Architect Life: A House Design Simulator – PS5 Review

Anybody in the mood for a McMansion? Architect Life: A House Design Simulator sure hopes you are. Coming from Shine Research, it pulls a few punches when it comes to simulating but the planning and constructing of a home has been a thoughtful process. It’s lenient with budgets and timescales and the tools on offer can make for boxy abodes, but it has a tactile approach.

The career mode is where I spent most of my time. The tutorial does a good job of outlining the housebuilding process. It begins at the drawing board as you build and sketch out the concept. Most clients will give you a specification to stick to, often asking for particular requirements. This could be in relation to the décor, heating or locations of rooms.

Creating a home feels methodical and can require a degree of precision. The controls feel adequate and the menus are laid out in a sensible manner. Structural components are your first port of call with finishing work, furnishing and any external structures bringing up the rear. It’s laid out how a home would come together in the real world and I did find myself settling into a routine.

Almost all your jobs come with limits on size so I found myself taking things to the limit so I had more to play with. When it comes to multi-level projects, that limit includes all levels of the building. That did result in some quick and dirty maths to figure out how to split that in half. When it comes to the actual interiors, it’s a simple click and place process. Drawing partitions for rooms is easy and you can rub out mistakes, connect rooms or split them.

The basics are covered really well and, despite the customer demands, you spatial awareness doesn’t have to be on-point. If a kitchen needs a cooker, sink and unit, you can slap them anywhere and it’ll count. As long as you don’t block doors with furniture, you’re golden. I find the later jobs impose tricky geography on to you. There’s one where the client has some land by a stream and that really restricts where the foundations can be placed.

Those projects are obviously where the challenge lies. Whilst housebuilding can feel routine, altering designs can prove troublesome. Whilst I do think the controls and interface largely hold together, selecting things in tight spaces and be cumbersome. I’ve deleted the occasional floor by accident and, whilst the game doesn’t punish you heavily for rebuilds, it has cost me time.

Once a design is finalised, you move on to the actual construction stage. It’s probably the least compelling part of the process but it is nicely therapeutic to see your plans spring out of the ground. Once you’ve picked your three contractors for the work, the race begins to finish the project before the hard deadline. If things go smoothly, you’ll have plenty of days to spare but there’s several random events that can strike the worksite.

These can be injuries, strikes or theft of materials. Even the weather can intervene. I’ve yet to have a problem with budgets so I’ve kept money aside to combat these inconveniences. One thing to note is the contractors all have timescales associated with them. It seems balanced in a way that the higher rated ones take the most time. It becomes a balancing act between time and money. I haven’t seen a major correlation between a contractor’s ability and site hazards. Ultimately, I tend to pick what the deadline will allow for and pay my way out of any setbacks.

Once a house is complete, you can visit the finished property. That’s a nice touch and it does allow players to wander around their own creations. At ground level, it does help establish a home’s scale more than the mock-ups. I’ve not been especially house proud but did enjoy checking out the views from balconies or seeing just how tightly I’d packed some of the rooms. Once that’s done, you get a rundown of how your client rates the job you’ve done. As long as their requirements are met within budget, a max rating is assured.

I’ve not fallen foul of it much but I did struggle with a request to have two rooms near each other. You can look at the specification at any time and it will keep track of what needs to be done. Anything marked in green is checked off but this particular pair of rooms would alternate rapidly between done and unfinished. I’m not sure what caused it to bug out like that. I was at least happy to see I could submit the project and handle the small hit to my reputation. With that reputation comes perks to add to your avatar. These can lead to things like cheaper contractors or more sustainable materials.

I do think the career mode is substantial enough to keep anyone busy. Projects have enough architectural variety in them to make construction a challenge. Whilst there is a free mode, I prefer the restrictions a client may bring to the table. Whilst there is a lot of options for decoration, I do find room requirements to be predictable and there’s certain aspects of homebuilding that go unexplored. You can’t build within an attic or basement, as far as I’m aware. Foundations are dealt with automatically, as is plumbing and electrics.  Projects like converting existing properties also don’t appear to be available.

Despite these quibbles, I’ve enjoyed Architect Life: A House Design Simulator. The relaxed mood and the methodical planning makes creating a home feel more than a box-ticking exercise. Whilst I do feel some of the career can devolve into that, the geographical challenges make for a varied campaign. The interface is functional, although it will trip itself up and stutter in small spaces. I also wish there was more tinkering you could do with geometry. At times, I felt like I was building a prefab.