Build in Time Review

Frame! Paint! Landscape! You'd best have a strong mouse-clicking finger for Build In Time, the construction-themed task management game. You will be required to click as fast as you possibly can (and faster even!) in order to build new homes for all of your clients before their patience with you runs out. Full of variety and unique challenges, Build In Time makes use of a distinctive, entertaining storyline and humorous period dialogue to navigate the player through over 50 years of American history as a rising construction manager.

Basic Gameplay

Gameplay is basically the same as most other task-management games, and it follows their standard by being easy to learn and control, even for someone who has never played this game type. You must click with the mouse and complete the task as quickly as possible, so your clients don't become angry and leave, causing your business to lose money.

There are two modes to choose from: Regular and Kids' Play, which makes this a pretty universal game, even for those who may not be well-versed in computers yet. Each level is a year in your construction business, so the game moves through six decades as you play.

Reward System Combats Repetitiveness

However, Build In Time combats the repetitive nature of most task-management games by offering a variety of goals and rewards. You get a star for earning more money than is required to pass the level, and another star for completing the specific task given for that level. These tasks differ from placing a particular house next to a landmark to completing the level in a certain amount of time to ensuring a particular customer type gets the lot they want. The tasks are not mandatory to complete the level, but the extra stars you earn from them are helpful along the way, because they allow you to buy better upgrades for your construction business, which in turn allows you to make more money each level.

You can upgrade the houses you can build, how many construction and painting crews you supervise, how fast they can work, how many free appliances you can give away (which keep the waiting clients happier for an extended period of time), and many other things. This makes the game very addicting, because you want to replay even the most difficult levels in order to earn the bonus stars, and for the most part makes up for the repetitive elements of the actual gameplay.

Trophy System Gives You Something To Shoot For

Another characteristic of Build In Time that makes it a unique and pleasurable game is the rewards system. You can earn trophies and recognition for completing certain goals. On the timed levels, you earn different trophies based on how quickly you finish the level, and the regular levels offer plaques for things like money earned, the happiness of your customers, and mastering gameplay techniques, such as building three house types, garages or colors in a row, which also gives you a bonus in-game. The trophies are basically only for display in your Trophy Room (yes, you can show off the evidence of your construction prowess at any time!) but the feeling of mastery and world-domination makes earning them worthwhile.

A Story Line Worth Reading

The storyline for the game is interesting, funny, and worth reading, although you can skip right through most of it if you wish. As a young man, you go to a career fair in 1950 and decide your future is in the construction biz. In a twist of fate, you run into your uncle on a job site and decide to start a business together. Strangely enough, you have never met your uncle because of some mysterious falling-out between him and your father. This promises to be a nail-biting family drama, and your personal life is certainly not left out of it, as you meet a girl, get married and start a family along the way.

Unfortunately, Build In Time does not integrate the storyline into gameplay in the kind of seamless way it should; rather it jumps in and out, making it feel a bit disjointed. The dialogue and client types are all related to what decade you are in, which makes the conversations a little cliché and cheesy, but still funny and relevant to the game. It is definitely entertaining to have to build an A-Frame house for the hippies who want to live in the trees.

Conclusion - Rewards, Story, and Gameplay Combine To Make a Winner

Overall, Build In Time offers a variety of level requirements, goals, client types and rewards that make the game vastly entertaining, even on a second play-through. It has some shortcomings, and does fall into the potentially repetitive category, but does a good job of fighting against that with the addicting level reward system and unique storyline. The graphics are refreshingly sharp and functional, it can be played by literally anyone with the Kids Play mode, and the diversity of level goals and achievements makes Build In Time a fun play for beginners and task-management addicts alike.