Developer: System 3
Publisher: System 3
Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Tested on: PS4
Constructor – Review
Those of us that were actively gaming twenty years ago, might just remember a quirky title called Constructor. While the title may seem rather casual, the game itself was tough as nails, as it revolved around you building your own real estate empire, with the necessary factories in place, all while avoiding the rival companies who would not hold back in destroying your property. Before you knew it, you were starting turf wars, sending out psychopathic clowns to the houses of your competitors, arranging street protests, or simply putting the competition six feet under. This wacky construction game has been revised, revamped and rereleased for our entertainment on the current generation of consoles and PC.
Story
Even though Constructor looks like it could have a fun storyline, or loosely tied together plot points to create a bigger whole, seeing the game aims for the simulation and strategy aspect of becoming a real estate tycoon, there is no real story to be found. That being said, the game does well without a bigger plot, and it focuses wholly on its gameplay mechanics, which prove to be the meat of the game. If you’re looking for something more in the story department, you’re looking at the wrong title.
Graphics
Graphically Constructor is a very nice blend of the game’s 1997 visual, with a new lick of paint over it all. While many items will look a bit dated, the comical style of the characters, the in-house views and the small character portraits will make up for a lot, and in many ways will make the game still look rather spiffy and interesting. The environments seemingly look quite simple, but there are a lot of details to them, as each house can be decorated with small items, a new hedge, a picket fence, and the variety of buildings is also rather impressive, given this is simply a remastered version of a game that’s already twenty years old. Even though it might have been more impressive if the game was remade from scratch, it undoubtedly would have lost the charm it had when it was first released on PC, and gained its popularity.
Sound
The music in Constructor is fairly relaxing, similar to many ‘tycoon’ games, when you’re overlooking your real estate empire. Every house, factory or even the residencies of the undesirables, all have their own unique sounds when entering the building, and sometimes it differs if the tenants inside are moody and so on. This means that the game has a lot of ‘voice acting’ and sound effects, while many of these are often a bit abstract. The units you control, be it your workforce or the thugs you hire to bash your opponents, all have voice acting as well, mainly to confirm your commands. Sadly, the latter sounds a bit as if they used the twenty year old audio tracks and didn’t update them whatsoever. This makes the latter sound a bit grainy compared to the rest of the game.
Gameplay
Constructor is a mix of an RTS title, with a hefty amount of simulation elements, all with a very wacky and hilarious undertone. It’s up to you to build up a real estate empire, one that outshines that of your competitors. This means you’ll be placing factories and houses, in order to achieve said goal. Sadly, not everyone plays by the rules, so you shouldn’t either, and thus before long you’ll find yourself employing the mafia, serial killers, psychopath clowns and even squatting hippies who’ll overtake the housing areas of your competitor(s). While this alone sound manageable, it’s best to try out a few sittings without any competition first, as there are enough problems that will arise even without any enemies to worry about.
You’ll start off rather humbly with only one plot of land, which you can divide into smaller plots, to place your first factory and some rather shabby houses. From here on out you’ll have to involve your tenants in the process as well, as having them pay rent is certainly important, but it’s even more important to have them produce more workers, which can be turned into foremen and repairmen as well, or even higher classed tenants, which will be able to afford and occupy better housing. The game is all about finding the proper balance, dealing with complaints, and keeping your tenants happy, by sprucing up their yards, giving them gadgets and of course, upgrade a few of their rooms now and then, like the bedroom, which allows them to produce some new workers or tenants more quickly.
If you’ve passed the tutorial, which takes more than an hour, and have tried a few sessions without opposition, the game truly starts to become interesting when you turn on one or more AI opponents, as you’ll have to keep your eye on them as well. You’ll have to creates special buildings with undesirables in them, who will be able to sabotage your opponents’ progress, but they’ll certainly do the same to you. It’s interesting to mess around with these characters, trying to take over houses and of course, eventually trying to put the other companies six feet under, before you eat dirt yourself. The overall difficulty is a tad on the high side, but this was not uncommon for games twenty years ago.
Constructor was originally released on PC, and truth be told, having tried the PS4 version, we’re convinced that the game will still play a lot better with a keyboard and a mouse. While the controls are adequately adjusted to console play, it’s sometimes hard to precisely select the character you’re aiming for, or to quickly intervene in difficult situations within a reasonable timeframe. Of course, you can pause the game and navigate while doing so, but it does feel a bit tedious at times.
Conclusion
Constructor is still a great game after 20 years, even though it has only received a new lick of paint and console support, while keeping the core of the game nearly identical to that of the 1997 release. While the controls and difficulty spikes can be rather hard to overcome during critical times in the game, Constructor proves to be a lot of fun, not only thanks to the many options the game has to offer, but also thanks to its rather funny theme, its comical appearance and gameplay that easily withstood the test of time.
No Comments