Couch co-op party games are fun and popular for gamers and non-gamers alike, but sometimes we feel like we don’t have enough options in the genre. Once my friend and I spent a whole day playing Overcooked 2, and we were left wondering if there were other games like it, but we couldn’t find much.
Developed by Arkhipov Pavel and published by MAYO Games, Buildest is a couch co-op game where you play as an architect on various construction sites, gathering the materials, and ordering the workers to build the structures. You travel throughout different eras and cultures of architecture history, learning about them, and rising buildings in those styles.
My first impressions of Buildest were not favorable. I was playing with a keyboard, and the keyboard controls are really bad. It took a while to get used to the movement and the keyboard layout, and even once I did learn the keybindings, playing the game for long stretches of time would actually hurt my hands. Buildest is best played with a controller, but I wanted to keep playing with the keyboard as for a Steam game, the majority of players tend to prefer the keyboard as well. The experience would have been much better if we had the option to change the key binds, but unfortunately, we don’t.
The UI of Buildest also didn’t make the opening experience any easier. The color palette is overwhelmingly bright, and it’s hard to read the tutorial and UI elements, I can’t remember the last time I wished a game had a dark theme, but Buildest can really use one. Because of these flaws, I was very disappointed. I am an architect myself, and I was excited about experiencing a game where I can play as one. But I still wanted to give Buildest a fair shot, and see if it gets any better as I played more.
Buildest has a similar formula to games such as Overcooked. The main gameplay loop consists of gathering the correct materials and ordering the workers to build each section of the blueprint. Different materials have various ways of collecting and processing, and as we progress through the game, new materials and mechanics are introduced to keep things fresh and challenging.
Another, and fairly smaller disappointment that I had with Buildest, was that there was no designing involved in the game. I just had to build the right element in the right place, and I had no real input in the final outcome, except for messing up the recipes and ending up with a weird and out-of-place-looking element in the final structure. Buildest advertises itself as a game that lets you play as an architect, but it takes out the most enticing part of architecture: designing. I believe that introducing Buildest as a fun and challenging party game, would set the correct expectation for players, and it’s a decent game in that genre.
I played Buildest solo, but the game is clearly designed with co-op in mind. Gathering and processing different materials from around the site can be a bit tedious on your own, but coordinating and managing different tasks with a friend is what makes these types of games enjoyable.
There were other parts of Buildest that I enjoy as an architect. The game has different levels dedicated to notable eras and styles of architecture. From ancient Egypt and Greece to Baroque and Art Deco, Buildest introduces us to a nice timeline of architectural history and lets us see various elements of each style, whether through the gameplay or the historical facts on the loading screen. The workers and the architect also wore era-appropriate clothing, giving more historical context to each level.
While early levels are simple, and with only a few materials at your disposal, later levels get more complicated with new materials and extra mechanics and considerations, and as the layouts get more complicated, the game becomes less polished. Workers might get stuck behind crates of resources or other workers, navigation around the construction site reveals the game’s flimsy physics, and losing the gold medal because of these issues become ever more frustrating.
I finished Buildest, and it took me a little over five hours to get through all the levels. The game has many issues, but I could see the fun. If I was using a controller, and I was playing couch co-op, I would enjoy the game more, and this makes giving Buildest a fair review challenging. While I personally didn’t like the game, I could imagine a scenario where it could be a great experience, whether through small fixes to the UI and a bit more polish, or just by having a friend to enjoy the chaos with.
Buildest is not about being an architect, but rather experiencing and learning about architecture through a vibrant and joyful experience. I could imagine a cool architectural history professor suggesting this game to first-year students, but for those students to actually enjoy Buildest, it does require a little more work.
Nima played Buildest on Steam with a review code provided by the publisher.
