Customer Reviews

Build-a-lot [Download]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ever dreamed of building your own real estate empire with no money down? If yes, then this is your opportunity because the game is free and all you do in it is build houses and make lots of money. Once you make your money you can spend it to buy more houses, upgrade existing ones or build something new or tear down a small house and build a bigger one in its place - very exciting.

You play to make as much money as possible by playing in the real estate market as a developer, a speculator or a house flipper. You start with a certain amount of money and some properties and then, on each level you attempt to accomplish some specific goal: own this many houses, earn this much rental income, have this much money in the bank. You make money by selling the properties you developed and by charging rent. The value of your property increases if you pay for upgrades. To make it short, you buy low and sell high and you flip your houses. Oh, I forgot, you must meet your objectives within some set time unless you select the 'relaxed' mode.

Overall it's not a bad game but there's not much to it beyond what I just described above. The resolution seems to be 1024x768 and you can play it in a window or as 'full screen'. The graphics are okay in the sense that the houses, the roads and the landscape features are recognizable but, for some reason, the construction guy is an animated yellow hard hat - funny. The game runs on Windows XP or Vista.

I am not sure what a fair rating would be for a game that's free. It' okay, I guess, but I doubt that most of us are going to spend more than 30 minutes on it.

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Notes:

I had to install Amazon's 'downloader' software before downloading the game itself. It was pretty quick and it appears to be harmless.

When installed, if you keep the defaults, all games go as subfolders inside a folder named Amazon Games.

I am hooked on this game. I have been playing for a day or two now. In the challenge mode you have some challenges and then a limited amount of time to reach the goal. This game will not appeal to everyone because it is not true to life and it is fairly simple. For someone like me who has little spurts of time to play easy games that don't require a lot of learning time; this is a fun game.

Enjoy.

I downloaded this game yesterday afternoon, just to see what this Amazon game thing was about. I didn't really intend to play much but ended up playing it for 5 more minutes-5 more minutes-10 more minutes.... So 5 hours later after missing dinner and being up long past my bedtime, I finally quit the game. (This could be a good weight loss tool!)

This game is easy to play, keeps your interest (at least it kept mine) and it's fun. You move from town to town, building homes and estates to each mayor's ideas and you have a certain amount of time to accomplish your goal. It's not anywhere near as involved as a Sim game, but maybe that's nice since you don't have to concentrate as hard. Two thumbs up!

It was so hard for me to find a game I like. I love Sims but got a bit bored so needed something new. After a trial I decided to buy it, it is so much fun to build your "own" business in real estate. In this game you just make you dreams come true LOL. The graphics are not good but what would you expect from a game for 10 bucks, and really you don't need graphics in this game that much. Very simple, not much learning. Tutorial included.

This game just wasn't for me. You basically have a goal to make so much money by buying, developing, renting, and selling properties. In the career mode, you have a time limit to make a certain amount of money; in the casual mode, you finish the neighborhood when you meet your goal. I much prefer the casual mode.

Still, it became monotonous. Buy, build, upgrade, sell. Buy, build, upgrade, sell. Buy, build, upgrade, sell. Buy, build, upgrade, sell. Every now and then, a house needs fixing. Every now and then, I demolish and put in a park or business. Got my money, now on to the next neighborhood. It gets old fast.

For those who have played casual games, we know how flooded these game stores are with Match3, Hidden Object, and Dash type games. So it's a relief when something different comes along.

For what it is, this is a thinkers game and i actually had fun with it. It isn't overly difficult but can get challenging as you move along.

As far as gameplay it's pretty much buy, demolish, construct in order to meet level goals as outlined by the Mayors of the towns you will be visiting. However there is a unique strategy per level which keeps the game from being too repetitive even though it does repeat at certain areas. You must earn cash, build certain structures, or make a certain amount of rent income to mostly meet the goals of each level.

The graphics are not great but they don't need to be to enjoy this type of game. The sound, well nothing great either but again, it doesn't matter.

So if you want something different and challenging, this is for you. It's great for a relaxing weekend afternoon.

Overall the game is very straightforward. For anyone who has played simulation games before, this game really doesn't pose a challenge until the last couple levels. It is still fun though and I pleasantly passed a few hours playing it. There really isn't enough variety in this game to make it interesting for too long. I can see the casual play being fun for a while; however, don't expect $50 worth of entertainment with this game. It is a $10 game and provides $10 worth of entertainment.

I got this game as a free sample a couple years ago, and enjoyed it then, and then recently, I got a new Windows laptop, and so re-installed it there.

We've been enjoying it immensely for the last couple weeks. If only it was this easy to earn millions of dollars in the real world of real estate.

But, that said, it isn't *that* easy, and I sometimes fail the level and need to do it over, and around 30% of the time don't get the "superior" rating.

It is quite challenging. The kids like watching, and my oldest plays in "casual" mode, which removes the time limit. He loves buying the blueprints for the expensive houses, and after he has built a number of castles, works to not get too much money, otherwise the level ends...

A lot of fun.

I purchased this after a free trial play & have not been disappointed. I like the more simple games sometimes. It's a challenge, but it's also fun. The more difficult and realistic games are very intense & demanding so this game is a nice change of pace.

Build-a-Lot is a fun game, although I did get stuck on a few levels. I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a time-waster simulation game.