snap under/behind/over objects, becoming somewhat wedged, or through the game world once or twice at extreme, becoming hidden and lost. I also spent a lot of time low on cash, so I went to sell my igloo for a "100 Credit" profit according to the game, and ended up with tens of thousands of dollars, so I'm not sure if the currency system is regulated, or functioning as intended. So most of these are live with, or even beneficial/fun for messing around, however, I did experience the dreaded 'lost progress' bug, where I had some maps wiped out, as if I had never finished them, so that was a large knock against.

So, to wrap up, as this is getting quite longer than expected...there are quite a bit of rough edges to the game currently, and potentially permanently, as there is a second game in the works. This is a rare case where the DLC isn't required or massively game changing, to determine whether or not they are worth it, if you simply purchase/play the base game beforehand, also to note, all the DLC pricing does add up, which may weigh against them. Nothing massively game breaking (minus the one big bug), casual, straight forward, and easy game play, somewhat empty, but varied level design. Some of the mechanic ideas are fun, but not really expanded upon. So, try it on a 'comfortable' sale price.