This should be my gaming equivalent of “Cheesy Peas” – I like games – I like Movies – so a game about Movies should be perfect – shouldn’t it ?
The Movies is a game of two halves. Problem is that they are far from equal. The strongest half is the game’s “Movie Making” mode. However, it’s not really a game – it’s a HUGE toolbox which allows you to do everything from set up and film scenes to providing your own voices for the characters.
The toolbox is extremely easy to use and surprisingly allows for some rather complex movies to be made, and with the right tools of the trade you can create your own scripts. You choose the genre (Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Romance or Horror) – choose the sets to film on and then write the scenes. It’s so easy to do – mostly menu-based and drag and drop – you tell the game the type of scene you wish to film and go ahead and “tweak” it. There seems to be hundreds of scenes to choose from and they change depending on set and genre. By stringing numerous scenes together you create your movie.
For example – an early Western I created was based around the “action” genre. Its opening scene featured two cowboys walking into a saloon. By adding more scenes I was able to watch one of them order and consume a drink before having a fight with the barman and then being shot from outside. This was followed by a gunfight in the street outside. As a movie it was far from a masterpiece – but as an example of just how powerful the movie creator can be, it was great.
Your actors can be dressed how you want and take pretty much any role you want – some scenes feature numerous extras. Pretty much all the scenes can be filmed from various angles and using a series of sliders you can change expressions, moods, weather, lighting and pretty much everything else you could think of – as the game progresses the features grow. With enough time and imagination you could easily create watchable and enjoyable movies. If you want you can even go as far as recording spoken dialogue to replace the “sims”-style actor's voices.
So far so good then, but all the above comes at a price and that price is the other half - the game itself, if you will. It’s a management Sim – pure and simple, anyone who has played any of the Tycoon games will be familiar with what to expect. Nothing here is revolutionary – you start with a huge empty lot and you have to place buildings, paths, decorations etc to create your movie studio. The first few buildings you create allow you to hire staff and actors. The next are basic sets. After a while you get script writers and soon after that the ability to write your own scripts.
The game’s BIG problem is that the management side is not really much fun. You have to micromanage EVERYTHING. From the location of the toilets to the number of burger vans – to make matters worse you are scored on your park lay out. The nicer your park the higher rated your studio becomes and the better (in theory) your rating. It just feels so laboured and soon becomes very, very dull. Before you even get access to the “movie maker” proper you spend around 4 hours placing buildings, laying paths and setting in place various decorations.
To get the full movie making experience, you have to continue with this micro management all the time. Even whilst your movies are being made the game is forcing you to place down more patches of grass or plant new trees in an effort of making you studio the best. It’s like Theme Park but not as interesting or as enjoyable…
The Movies should have concentrated more on what it does well, if a management side is needed then it should have been more in keeping with the movie making and not just an attempt to make yet another tycoon game. It just doesn't work and feels really out of place, as if it's been tacked on towards the end to make a game out of what should just have been a fun and very clever movie toolkit.
The Movies is by no means terrible, but it could have been so much more. Anyone with an ounce of imagination and a spark of creativity should seek out the movie maker side of things, there’s weeks of fun to be had out of it – it’s just a shame that to get the most from it you have to persevere with the management side of things.
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