Sun, Snow, Sharks And Boozy Bonking (Beach Life (PC))

Member Name: shewhosmiles

Product:	Beach Life (PC)
Date:	27/11/03 (1508 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, Atmospheric, Relaxing

Disadvantages: Not enough scenarios

I’d just completed Zoo Tycoon and found it very clever but a bit monotonous, leaving me in the mood for a fun game so I chose Beach Life from Eidos Interactive. Similar to all of the management games you start with an allotted amount of money and build, but with this game you develop a series of holiday islands and try to keep the regularly incoming guests happy so that the money flows and they don’t leave grumbling.

It says on some sites that there are 14 levels, but there are 12 levels that have been built up to varying degrees and you have to complete them. With all you have a hotel, a power generator and a complaints hut. With your money you can add buildings like restaurants, cafes, speedboats, Jacuzzis, fun pools, toilets, bars, fishing trips, pedalo hire, beach furniture, theme clubs, windsurfing hire, party boats, beach barbeques and bars and extra accommodation blocks. You choose which you want to build but that is often dictated by the moans of visitors and how much cash you have coming in.

To do well in the game and stop visitors complaining you have to build the essentials like lifeguard towers, cleaning shacks, mechanics huts, representative’s chalet and guards hut, all can be staffed by up to 5 people. Most of the additions earn you money to enable you to build more, but except for the guards who fine those who misbehave the essential buildings cost money with staff hire and pay offs if you decide to sack somebody.

Click on the buildings and you can put prices down or up, but unless you have some rich happy guests the complaints will start and your visitors will leave. You can increase or decrease wages and dictate the shifts that your staff work, increases usually improve performance. You can also check to see what condition your buildings are in and call out mechanics to do repairs, or cleaners to sort out the toilets. You can alter the strength of beer sold and on most of the levels choose which type f
rom Smileys, Cape Horn, Grimley’s, Thumper’s and Smashers. Figure out the effects from the names!

You can add paths, plants, grass and lights to improve the scenery for your guests and your ratings, plus practical things like rubbish bins, post boxes and benches. They and the buildings can be removed too and you receive part of the cost back for the buildings once your builders have demolished them. I found that useful because for instance on one level I wanted to place a party boat but the only possible way for it to fit on the coastline was to remove the already placed pedalo hire out of the way.

Some of the scenarios allow between 5 and 10 days for the set challenges and you can see what day it is and what time of day on the bottom of your screen. There are 3 changeable speeds and in real time a day on the resorts is less than 10 minutes depending upon the speed setting you use. I usually fluctuate between the fastest when I need to amass money and the slowest when I am building and making repairs. The longest scenario takes just over an hour to fail at or finish and some of the scenarios are quite easy to complete while others took me several goes. One of the challenges is to earn $30,000 dollars in one day; another is to increase the resort rating from 1 to 5 stars. One of the hardest involves getting 50 couples to bonk on the beach – all boozy quickies! You can zoom in to see what your visitors are up to but as the view becomes slightly distorted you might be disappointed.

When everything is going well your visitors display a white thumbs up, when they are cheesed off you see a pink thumbs down icon. If you click on the guests you can see their last thoughts and discover what is bothering them, or what is pleasing them – sometimes the thoughts are quite funny. You can also find out the thoughts of the last 3 visitors by clicking on a building. If they think that the toilets are disgusting, smelly or dangerous
you call for a cleaner or mechanic quick. If they think that your prices are too high they won’t spend so you need to decrease prices.

Problems arise if the power generators aren’t working properly. A lightening icon appears above your buildings and they are closed down and losing income until the generators are fixed. Mechanics check all of the buildings every 8 hours but you can alter it so that they check more often. Even so the darned things still get in bad repair and a spanner icon appears.

The sun comes out and you open your beaches, your visitors are happily sunning themselves or having fun in the water. It snows and they all get fed up, or the sharks come and eat your visitors if you don’t close the beaches in time. Not much of a holiday but it all adds to the challenge.

I’ve really enjoyed playing this game and loved watching my guests having fun. The highlights I think are watching them strutting their stuff on the dance floors and the beach stage. I didn’t bother with that at first but it turned out to be funny. There are 3 events every day and you can choose which you would like from, weightlifting, cabaret, singing, catwalk and a wet tee-shirt contest. The weightlifting and wet tee-shirt contests are the best.

Beach Life isn’t as sophisticated or as clever as Zoo Tycoon but to my mind far more enjoyable. The scenarios don’t last as long, sometimes not long enough but they never become boring. It isn’t as challenging either but sometimes I just want to play without being challenged too much. The graphics are more realistic in Zoo Tycoon, but the cartoon type graphics in Beach Life are more fun visually and seem right for that type of game. Sometimes there are imperfections like people walking through each other or boats going through your guests but it’s only a game and doesn’t detract from enjoyment.

Once you have completed the scenarios you can pla
y each one in sand box mode as often as you like, or you can reset the game to start again and close down the previously completed scenarios. There is a camera feature which you can use to take close ups and email them to your friends or get them posted on the Beach Life site.

There is also a built in MP3 player but there are several tracks to set the mood for any given time of the day. In the evening it changes to upbeat for your guests to party to. I liked the music and the background noises of the sea, people talking and singing on their way back to their hotels after a night out, partying or tills ringing. You can even hear visitors shouting for help when they get into trouble in the water. The lifeguards usually respond and rescue them but not always. Sometimes other swimmers swim straight past them totally ignoring their pleas for help, not very realistic.

I paid £25.99 for my copy at Total Games and think that it was worth the money. It comes in a DVD case and includes an easy to understand instruction booklet. It’s taken me about 5 weeks to complete but I haven’t been playing every day, just when I had some time to chill. It took me a lot longer to complete Zoo Tycoon but I think that Beach Life is better value for money because I know that I’m more likely to play it in the future.

The game is easy enough for children to play but as it involves booze and sex I wouldn’t really consider it suitable for young children. Rated 11+ it is eminently suitable for older children like me who sometimes want to relax without being too taxed.

There are some cheats listed on the Beach Life website. You are supposed to be able to get more money and make your guests all go topless but they didn’t work for me.

There is a downloadable demo at http://www.eidosinteractive.co.uk/downloads/search .html?gmid=133

In conclusion, it’s an amusing, atmospheric game that I have found far more relaxi
ng than any other and was as much fun as I hoped. It’s the sort of game that you can pick up after a few days and enjoy without becoming so addicted you play for hours on end. I can recommend Beach Life highly but I now feel disappointed that my fun is over and wish that there were more levels. I could play it in sandbox mode but there wouldn’t be a challenge there. Or I could reset it to close the scenarios and start over, maybe.

System Requirements

450MHz Pentium 2
128MB Ram
16MB 3D card

Recommended for maximum enjoyment

256 MB Ram
800MHz Pentium 3

Summary: