[h1]Overview[/h1]
[i]Life's Playground[/i] is an indie board game that draws inspiration from Monopoly, Pay Day, and LIFE, and puts their characteristics into one single randomly-generated board game which appears to go only in a single direction, but once the player passes the sunset square at the end, they magically appear at the sunrise square at the very beginning. Games allow for two to four players, and can be set to have a time limit of twenty-four, thirty-six, or sixty laps ("months" as the game calls laps) or "survival" which has no time limit and ends when only one player remains. Players have jobs which earns them money upon completing a lap around the board, and properties can be purchased which can be upgraded on a player's very next turn. (The player may purchase all three upgrades for a property at the same time if they so wish, and upgrade multiple properties at their discression.) Apart from money, the game also features Fortune Points which can gained and lost through chance and used to either count towards a player's final score or used to cover costs if the player does not have enough cash to otherwise make a payment.
[h1]Graphics and Sound[/h1]
The graphics mostly feature what appear to be stock photographs. The random pictures depicting life and wealth on the board help with setting the mood, but this is the best feature about the graphics. The graphics are boring, and especially the bland playing tokens that look just like the playing tokens used in the board game Sorry!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1544182523
The stock pictures used for mini-games on the other hand, are more exciting at times, but still have the feeling of being stock pictures that make the player feel like they've seen the pictures somewhere before, but couldn't recall exactly where.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1544181985
The music is a rare find for an indie game. While the game has very little music to speak of, the music is both pleasing and fits the mood for a high stakes financial setting, but the player is recommended to mute the game's sound and play some greed-themed music in the background.
[h1]Positives[/h1]
The mini-games are fun despite being overly simplistic, and are perfect representation of real life scenarios dealing with situations ranging from yard sales, settlements with insurance companies, and one game involving locating one's lost car in a parking lot.
The intangibles are such that players will love to play for hours on end despite the negatives, though a player will most likely wish that they sincerely want to enjoy the game if the negatives are too extreme, and be left wondering what could have been after having sought their refund.
[h1]Negatives[/h1]
The game was made by a indie dev/publisher who has a history of making games that do not support the Steam overlay, so unless the player is one of the chosen few who has the power to take screenshots in non-overlay supporting games and upload them to the Steam cloud, the player will not be showing off their boring screenshots to friends. (Just kidding about being one of the "chosen few"! Everyone on Steam can do this, it just requires a little research.)
The player may as well quit once they're eliminated in a single human game, because if the player wants to see how the rest of the game plays out, they're going to be pressing the "roll" button over and over again because AI players do not roll on their own.
The occupational titles do not fit the theme of a high stakes, cutthroat financial setting. Unless this author did not experiment enough with searching for new jobs, seeing people with entry-level jobs owning properties containing Football stadiums and airports looks silly when you think of owners of such properties being big shots identified as business tycoons, investment bankers, or professional athletes. Playing tokens could have represented grotesque symbols of wealth, but the developers blew it on that front.
The cost of properties look like they're from the days of Monopoly. (i.e. The 1930's.) If players do not take things like $226 airport construction or $267 Football stadium construction with good humor, the player will certainly be left wondering why the game's currency isn't measured in millions of dollars.
Players who draw Fate Cards will find that the dice have already been rolled for them, taking away from the excitement of throwing the dice and hoping for a positive outcome after undergoing various good luck rituals.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1544180976
The single biggest, game-breaking negative is that the only multiplayer support, is local multiplayer. The lack of online multiplayer is the only thing stopping the game from receiving a positive recommendation. (Even if multiplayer was limited to just being able to play against the people on one's own Steam friends.) With AI opponents who cannot even roll their own dice, the game is really just not fun.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
The game is a positive game, but the negatives are just too severe. The developers have their hearts and minds in the right place, but apart from the inability for non-local multiplayer games, the positives of the game aren't enough to compete against other board games on Steam such as 100% Orange Juice and Business Tour which both feature non-local multiplayer. (100% Orange Juice's sale price is lower than the regular price of Life's Playground while Business Tour is a freemium game.)
Users are advised to hold off on purchasing the game until at least true multiplayer becomes possible. (If ever.) But if a player wants a cheap casual game on Steam for the same price Life's Playground, SimProse Studios has an indie game called Star Merchant which is far better.
[h1]The honest word of Il Pallino... OR ELSE![/h1]
This review made possible through the generosity, consideration and contribution of [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/11739878-ReviewExperts/]Review Experts(REXnetwork)[/url] and the developer/publisher.
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