Itera Mall

Hello, wonderfully fun game!! As someone who loves tycoon games but wasn't around for early Windows I find this much more approachable than Sim Tower but still a lot of fun depth. I have one issue now, and that's shoppers getting low on food and drink, who then run past all the water and bakeries I place and leave and complain about not enough food and drink! Is there a way to deal with that? 

Is the linux tagged download the Windows version?

Mall Management Madness: My Experience with Itera Mall

Welcome to the world of Itera Mall, where you can finally live out your wildest dreams of being a mall manager... or at least, that's what I thought before my mall went bankrupt and I was left in a debt spiral. Oh joy.

But seriously, the game is actually pretty fun. It's got a low-res pixel style that's clean and aesthetically pleasing, and there's a ton of stuff to do and manage with multiple colourful windows that you can open and move around. Plus, there's even a casino and stock market that I unfortunately never got to try out because I spent most of my time trying to get out of debt from the loans that I had taken.

Top tip: Pay back your loans!

The game looks nice and has clear, fitting sounds. There's a lot of depth to the gameplay and you can even manage the patrol areas and work schedules of your staff. The controls are snappy and make sense, and there are plenty of stats and feedback systems to keep you informed about what's going on.

On the downside, the game may be a little too complex for casual gamers and there aren't any early game prompts to give you a sense of what you should be paying attention to. I'm also not sure about the balancing of the game - it seemed to focus more on expansion rather than a more relaxed playstyle, and my mall's rating would suddenly plummet without any clear explanation. The help section offers a few hints, but I was still pretty confused.

And let's talk about those elevators (or rather, the stairs that I did use). They were a little convoluted and each stair had a set direction, so if you used them to go up, the little shoppers couldn't use them to come back down. This led to the hilarious (or rather, frustrating) situation where I trapped a bunch of shoppers on the first floor for days until I could install some stairs for them to escape.

The window system is a matter of personal preference, I liked it but I also find it a little tough to find things easily. A few quality of life improvements would definitely be welcome.

As for bugs, I only encountered one - shoppers randomly became stuck in place, switching back and forth in a weird way. It happened three times during my play through, but aside from that, I didn't run into any other issues.

Overall, I'd recommend giving Itera Mall a shot if you're a fan of old school sims and strategy games. It's a nice change of pace from actually having to go shopping yourself. And with a few quality of life improvements and perhaps some events, this game has the potential to be something really special. If you're interested in checking out my other reviews of new solo or small dev games, or if you'd like to try out some of my own game titles, you can visit my website at www.knigtideas.co.uk.