Game: Buildings Have Feelings Too!
Genre: Other, Simulation, Puzzle, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam)
Developers | Publishers: Merge Games | Blackstaff Games
Age Rating: US E | EU 7+
Price: US $19.99 | UK £14.99 | EU € 19,99
Release Date: April 22, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Evolve
Building Have Feelings Too! by Belfast (Northern Ireland) based developers BlackStaff Games is a simulation, puzzle game, all about the buildings that inhabit the city. We wrote an article on the game when it was announced for the Nintendo Switch which you can find here. I’ll also like to apologise now for the odd Northern Irish word that may creep into this review. I hail, after all, from Belfast myself, it’s my home town! To help you along, here’s a handy Norn Iron Speek (NI dictionary) to translate some words for you!
Chatty Buildings
Buildings Have Feelings Too! (BHFT) is similar to a city building game. In other city building games, all you really need to worry about is having enough space for the actual building and enough resources for whatever the building’s purpose will be. And in most city building game the actual buildings don’t talk as they do in BHFT and let their feeling be known, or have a good gurn about where they have been placed!
As the game starts you witness a group of buildings having a yarn, it’s the 1900’s and the buildings are worried about their bricks and mortar, the old shipyard building feels it is destined to crumble. The tall Art Deco building is determined to live forever it says.
Regenerate the City
In this side-scrolling simulation game, you must grow your city by completing tasks whilst making sure the individual buildings thrive or risk them being demolished forever. You get tasks such as build a one-star pub or turn the workhouse into a two-star accountant. Of course, it is not just as simple as building a pub and plonking it between two other buildings, as those buildings will probably be raggin and get on like eejits.
You have to keep in mind each building has a positive or negative effect on the building it has been placed beside. All the buildings have appeal goals, based on the attributes of the surrounding buildings. For example, a grocery shop requires a building with a 2 x friendly local attribute to be placed close by to increase the appeal goal to the next level, which in turn will increase the level of the area the buildings are in.
Once you have placed a building you have to assign it an industry. Only certain industries can be assigned to a certain building so restrictions come into play which requires careful planning on your part. Buildings come in all shapes and sizes from the very tall chimney which can be turned into a distillery or a linen mill to a warehouse building that can be made into a pub, café or pie shop to name a few.
Dander down the Street
All the buildings have legs and arms, and opinions! You can move a building to another spot by highlighting the building you wish to move to. Pressing the R shoulder button will pull the building out off its line up in the road and it will dander down the road.
The first couple of times I moved a few buildings I laughed out loud as it is quite funny to see the buildings strut along the road with their wee arms swinging by their side, it still makes me smile!
Buildings with Opinions
As I’ve mentioned, and as the name of the game suggests, all the buildings have feelings and opinions on where they should be placed, they will let you know their feelings in the form of a speech bubble. Such as the workhouse that doesn’t like to be beside the old linen mill and the two buildings on either side of it known as the Millies. So I moved the workhouse further down the street and it was a happy workhouse for a while.
My Home City
When developers Blackstaff Games were looking for inspiration for the design of the buildings in the game they turned to Belfast where Blackstaff games are based. They took photos of some of the iconic buildings in the city and used the designs for the buildings in the game.
Since Belfast is my home city I was particularly looking forward to playing and reviewing BHFT. After all, we have to support our local homegrown game developers. While I’ve been playing BHFT I have recognised a few of the buildings in the game. It’s a lovely feeling playing a game and actually recognising a building that is a five-minute walk away from where you live.
I’ve also spotted a few words that are native to Northern Ireland that’s been dead on and great craic too. I don’t think that it’s a prerequisite to playing BHFT. It is a very entertaining and interesting take on the city-building genre. regardless of where the developers are based. Still, as you might have guessed it was extra special for me coming from its county of origin.
Tutorial and a Niggle
The tutorial in BHFT is adequate and there is a help section in the menu to refer to. Press the X button in front of a building and it will give you a wee hint as well.
While playing Buildings Have Feelings Too! for this review, the game has frozen twice while I have been trying to demolish a building. Maybe it is the buildings way of objecting to being demolished, but it could be something the developers need to look at.
Other than that BHFT ran fine on my Switch and controlled pretty well with the joy-cons, though I felt the controls didn’t feel as intuitive to me as maybe they could have.
Visuals and Sound
Visually I think the game looks dead on and I love the fact that the buildings are opinionated. Visually the game passes through 100 years of development from the dawn of the industrial age onward past world wars and economic downturns, to the modern age. Since the building exteriors change as you play through the chapters there is always something new to see. From the industrial shipyard buildings to the Victorian age Grand Opera house right up until the modern-day buildings.
The sound effects are quite good, it’s mostly the sound that bricks and masonry make. The music to accompany the gameplay is a little repetitive, as there is one particular track that seems to play more than the other tracks.
Conclusion
Buildings Have Feelings Too! is a game that is great craic to play. At times I wanted to say houl yer whisht as the buildings let their feelings be known on my placement of buildings. I thought I was doing well in my choice of the placement of buildings, the buildings thought otherwise!
I have enjoyed the challenge of the game and learning what each building likes and dislikes and where it likes to be placed. A challenge that isn’t frustrating but gives just the right amount of satisfaction when you complete a task. When I next go for a saunter around the city I’m not sure I will never look up at the buildings in the same way ever again, I’ll be disappointed when they don’t say “Bout Ye Mucker” to me.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot 