Movies are created in the same cookie cutter fashion over and over while most of the emphasis is put on maintaining the
Now my PC far surpasses any of the requirements listed on the box but the game seems to suffer from a memory leak. The longer I play the game, the more is chugs it’s way to an unplayable point of slowdown. I’ve since had to drop the quality of the game to near Sims 1 level and the game looks ugly. When it’s in it’s full graphical glory, the game is a beauty for a tycoon game. Everything is modeled well and detailed nicely.
One of the big questions about the game is “how’s the Movie creation process?”. Well Lionhead was smart and made it so that you have to make progress in the main tycoon mode to unlock variable objects in the sandbox mode. A trip through the game’s timeline all the way to the year 2000 will unlock hundreds of sets, wardrobes, props, and technical gadgets to fool around with while making your theatrical masterpiece. The Movie making process is a bit more limited from what you would expect in a game about making movies, but it is easy to get right into it and start churning out movies after watching the brief tutorials.
The interface the game uses is the typical Lionhead fanfare; the pick up and drop. Sure, it’s not the most realistic interface. I think people being whisked away by a giant hand and thrown into whatever position they want should be kept more into the God games, but it works here. Another strange part of the gameplay is that the actually movie making seems to take a backseat to the tycoon part. Movies are created in the same cookie cutter fashion over and over while most of the emphasis is put on maintaining the lot and the stars happiness level. This gives the game more of a Sims chore feel to it. I felt I was constantly taking care of people and making the lot looking better than actually getting my hands into the movie making. This isn’t to say that you can get into the director’s seat, it’s just that there really isn’t any benefit to it. While playing the main game, if you’re wanting and willing to put effort into making a movie of your own design, the game lets you. However, the budget on your movie will be much larger than a normal movie due to time and there’s a large chance the movie won’t be accepted by the public. Another gripe I have with the game is when it’s time to turn over the studio’s legacy as actors and directors retire, the lack of employment is astounding. When the top movie maker in the country is having a hard time finding anyone that would work for them, it pretty much ruins any idea of reality in the game.
The sound in the game is done well. Radio announcers change throughout the years, actor’s voices are pretty good even the various sound effects are handled well. There’s really not much to say about the sound as this really isn’t a sound intensive game.
Overall the game is a nice distraction to the other games that are offered these days and I look forward to seeing how well some short stories I have written turn out on the small screen.