Lookin’ Back #28 – Constructor

The Brutal Gamer time machine is dusted off once more.

This time, we’re taking a look at perhaps a lesser known gem of the late 90s, the System 3 developed strategy game Constructor.  The game was published by Acclaim and was originally released on the PC in 1997 before being ported to the Sony PlayStation in 1998.

In Constructor, you are the head of a construction firm, with the aim of developing council land by building houses, factories, services and, also, undesirables.  There is no career mode, instead the game is played in a skirmish style with 5 different game modes, each with a set objective.  Either you have to make a certain amount of money over a set time (Financial Conquest), build every type of house in the game (Egomania), own a residential property on every estate on the map (World Domination), have 3 types of every tenant with all their happiness levels above 90% (Utopian State) or just play a game with no overall objective (Build, Build, Build)

So, you build some houses, initially starting with wooden shacks.  As you build more houses, new resource factories become available to build, allowing you to build new houses and other buildings.  You also have to make sure your tenants are happy.  Or, at least, happy enough not to complain.  When something is amiss, you will receive mail from them detailing the problem, with your attention being drawn by a coughing sound.  You will then have a certain amount of time to fix the problem or risk getting black marks off the council.  It could be any number of things, such as wanting trees for the garden, demanding a certain type of fence, or ceasing production at your material factories to give them a bit of peace and quiet.

You can build solo or have networked multiplayer (on the PC at least), or you can compete against computer controlled builders.  A unique feature in Constructor allows you to disrupt your competitors (or vice versa) through the use of characters known as the Undesirables.  These come in several types, including the Hippy, the burglar and the gangster.  Hippies can hold parties in the streets to cause enemy tenants to complain, or picket factories to stop production.  Burglars live in Pawn Shops and will steal gadgets out of enemy houses and sell them for money.  Gangsters can kill people, however they will only perform actions for you if you give them money from your tenants instead of you taking rent off them.  Undesirables can be arrested if you or your opponents have policemen about, and they will throw the undesirable in jail for a set amount of time.  The council doesn’t like undesirables, though, and will have you performing upgrades or building certain things to prevent them from firing you.

Constructor is a quirky game with a wicked sense of humour about itself.  You get a taste of this right from the start in the intro video, which sees a dim witted worker stood in a hole as a gangster fills it up with cement, the worker only twigging what’s going on once he’s up to his neck and tries desperatly to escape before going under, as his hat rides on the surface of the cement with the Constructor logo on it.

So, all in all, a slightly tricky but fun game which you might be interested in checking out.  You can download it from gog.com for $5.99 or on the PlayStation Store for £3.99.

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