Game Review: Another Brick in the Mall

Imagine one day you inherit a huge piece of undeveloped land (designated for commercial use only), a small lump of cash to start a business, and with this power you decide to build a big boxy monolith to consumerism. This is the set up of Another Brick In The Mall.

In the top down view style of Prison Architect or Rimworld the goal of this game is to suck hundreds of potato shaped peons into your stores, restaurants, bowling alleys, and movie theaters. The one plot of land currently available in game is big enough to fulfill any kind of "Mall of America" kind of aspirations you may envision.

Excluding the all too important sandbox mode, the current modes available at start up are enough to open a small convenience store and the rest must be micromanaged by you. More products become accessible after a quantity of in game time has been spent on research projects. More money is granted as certain milestones are hit. Your pool of employees are often slow moving, impatient, unsociable, or unskilled. It is up to you to choose where they might be the most useful. Every shelf is painstaking to label and to stocked. But there is something about watching that weird little floating face light up and drop its hard earned cash into your till. It is very gratifying.

Personally I love tycoon/management games, so I really like this game. I've spent more time in the week I've had this playing it than I am proud to admit. My only critique thus far is a request that the game give a more extensive tutorial and more content, which is all currently in the works. If your niche isn't in the tycoon category you probably won't get much out of it, I'll admit it. For those of us who really enjoy micromanaging our pixels, Another Brick In The Mall offers countless hours of enjoyment.