Game: Let’s School
Genre: Indie, Simulation
System: Steam, Windows
Developers | Publishers: Pathea Games | Pathea Games, PM Studios Inc
Controller Support: No
Price: US $19.99 | UK £15.99 | EU € 18,99
Release Date: July 27th, 2023
Review code used, with many thanks to Pathea Games.
Developer Pathea Games, who brought us My Time at Portia, and the sequel My Time at Sandrock, have released a new game, Let’s School. As announced in this press release, Let’s School is the development team’s first foray into the simulation genre.
Let’s School is a bit of a departure from what the world knows us for, but after being prototyped by our producer Lanka for 18 months, everyone at the studio just fell in love with the project”, said Brand Manager Alice Zhou.
The game is a significant departure from the adventure game My Time at Portia and its sequel; however, seeing the team branch out into other genres is great. I’ve been playing the game for a while for this review, and I’m surprised by how much gameplay there is; let’s check it out.
Transform a Run-down School
You take on the role of principal in this pixel-style simulation as you return to your old school after many years away. The goal is to transform the dilapidated school building back to its heyday with classrooms full of students and to get their grades up to their fullest potential. Of course, you must stay within your budget while you improve the school.
Initially, when you start the game, you can choose the campaign mode with two maps or play the Sandbox mode. Hopefully, the developers will add more maps than the two in the game already. The campaign mode has a decent tutorial that walks you through each step of running a successful educational establishment.
You can also customise your character, name your school, and give the school an emblem of your choosing. Later you can also design a school uniform for the students to wear. The customisation options are ample and an excellent addition to the game.
Enrol Students and Employ Teachers
Arriving at your new school, you see that it is very neglected; with the help of a builder, you’ll soon have some repairs done to allow you to build your first classroom. Furthermore, once the classroom is built, it’s time to enrol some students and employ a few teachers.
There is much to do when running a school. You’ll provide the students with science, art, humanities, and sports subjects to study and employ and train new teachers.
Work Through the Milestones
You will be kept busy as you work through the milestones from a New school on the Block up to a State school. At the beginning of the game, it can feel a little overwhelming as information pops up on the screen, but you soon get into the swing of running a school.
As well as the general running of the school, you’ll also have to keep an eye on the students, as each student has unique interests and aspirations you will have to consider. This makes your role as principal more complex as you try to please everyone.
Schools Reputation
You’ll have to balance your school’s reputation and juggle all your students’ needs, such as providing a tea room, sports and study halls, restrooms and, most importantly, classrooms. Moreover, it is essential to provide the correct subjects so the students pass their exams.
Let’s not forget about the teachers; they are essential to running a school. You’ll have to train teachers in management and teaching subjects and supply them with restrooms and a staff room. Additionally, you’ll oversee academic pressure on the students, stop bullying and reprimand disruptive students.
Unusual for a simulation game like this, you are not only responsible for the school, but you can send a class of students out the explore the surrounding area. Various issues arise outside of the school ground that you might have to deal with, such as dangers and potential threats.
Plenty of Customisation Options
Additionally, if you are into customising and decorating the school and the grounds, there are plenty of options. New buildings can be constructed on multi-story levels, and you can customise the school grounds with different ground coverings, plants and decorations.
Inside the school, you can place decorations to brighten the school up, such as pictures on the wall. Also, you will have to place blocks of ice (ice instead of aircon) to keep the temperature cool inside the school. I enjoyed playing around with the customisation options in Let’s School more so than in other games.
A few Niggles
Let’s School is fun to play; however, I have a few niggles about the game. While the game runs well on PC compared to some of Pathea’s past releases, such as My Time in Portia when it was first released on the Nintendo Switch.
This game has a few bugs and frame rate issues, especially when the screen gets hectic. I also noticed some translation errors in the text; some characters have the wrong name for their sex, for example, a female student with a male name and vice versa. I would imagine those bugs and slight mistakes in the text will be ironed out soon.
Visuals, Sound and Controls
Graphically Let’s School looks well, with vibrant colours throughout; I like the style of the game. The soundtrack accompanying your playtime is quite good and combines different musical styles.
Let’s School is controlled with the keyboard and mouse, and everything works as it should. The UI is fine; you can find everything you need with a mouse click. However, the screen can sometimes be a little busy with information blocks popping up during play, and it can become cluttered as some of the information will overlap.
Conclusion
Pathea Games’ first steps into the simulation genre with Let’s School have turned out pretty well. It’s a deep and approachable school management game that’s enjoyable to play and includes plenty of content to keep you customising and playing while building up your school’s reputation.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot 