It is not my regular practice to review Early Access games. Not that I don't find them compelling or often quite entertaining, it's more the fact that the review can turn obsolete. At any moment, too! Nonetheless, sometimes I enjoy a game concept so much and consider the game already rich enough in content that I can't stop myself. Especially when said the game has been in Early Access since the dawn of time as if an attempt to get out of it is not even considered. Still, there are plenty of great concepts in such titles, and PILE UP!, for me, is one of them.
If you follow my blog to any degree you will notice a pattern of what games I enjoy. And city builders, tile layers, and puzzlers are high among them. PILE UP! joins that club by being two out of three, with a simple, yet well-executed idea. What if a city builder, but narrow and tall? It's banal, on paper, but delightful in practice. You're given a very tiny plot of land to expand your town into a full-blown city by stacking buildings on top of each other. Scraping for every little extension of the small footprint. Make sure to offset each placement as much as possible to save on space. All that while combating a couple of soft and hard systems that make it a bit more of a hassle than a spatial conundrum!
First, those nasty citizens have demands. Gosh darn it, city planning would be so much easier if not for all the people, am I right? They want things like water, electricity, gas, and even greenery to enjoy between stacks of chimneys and rusting pipes. The gall, the chutzpah! This is the game's way of punishing you for trying to spread too far, as each structure that provides such amenities has a rather slim radius of influence. Meaning, that you do want to clump your houses together, and that of course means you will constantly keep running out of real estate. To add insult to injury, each of those constructions of basic needs has its caveats. Water tanks need to be built on sturdy ground, or they will crumble together with the building below it. Generators and gas tanks can't sit in each other area of influence, because one can explode the other. And trust me, your citizens do not like a chunk of the down going out in flames. Parks cannot be built upon, so they take a big chunk of your buildable areas and need platforms overhead if you ever want to "reclaim" that footprint.
This is where the puzzle part comes into play. You will quickly realize you cannot put your buildings all willy-nilly. You need to have at least a bit of foresight in mind. Leave empty spaces on some levels to inject those amenities. Make sure you have a sturdy platform or terrace ready to put a water tank on top. Especially since the game squeezes your hand and doesn't allow you to progress to a new turn - and thus, new buildings - until you place most all of them. Some sacrifices will have to be made!
Another fun part is decision-making. You don't get your structures at random, at least, not completely so. You need factories to keep fuelling your turns, and you need to be careful about your mix of structures. Too many house factories but none for the amenities, and you might be forced to grow your population without covering for their needs. And unhappy citizens will, given time, oust you as their leader. But focus too much on other structures and you might find yourself in a situation where you have no safe spot to place them. To add to that, there are plenty of unlockable blueprints that give more interesting buildings to place on your stack. But they come as much with benefits as with downsides. It's nice to get an on-demand amenity, but having to put three rooftops is always a pain, for example.
It all gels together into a pretty entertaining brain teaser. It's never TOO demanding, I found, but as your town reaches higher and higher, the space narrows and the needs of your citizens grow... It can get a little spicy.
Another great bit of the current version of the game lies in its progression. Each time you venture out to build another tall town, you are rewarded with Scraps you can then use to purchase new blueprints. These arm your deck with new structures, making sure that your new runs will have more options and never play the same way. On top of that there are Seals, which greatly empower and modify your run - for example, Engineer's Seal boosts the radius of amenities. It's a neat system that makes sure you want to play more, as there's always a goal to chase other than the intrinsic goal of each scenario, which is reaching population milestones.
And I have to say - the game looks and sounds pretty gosh darn great. There's a bit of that code magic there when you place buildings next to each other and they merge in front of your eyes. Doors, windows, balustrades, and random knick-knacks appear out of the blue to enliven the scenery. Chimney stacks pour their fumes into the air. Casino neon signs glow in the night. Windows light when the sun goes down. The little town feels alive, despite how unreal it is in its construction. The music is also soothing, gentle, and well-fitting the calm mood of the game. It is a pleasure to play and offers a different kind of challenge for those with more aesthetic inclination. Instead of opting for the most optimized town, you can always attempt one that looks good!
In summary, I am a fan of PILE UP! I find the concept to be well executed, offering plenty of fun gameplay. And that progression keeps me playing, wanting to unlock more, to see if I can beat the next milestone before it all comes crumbling down... Always thanks to my ineptitude in planning. If you're in the market for a fun city builder with a bit of a unique twist and premise, you won't go wrong picking this precious little game up.
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