Here's a link to The Clockwork Man: The Clockwork Man
7.3 excellent
I always imagined that the snowbird life was for me, until I moved into a place with hot water radiators for heat. It's near the end of December and this place is sizzling! I only need a single sheet on the bed at night. Compare that to Kumagaya, Japan where buildings are poorly insulated and you need a kotatsu just to make the waking hours at home bearable!
Claire Parker is about as far from a snowbird as a woman can be in 1920's America. Fired from her clerical job at Brisco Partners for thinking on the job, she seems to be in a real pickle. But it just so happens that her beloved Uncle Pete has passed away and left her his fortune: with the stipulation that she use the money to follow in his footsteps constructing luxury resorts on Miami Beach!
Build it! Miami Beach Resort, from Cerasus Media GmbH, is a city construction strategy game not unlike Build-a-lot. From 1920 to 1980, help Claire complete year after year of challenging tasks as you transform empty beachfront property into a mega-swank Miami-Dade County resort. Uncle Pete's legacy becomes a tourist hotspot where thousands of wealthy northerners can escape the cold weather for four and a half months out of the year.
Every year in the game acts as a level, with a variety of tasks assigned to be completed before Dec 31 arrives on the quickly advancing calendar. (Each day is one second in length.) You may be asked to construct an oceanfront hotel, repaint a smaller hotel, demolish a lifeguard chair, build a portion of a large airport construction project, increase the number of resort occupants to 500, etc. Fail to check off any of your tasks before New Year's Eve and you'll have to restart the level. (But finish them by July 1st and you'll earn an expert score.)
Three categories of construction projects exist in Miami Beach Resort. These are Lodging, Leisure, and Recreation locations. Lodging covers all things hotel, with the number of available rooms on the beach acting as your maximum level of occupancy for any year. Each room brings in a set amount of cash per month, depending on the type of hotel and its upgrade status. But no one will come to your resort if there's nothing to do... that's where Recreation projects come into play. Lifeguard towers, parks, tourist centers, etc. all make your resort more attractive and help fill rooms. Leisure locations, such as bars and diners, bring in extra profits, but only if there are enough guests in the resort to make opening them worthwhile.
The game screen is a bird's eye isometric view of the beach (complete with passing seagulls and whisps of cloud). All construction projects are handled by a tiny 3D model of Claire, who rushes to and fro along the streets of the resort area, changing clothes as often as she changes jobs. Building is as simple as choosing the desired project from the upper lefthand menu and then clicking an empty lot on the map where you'd like to build. Some tasks require building certain structures a few blocks away from another structure. You can build as many buildings as you like during a year, as long as you have enough building permits. If you run out, you'll have to demolish something to make room and free up a permit. Frequently this entails demolishing a smaller hotel or recreational area and replacing it with something bigger that will encompass more guests.
Claire attends to tasks as they're given to her. At any time you can see what's on her to-do list by looking at the icons in the line representing her queue, in the upper left corner of the screen. You can also mouse over these for extra information.
Sometimes buildings need repairs or restocked. When this happens, an alarm will sound and Claire will have to attend to the matter before any new construction orders can be followed. One of the slight annoyances about Miami Beach Resort is that you must click on the necessary icon above the building exactly or the game won't register the task in Claire's queue. You'll think all is well only to later hear her sign in boredom, or start jumping rope. By then, it may be too late to recover the lost time and restarting the year may be your only option.
Build it! Miami Beach Resort is a beautiful game, with smooth colorful graphics and a peppy period soundtrack that isn't at all annoying. However, I found it extremely difficult to begin playing. I met failure after failure playing the first year after the tutorial, 1923, and restarted half a dozen times. The level requires you to demolish lifeguard towers and install neighborhood parks, as well as a large hotel not on the task list. I was a bit surprised that the opening level of a casual game was so difficult; it's sure to turn off some players. However, the game gets much, much easier once you make it to 1924.
Download Build it! Miami Beach Resort