Certainly entertaining and original in concept. Strategy gamers will applaud, and the moviemaker is enjoyable by all.
You start as a new studio owner. Depending on the year you start, you are offered a variety of buildings to help expand your studio, ranging from high quality sets to much needed bathrooms and food service buildings. In addition to, you are also in charge of hiring the staff needed to run the studio (from maintenance workers, to your money-making stars). With a wide range of buildings to choose from, and many different star attributes, you have plenty to keep you busy.
The movies themselves are written, staffed, and filmed all in your studio. As the studio manager, it is your job to make sure everything goes smoothly. Your stars are very fickle, and their moods change with the more/less work they do. Eventually they become obsessed mega-stars, and you need to fulfill many of their needs (or they just might quit and go to another studio). As their needs sometimes conflict with the studios needs, this can become a micro-managing nightmare (perhaps the star is addicted to alcohol, you need to decide whether to drop the star in rehab and delay production, or force the star to work and lower the quality of the film ... and forcing the star to work can be difficult as they tend to "sneak" away from the set).
All of these features are new elements that add some flavor to this strategy game. However, micomanagement can be tedious. And, you are under a time limit ... when stars reach a certain age, they must retire. AND, certain films work better with actors/actresses of certain ages.
In addition to the strategy game, users have the ability to write and shoot their own film. This is a GREAT novelty feature that is a fantastic addition to the game. Although the movie maker is limited to the game sets (which there are plenty of), movie props, and your own stars, there are plenty of ways to go. Also limited is lack of speech, and the ability to write your own scene (you choose from an large amount of selected scenes .... which there are plenty of, but still limited).Tired of the weak scripts your writers are automatically writing, then create your own! Interested in the film business, but cant afford a camera, then try the movie maker!!!!!!
Overall, the game is certainly entertaining and will attract a large following. However, the micromanagement can get tedious. The movie maker was a GREAT addition, but it does have certain limitations. In addition, I'm someone who would have LOVED to turn off the retirement/age feature, as you are forced to constantly find and build-up new stars every 30 years (it would make the game easier, but when I build something up, I hate for it to just disappear). A great game, and definately worth getting if you are a strategy fan, enjoy movies or want to make your own!!!