Let’s face it, I’m a big fan of the Build-a-lot series – two award winning casual games that allowed the player to construct an entire neighborhood, earn lots of cash from selling real estate, and admire his or her own handiwork from a birds’ eye view at the end of it all. The feeling of satisfaction it gave was so great it left me longing for more, which is why it is with great pleasure that I bring you this review of the similarly named Build in Time.

Build in Time puts you, the player, in the shoes of a fresh college graduate living in the 1950s. With an interest in building things, he decides to give the burgeoning construction industry a shot, and thus begins the player’s journey through the many levels of the game. With each year being a single level, the quest for architectural success doesn’t stop till the year 2009, effectively bringing the player through 60 years of American construction history.

What really shines in this game is the game itself. Following the tradition of Build-a-lot, the game screen shows a plot of land, partitioned into several “lots” for the player to play foreman on. Clients will then call the construction firm requesting houses of a certain style and color, which the player will then build on one of the lots, and move the client in. Similar to other dash-styled games, the clients will get annoyed if the player takes too long to complete their request and may even leave. To avoid this, the player can utilize another entertaining feature in this game: Clicking on the houses when they are being constructed speeds up the construction process! This feature turns the otherwise waiting-laden game, into an exciting click-fest.

Graphics in this game are commendable. Every single detail in the game, from the character art to the ‘Continue’ button, has been scrutinized by the art team, and really makes the game shine with polish. The user interface also changes its appearance reflecting the time period the player is in (i.e. the 50s, 60s, etc), showing again the effort spent by the art department.

The story and sounds of this game are adequate, but nothing really to write home about. The story feels a little lackluster, and doesn’t fill me with the same kind of urge I remember from helping another daring young woman run her diner. The sound effects give good feedback in all the right places, but the music weighed down on the audio rating by being a tad forgettable.

Conclusively, this game is a must get based on purely gameplay and visuals alone, especially if you are a fan of the two games referenced in its design. Get a good seat, a good screen and a good mouse to prepare yourself for the most addictive casual click-fest in recent times.

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Purchasing

• Upgrading your homes and garages gives you more money per customer. Buying upgrades for speed can be nice, but almost NOTHING is better than selling the most expensive homes and garages that you can.
• Did you know that buying additional garage types will actually INCREASE customer demand for garages and thus increase revenue?

Customers

• A full customer heart is worth just as much as an almost empty heart. Almost empty counts as full!
• For More Money: Give Appliances to customers on EVERY level. Customers with 2 hearts or less actually pay you LESS than full price for a home, so don’t forget to give those Appliances away and make people happy. Customers pay an extra 5% rush fee if they have more than 3 hearts, 15% with more than 4 hearts and 20% with more than 5 hearts.
• Customers won’t mind if you accidentally build an extra garage or add-on that they didn’t ask for. The extra parts will be removed when the house is delivered.
• For Speed: You can select a customer before their house is ready and hover over the lot with them until the last crew finishes.
• After customers move into a lot you can click on some of the items in their yard to hear silly sounds.

3-in-a-row

• When making three-in-a-row, house colors can be the easiest thing to match, but other things match too. Garage types, add-ons, house frames…they ALL match up!
• Try putting houses into rows of colors AND separate columns for house types for max 3-in-a-row bonuses.
• On timed levels, make sure and try to make 3-in-a-rows as much as possible. Getting Mega Click Assist will decrease your level time, period.
• Strategy: Wait on making the 3-in-a-row until you know that you will have a lot of things to build. Mega Click Assist will come in really handy then.

Building

• Using Click Assist is good, but having multiple crews working is better! Keeping as many crews working as possible is the real secret to success. Don’t spend too much time using Click Assist when you could be assigning work to idle crews.
• You can build different stages of the house at any time. The garages, houses or add-ons can be built on a lot in ANY order. For example, you don’t have to wait for your house crew to be finished to start building on another lot. Go ahead and build the garage first!
• If you accidentally build the wrong house, garage or add-on you can rebuild the correct part on top of the old one. You can even interrupt the building of the part you don’t want before it is finished. Get them started making the thing you want right away! Paint a house the wrong color? Just repaint it!
• Extra Revenue Tip: Have you tried building an expensive house with no one asking for it and then putting up the “For Sale” sign on it?

Scenario Goals

• Hover your mouse over a location-based Star Goal Objective and the lot where it’s supposed to go will glow!
• Getting all the Scenario Stars in a decade earns a special Life Reward for that decade.

(3 votes, average: 3.33 out of 5)

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