E3 2017: Constructor HD Preview
Have you ever wanted to be a slum lord? Or are you a slum lord that’s looking for ideas on improving your slumminess (not a real word)? If you answered yes to either of those questions, have I got a game for you! Introducing Constructor HD, a simulation style game that allows you to build your own community while competing against competitor slum lords. Some of you might think that game sounds familiar and you’d be right, Constructor HD is actually a remake of Constructor that was initially released twenty years ago! Also, Constructor HD has been available on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 since May 2017, but the version I saw at E3 2017 was the Nintendo Switch version that is releasing later this year.
In Constructor HD, you’re giving a vast area to work with, and it’s up to you to decide what to build and upgrade. In real time, three competitor’s will be building and upgrading their part of town too! Along the way, you’ll need to hire employees and assign them jobs – but to hire employees, you need to first “make” employees, and that means making existing tenants happy enough that they’ll reproduce! Tenants have different demands that you’ll need to manage. As the game progresses, you’ll unlock different buildings, such as the cement factory, that allows you to build better buildings. Inside residential buildings, you’ll also be able to spend money on upgrading the look, with the hope of making tenants happy.
Since you’re competing with others, you’ll gain access to certain employees that can cause disruptions in your competitor’s neighborhoods. Want to have a bunch of hippies parading in your competition’s streets? Build a commune and then just direct the hippy parade as you see fit! You’ll also have ways to steal other competitor’s property, which you can use for your own purposes or simply sell for a little extra cash.
It’s looking like the game will have multiplayer modes, but we didn’t get a chance to discuss if the Nintendo Switch version will have online multiplayer and/or local multiplayer (but I’m hoping for both!) The Switch version will make use of the system’s touch screen to provide players another means of controlling the game, but the demonstration I watched was done using the Joy Cons (attached to the screen).
I asked about the game’s content, and the developer said that this version of Constructor (which I assume he meant the HD version and not just the Switch version) has 60% more content than the original Constructor. It’s also worth noting that this game has quite a great sense of humor and a ton of cheekiness!
Constructor HD will be available for Nintendo Switch later this year.
