Genre: Simulation, Strategy / tactics
Visual: Isometric
Pacing: Real-time
Gameplay: Managerial / business simulation
Published by: Acclaim Entertainment
Developed by: System 3 Software Ltd.
Released: 1997
Platform: DOS
The game in question proudly positions itself as a "Simulator". This alone gives rise to the idea that the player will have to delve into the intricacies of the process before he begins to get his portion of pleasure. But Constructor is not like that. He is anything: cynically humorous, reckless, sometimes evil, mostly unusual, but invariably friendly to its user.
Constructor will not let you unclench this friendly hug until the very end, whether you like it or not. We proceed to the construction of the future street.
You understood correctly - here we will build! Moreover, we will use the entire technological process of this difficult business - from the procurement of materials to the construction itself directly using the prepared materials. And even there the game does not end, but only begins!
Our vanguard consists of hard workers, led by a foreman. These simple and hard-working guys will support our entire organization. Who, besides them, will build houses for us, plow in our factories and beat the faces of other hard-working guys and hippies from an office hostile to us? Nobody but them - the rest of the school studied well. We are erecting a saw frame, driving a free team there, and while the guys are preparing building materials for us, I will introduce you to another specialist, this time of a narrower profile. This guy who reminds you of your alcoholic neighbor is our most faithful friend in case of unforeseen disasters on a local scale. After all, only people like him will repair our houses, prevent fires, and, on occasion, will support their comrades in a glorious "wall to wall" battle with an adjustable wrench. Looking ahead, I will say that we still have to wave, and more than once. In the meantime, our factory has accumulated enough boards to build the first estate in the area.
The time has come to lay the foundation for our future society. Who do you think we will settle in these lovely cozy barracks of the Gulag times? Who is our salt of the earth, the first social unit and supplier of labor? It is true that our beloved gopniks, drug addicts, drunkards and their faithful girlfriends are bruises from the railway station. These unpretentious people do not need more for happiness, except for four walls and a mattress as a conveyor of future shots. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. All our tenants, regardless of social status, are divided into two (!) Categories. Some pay rent better, others give us their children at full disposal, who can become, at the player's choice, either functional professionals of different profiles (laborers, policemen ... more details), or the same "tenants", but with a higher status. As a result, whole generations are working for us, growing into dynasties!
Naturally, the middle class has completely different demands than their neighbors-drunks, which must be satisfied, otherwise they will drag citizens through the courts with their rights. You can't go anywhere, sometimes you have to satisfy the requirements of our tenants: build better houses, make major repairs in them, buy newer fittings (the better the situation in the apartment, the happier and longer these gavriks will live, which means they will have time to give birth to more kids or pay more money) ... And remember, Krishna forbid you to put more garden gnomes in the garden of one of the tenants than his neighbor! The result of such outright discrimination can be your killed nerves. The apotheosis of human impudence is the obligatory absence of "plebeians" in the neighborhood, the presence of a metro station near the house, so that one can take it to the park and swim in the pool.
While you and I multiplied and multiplied, earned money and expanded the composition of the team, our competitors were doing the same. The time has come to pay a friendly visit to our efficient neighbors. Disassemble the fittings, boys!
To begin with, about the formation of battle groups.
The fact is that only through natural selection can you get an employee with a higher qualification than just a builder. That is, out of three ordinary workers, one locksmith repairman turns out, and out of four, one foreman can be identified. This is how the "unit upgrade" takes place in this game.
You can also take as many as six guys and make them one not-for-yet-tell-who.
As already mentioned, any member of the organization can be turned into a sharpened blade for your fight. Better to remove a team or two from work, frame them - and instead of a blade, we get a stone crushing hammer! "Tyk" at the enemy - and the guys with whooping and shouting will run to mutuz the foe, moreover, with whatever comes to hand, and this can be a drill, and a nail gun or a foreman slide rule. When the sector is cleared of enemy forces, you can proceed to capture the territory. We select the foreman and order to occupy the building you like, he will methodically begin to demolish the fence and slowly seal the perimeter ... What did you want? Life is a big fight!
Opponents of "rough decisions" Constructor also has something to please. At a certain stage, you get the opportunity to build special structures. For example, you can organize a hippie commune. With this, just let us popiket some production in the name of saving wildlife! Even these guys, due to their proximity to that very nature and to its gifts in particular, can easily confuse their home with an enemy dwelling house and break up their cozy squat in it.
And how do you like the opportunity to incite members of the Spartak fan club against peaceful inhabitants? Or do you prefer the services of a pyromaniac clown? Or maybe send a thief to a competitor's warehouse? There are a lot of options, but there are guys who are not afraid of either enemy guards with shotguns, or fences, or chain dogs, and the devil himself is not afraid of them ...
These serious men wear tailored suits and black hats and live in pizzerias. They are laconic and always ready to "do a good friend a favor." Mafia. She is known to be immortal.
Having hired one such fighter (only six ordinary workers for some reason make one gangster), we get at the disposal of a kind of superhero from some "strategy about hobbits and orcs." After a couple of successfully completed "requests", the mafia will feel the strength to acquire a sharp knife. After a while, it will be possible to buy him a pistol, a shotgun, and a Thompson machine gun, of course, where is a gangster without it. Here you can no longer feel sorry for your neighbor and start a full-scale production of "90s in Russia on a scale of 1: 1". Many passed the game precisely because of the presence of real gangsters in it, because at that distant time, GTA had not yet been created.
What can be said in conclusion? Get ready to be addicted to the game if you love tycoons, managers and city mayor simulations. Be prepared to have to restart the game more than once, because the brutal AI does not allow for the luxury of mistakes. It is recommended to complete the game in "free mode" before the competition with the iron opponent in order to comprehend the subtleties of skill.
And get ready to experience a lot of everything comical, grotesque and even obscene - a game, as they say, without cuts, but with a twist in the form of original humor. I admit that not everyone will be able to digest a cocktail of unobtrusive banter slang and a serious, so be it, simulator.
In general, Constructor is exactly what you need for a free evening or for a couple of evenings. Or for all the evenings of the subsequent gambling life.