Review: Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition (Nintendo Switch)

Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition is one of those games that is simple in terms of both structure and premise. But it can still suck you deep into it with the same addictive power as some of the deepest and most complex games out there.

The game is easy enough to understand. Anyone who has played a Tycoon style game or has just a passing acquaintanceship with the Sims franchise will be familiar with it. Ultimately, you are given a near blank slate and you build things. Specifically, you build high-rise office buildings.

The tutorial is broken down into convenient sections that introduce you efficiently to everything that you will be responsible for. This ranges from the layout of the business itself, complete with internal plumbing and electrical wiring to every room, to ensuring that the tenants you have in each property are paying the right amount of rent for the services you provide to them.

This is easy enough to pick up. You’re taken through everything that you have to do to keep people satisfied and to make your buildings as attractive as possible to incoming tenants. The controls are easy enough to remember and the symbols for each of your different responsibilities are clearly explained.

Once you’re out of the tutorial you are given a fair amount of freedom to build your highrise however you like. You can explore different kinds of buildings with a variety of businesses within, spanning residential apartment blocks, luxury hotels, skyscrapers piled high with offices and event venues including concert halls and convention centres. They each require broadly the same attention in terms of the internal workings of a building, but you can tailor them to suit an enormous range of purposes.

This sandbox structure to the game gives it near infinite replayability. The scope you have to create whatever kind of building you can imagine is almost unlimited as long as you have the resources at your disposal.

Once you’ve designed your building, you are also responsible for maintaining it. You have to keep all the utilities running smoothly. You are in charge of deciding who you rent each space out to and what they can do with it. You have to keep all your tenants happy and keep the rent payments rolling in month after month

Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition is an incredibly detailed game. Even once you’re past the more creative elements of it when you’re deciding precisely what kind of high-rise you’re building and how you want it to function, you have to pay close attention to what is going on.

If you’re kind of the player who seeks out plot-heavy games with rich and complicated messages, then Project Highrise: Architect’s Edition likely won’t be the one for you. But it is addictive in the way that makes its genre so popular, with the kind of attention to detail that gives it a little something that stands out.