Build-a-lot: On Vacation Game Review

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Prime vacation destinations from all over the world need your building and business skills in Build-a-lot: On Vacation, the sequel to the hit property time management game series. Buy and sell houses, invest in real estate, reforest barren plots and construct all types of useful buildings. Focus your resources on key locations to transform them into beautiful world-class tourist attractions!

On Vacation is the 6th installment in the hugely popular Build-a-Lot real estate management series. While the previous installment focused on construction in the Elizabethan era, On Vacation brings us back to the present, this time trying to revive iconic holiday destinations. You will lend your skills to the townships that manage beautiful locations including a scenic waterfall sanctuary, a ski resort and more!

The gameplay mechanics have not really changed from the other games in this series. Each level still requires you to complete specific objectives such as constructing a certain number and type of homes and buildings, obtaining enough rent or neighborhood appeal, amassing cash or resources, or completing grand projects. In On Vacation, you visit a different location every few levels, and the grand projects are tourist attractions related to those locations. An example project is the restoration of a ski resort’s cable car system.

You start each level with a few plots of land (which may contain houses), a few workers, and some cash and building materials. You will need to wisely use these resources to achieve the level’s objectives. You can send your workers to empty plots of land (that you own) to build a house on it. The building cost and the resulting rent both depend on which level of house you decide to build.

You can also construct various special buildings on empty plots. There is the real estate office that opens up options to increase your houses’ value and rental. There is the sawmill that increases material production. Some of these buildings will lower the appeal of their neighboring plots. However, there are buildings such as the ice skating rink that can boost the neighborhood appeal instead. Both the houses and these special buildings will require enough available workers as well as building materials. Extra workers and building materials can be purchased, and buying them in bulk will reduce the individual cost.

There are a few other things you can do with your plots of land. If they are forested, you can chop the wood down for a quick boost in cash or building materials. If they are empty, you can choose to spend money to reforest them (either to beautify the place, or to eventually chop them down for materials).

Another major part of the game is the ability to buy and sell property. You can choose to sell your buildings and empty plots. You basically put the plot up for sale, and a prospective buyer will call soon, usually with a bid that’s slightly lower than your asking price. A common strategy to earn cash is to spend a bit of cash (or chop down trees) to get building materials, build a house, then immediately sell it for a large profit.

Similarly, plots that you don’t own will come up for sale at random intervals. Sometimes multiple plots may be on sale at the same time, but each will be available for purchase only for a short window. You could choose to buy it and just pay the asking price, or you could try to haggle. Haggling may result in you getting the land for cheaper, but it could also end with the seller rejecting your offer and the land becoming unavailable for purchase.

Then there are the major projects that are present every few levels. These are generally the tourist attractions that need to be renovated. Usually, you will need to accumulate a large amount of building materials and send lots of workers to these project sites to work on the renovation.

There are also plenty of other nice features in the game such as managing the appeal and upgrades of your neighborhood. These interesting bits add layers to a game that is complex enough to keep you engaged and entertained. The game also has frequent changes in scenery (as you visit the different tourist destinations) and will keep you from becoming bored. Overall, this is a solid addition to a great time management game series. You will like Build-a-lot: On Vacation if you liked the previous Build-a-Lot games or similar real estate games such as Royal Envoy.

Check out the other games in this series!

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