Highrise City (2023)

Highrise City is the culmination of an almost entirely solo project. The title makes a real attempt to distance itself from the other experiences available on the market. It offers an honest management aspect as well as a fairly advanced resource system. Nevertheless, the game fails to achieve the same overall quality in terms of interface, soundtrack and even visual proposition. There are still a few elements that need fine-tuning.

Although Highrise City seems quite complex, it is somehow economical at the same time. As if the creators saved in every direction and were afraid of finer processing, going more in-depth, creating more comfort for players, as well as more beautiful visuals, and the story is downright sloppy.

Highrise City is an interesting variation on the city builder formula, but it has two souls that often collide.

This ain’t it. There are good ideas in Highrise City, but the game is just plastered with nuisances that result in it not being as relaxing or accessible as other city builders. It is too deep in its logistic mechanics, almost to a fault. The beginning of each new save is also painfully slow, poorly explained, and convoluted, meaning that this game also lacks the “pick up and play” aspect seen in Sim City or Cities. It tried, and I respect that, but it needs an extra phase of fixes before I can call it a city builder worth hanging out with the other big boys.

Highrise City is an incredibly immersive city builder with a sharp learning curve for those who expect it to just be a normal city builder, as a lot of the mechanics come from economic and resource management simulators. If you are familiar with typical city builders and are thinking Highrise City might be the same, you may just be biting off more than you can chew if you ignore the tutorials.