A Beginner’s Look at Home Tycoon
bu Burbie52, HSM team writer
I have a confession to make – I have never played any type of simulation game like the Sims or Sim City; not on a PC or any other console. So it truly was with the eyes of a newbie that I first came into Home on to look at Home Tycoon, Home’s answer to a city building game.
The first stop was naturally the Train Station, where it all starts. I was extremely impressed with the layout and the sounds as well. You can hear people murmuring in the background, and the electric trains sound very authentic as they zoom in every twenty seconds or so. There are advertising signs and a ticket booth, which will become the store, as well as other spaces to add different gaming connections perhaps. Novus Prime already has its own storefront in the Home XMB menu, so it is quite possible this will all be HellFire game-related store fronts. The aesthetics are quite nice; it has a light airy feel to it, and very modern. Consisting of two levels, I loved the glass floor and leaf patterns on the second floor balcony, as well as the benches below. The space has a bit of a mall feeling with the stores there; very much like a real life train station or airport has.
Once there you are prompted to get your own city. It’s a small download, only 2.3 MB, but it was very busy on this opening day (which is expected, given the large amount of expectation built up within the community), so it took quite awhile to download. It appears the only way to access your own version of city is to go to the train station, as it doesn’t appear on your spaces in the navigator.
Once you arrive in the Home Tycoon game, you are greeted by your assistant, Marnie Gilpatrick, who walks you through the steps of using the game. This is a very clever way to introduce people to this. The first thing she asks is that you build a town hall so you can have a mayor’s office to work from. The process is very simple. Once this happens, you receive in-game coins to use as you begin to add to your city.
While playing, I made a big mistake at the start, because I didn’t realize that if I built too many roads, I wouldn’t have enough coins to build housing for my citizens. This forced me to use the destroy option on several of my roads to build the housing in my city. I learned my lesson and continued to add things necessary to a city’s prosperity as I was prompted to. Next, came the windmills and the water tower to give my people utilities. Then I was prompted to give them apartments and jobs to keep them happy. After a while, I went out of the game to look at my city from ground level. From there, I found little floating gold suitcases. These gave me more coins to work with. This is a nice added bonus to an already very well thought out game.
As my progress into the game continued, friends came to see how I was doing. I had gotten further than they had as far as construction goes at that point. The biggest let down for them so far was the inability to go into the structures, however this is a game and not a personal space. There are a few structures and areas you can enter, but it can never be like a personal space. The memory involved in even creating something like this is huge already, and being able to use the buildings would likely be too much for Home’s antiquated foundations to support. Perhaps if Home makes it to the PS4, this could change. As for myself, I was very happy with the game so far.
Cars in a growing metropolis
Another thing I heard from my friends was they were disappointed in the fact you have to purchase a worker in order to collect taxes and rent from your city buildings and houses. Workers are free up to a point; they reproduce about one every eight minutes or so. You can opt to buy them in a pack with purchased coins as well, so it seems many people think it is a bit too pricey for them and feel that the tax collecting should be free.
During the course of the game, you have to do quests and missions for the various factions in the city which are what earn you in-game coins. As I continued to play the game, I was drawn into one of the first mini-games and became a firefighter. I had to drive a fire engine around my town and put out three fires. This is available as a mission under the mission tab in the mayor’s offices. It was the first of three I completed in a few minutes of each other; one involved an alien invasion, which I found to be very campy. There are special gold coins involved if you want to do some of the more special buildings, and this is where Home Tycoon begins to be a monetized venture. They give you a few to start with, but if you want to complete your city faster, it will involve spending some real life money as well as the in game coin. The ratio for the two is very well thought out. I believe this game is going to be very popular in Home, because you can play it without money, but it subtly encourages you to buy the special packs, like the car racing features.
The zoo
I bought some coins from the store, then got a zoo and a car. The zoo is a hoot and comes with a few different new quests attached that give you a reward at the end. It was interesting to say the least, and I got a cool companion for my expenditure. I did find out one interesting thing: those gold suitcases that you see floating everywhere are special and sometimes give you discounts on purchases from the store, like the zoo and police expansions. I found this out after the fact, but it is good to know.
The city building is easy to learn, though you may want to destroy and rethink some of it as you go on. I know this is going to be a real work in progress for me as I find what works and what doesn’t. I love the parks and the fact you can go to your friends’ cities, even if they aren’t online at the time. There are even rewards attached to visiting cities that belong to others. The rewards associated with this game are going to be a very welcome addition for those into collecting them. There are quite a few to be had, and some are very nice.
For my first time in this kind of game, I must say that I had a lot of fun. I am looking forward to building my city, watching it change and grow each day as I add to it and make it prosperous. Being a mayor – albeit a virtual one – is hard work, but a very rewarding job, too.
- Easy to learn
- Fun quests
- Good rewards
- paying for workers not a plus
October 4th, 2012 by Burbie52 | 8 comments
Burbie52 is a 62 year-old published author and founder of the Grey Gamers group within Home. Born and raised in Michigan, she has lived there her entire life, with the exception of a twelve-year residency on the Big Island of Hawaii. She enjoys reading and writing, as well as video games, especially RPG's. She has one son in his twenties.
I’m really enjoying this game and I’m planning to spend money there. It’s sad to say that people are already complaining about the rewards and the cost of items that can be purchased. I don’t understand how people can complain about what’s free or expect everything to be free. Sony and third party developers can’t keep bringing us great games like this one without us Homers paying out some money!
I didn’t had much time to try the game. From what I saw in the store, Hellire is going the same way with tYcoon they did with Novus-Prime since the last update. Pay for points. The cost of each item is not cheap but still reasonable. It’s when you add them all… The “race for the board” will probably cost you $100 for a top spot before long. But you have to go for that.
Godd review. Thanks about the special coins tips
Seem like Hellfire did their homework. I will defenitively play Home Tycoon. But at a slow pace.
Twice in a week… sorry
DONT* have to go for that…
Great article and review
I myself can’t wait to start building on another Home Tycoon location (since Im running out of space at the moment)
Great review Burbie, I am really enjoying the game so far, and I’m going to try and see how far I can go without spending any money.
I just wanted to thank you Burbie. I tried this game yesterday but didn’t like it, and thought I would have to spend my own money to get anywhere on it. But after I read your review here, I realized that I made the first mistake you did and added too much road. So I returned to the game and followed the tutorial and actually had a blast playing it. It is a lot of fun and addictive, and you really don’t have to spend a lot of money to get far on it. Thanks again!
You are welcome Bob. I will try visiting your city each day and you should have your friends do this too. Under Revenue in your city planning you will find tourist tab. You can use this once a day to collect 200 dollars for spending on your city for each person you have visit you. So use it at the end of each day to collect your tourism taxes!
Burbie thank you for this- I am definitely making all the same mistakes. This helps!