Architect Life: A House Design Simulator Review (PS5) – Go Big Or Go Home

I’ve found myself at a bit of a situation in the middle of playing Architect Life. As I write this I’m looking up at the game in Free Mode – where you can just build what you like with unlimited cash – and I’m on the third story of what we could argue is my ‘dream’ home and I realised I can’t get a pool in the corner where it needs to be. Terribly unfortunate but the size of the upstairs kitchen has rendered it somewhat impossible to install a swimming pool next to it. Tragedy. I’ll start over and maybe my pool-per-level dream house could soon become a reality. It’s a real shame, the games room sits so nicely there. 

Thus is the cruz of Architect Life. We can all argue for years but the most appealing part of ‘Life’ games is the creation of a house we’ll all realistically never be able to afford or live in. The Sims would have us losing hours and hours to bringing to life our ideal living space, and games like Architect are no different. When the leash is let off and you can just create, it’s the best part of any of these kinds of games. The beauty of Architect Life is you can build the house and let it go, you don’t need to look after any whiney idiot inside it once the fun bit is done.

Architect Life puts you in the shoes of an architect at the start of their career, given the rather enormous task of designing houses for wealthy clients. You’re given a canvas to work with and creating these houses – which can vary enormously in size and style – becomes the focal point of your responsibilities. And you know what? It’s a good time. 

You’re tasked with essentially designing a 3D model of the house, with the actual building taken care of for you by building companies you select on behalf of the clients. As the build takes place you’ll be putting out fires such as fights between builders, the lack of materials and making snap decisions to ensure the build goes off without a hitch. These decisions certainly add an interesting ‘gamey’ like dent to proceedings though I’m yet to see any enormous consequences if you choose the wrong option. For example one of them could be a rainstorm which has affected the build time. You can either throw money at it, possibly pushing your project over budget but getting the job done or leave it for a few days and possibly go over the allotted time for the build to be completed. Neither seem to hugely affect anything significantly, though as mentioned it’s fun to feel like you’re in charge of these rather hefty choices throughout the building process. 

And that’s about that for the career mode. Builds will range in size and price, and the more money you have to work with the more fun the game is, naturally. As you lay down foundation, walls, exterior doors, interior doors, heating, stairs, lighting and whatnot. As previously mentioned, if you’re the generation that was raised on Sim City and The Sims, this is going to feel hugely familiar and is fun to mess around with ideas and the more complex builds can test your muscle memory for what works in an actual home over just a cool build that might end up on a Channel 4 documentary.

And it certainly takes itself somewhat seriously. This is certainly a simulator rather than, say, Two Point. If you’ve dropped hours and hours into the likes of Two Point or Planet Coaster, the lack of humour here makes the game feel a little stuffy, though the boom of simulators in recent years will attest to it not being hugely important if you want to take the role a little more seriously. You won’t need to make space for a fridge you found in an ice age here. 

The career mode certainly was a fun time that allowed me to hone my skills, but games likes live or die on their free modes and Architect Life is no exception and is where the game truly shines. As mentioned at the top, it’s a terribly fun mode that just allows you to go ham on your dream build and gives you the entire roster of materials, colours and items to make it happen. There’s something gloriously exciting about seeing your creation come to life, and once it’s built you’re able to walk around a 3D render of your creation (albeit with a slightly dodgy camera) and the last two hours of your life are suddenly in front of you and you can spot where a window snapped in somewhere I didn’t want it to. Ah well, guess I’ll just have to jump back in and get a little more creative.

It’s worth mentioning I’ve been playing Architect Life on my PS5 and the controls are solid for consoles, evidently something the developers Shine Group took very seriously, given that there’s a whole trailer dedicated to how the console controls work. They’re intuitive and it feels more natural on a controller than you might expect. Two Point leads the way in this regard, but Architect must be commended for giving a proper shot at making the game feel as natural on controls as it does on mouse and keyboard. 

There’s plenty of fun to be had making the house of your dreams, though it’s worth noting the actual amount of interior items available are relatively slim in comparison to what you may have been used to in similar experiences. It’s incredibly frustrating that a huge number of fun items that should have been included in the game – including a games room, a cinema, sports rooms etc – are locked behind paid DLC. I didn’t know this until I was deep in the game looking for fun creative ways to make a room with a computer a little more exciting. 

As I couldn’t really find anything fun the more I scrolled it’s a shame the DLC was thrown in my face. On launch day? Really? Just throw it in the game.

Still, if you’re a budding architect then you could do a lot worse than this game. The focus is on creating static builds of dream houses, rather than what’s inside it would appear. Blocking certain content behind a paywall is an egregious decision, but there’s every chance you may never want to add what’s included to your house. There’s not much else like this on consoles at least, so if that’s your only option and you want to explore your house design creativity you will find yourself having a good time with Architect Life. 

I just wish I could jump into the game and live in my three story house with a pool on every floor. 

Sigh. One day.

Architect Life: A House Design Simulator is available now on PS5 (platform reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch

Developer: Shine Group
Publisher: Nacon

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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