Big Ambitions Review: Build Your Business Empire

Whether you’re a fan of sim games or this is one of your first encounters with the genre, Hovgaard Games – a 4-man indie developer team – and their newest early access release, Big Ambitions, is bound to keep you entertained as you go from a rookie entrepreneur to an elite business owner.

Now, while the game was surely fun to play through, it has a lot of room for growth and improvement.

We’re going to cover all the things Hovgaard Games got right, as well as some things they could’ve done differently in order to make the game even more enjoyable.

Build Your Business Empire – Big Ambitions Review

Before we start, it’s worth noting that this game was developed by an indie team, and as such, it does not have a triple-A budget behind it. This usually results in the game lacking on certain fronts, be it aesthetics, storytelling, or just functionality itself.

By the end of this article, you’ll find out whether the game holds a 10/10 rating on Steam (1500+ reviews) for a good reason or not. With that in mind, let’s get into the business world of Big Ambitions!

Graphics

Seeing as this is an indie sim game, I believe we can cut them some slack in the aesthetics department. As you go through the game, you’ll be looking at your character from a top-down perspective, as is the case with most sims out there. The game’s graphics could be better – more polished and refined – but it’s not unusual for early access games to put this lower on the priority list.

As a counterpoint, other role-playing sim games, like The Sims, for example, aren’t known for their graphics or visual appeal either. They rarely look bad, but their focus generally lies elsewhere.

Regardless, graphics normally get brushed up and polished prior to the game’s full release, so this is not something to be worried about. It’s very likely that we’ll get a visual upgrade before fully launching.

Functionality

If you already played the game, you probably noticed how clunky the game feels at times. You will often find yourself selecting the wrong thing due to popup windows overlapping each other. Controls in menus feel weird as well, which is one of the first things many notices when it comes to the game’s feel – it’s not nearly as intuitive as a game should feel.

Overall though, the game’s clunkiness can mostly be attributed to the fact that it’s still in early access. So far the developers seem to be very receptive to the community’s feedback and voice in general, so this as well seems like something that you probably shouldn’t worry about, not in the long run anyway.

UI/UX

The part of the game that needs the most work appears to be the UI/UX.

The interface (UI) isn’t as user-friendly as it could be, and it is very unintuitive for the most part. A lot can be done to improve on this front, as it’s an aspect of the game that appears to be lacking the most as of right now. To add to this, it also isn’t as polished as it could be, so it is slightly visually lacking as well.

The game’s tutorial isn’t ideal either; the way the tutorial leads you through the initial stages of the game feels somewhat forced. The game holds your hand a bit too much; you’re led down a specific path with very little room for experimenting. This is, of course, unless you want to entirely ditch the tutorial and just go your own way, in which case you’re going to have to spend some time building out businesses you may have no interest in owning.

The fact that these are probably the biggest issues this game has is actually a good thing. If the core gameplay was bad, the game would be unsalvageable. Seeing as it’s just the UI/UX that’s lacking while the gameplay itself is amazing – more on that in a second – things are looking good for Big Ambitions!

Gameplay

Finally, gameplay is the part that everyone is most positive and vocal about!

Unintuitiveness and clunkiness aside, the game offers countless different paths you can take. The flexibility and freedom you’re given once you get on your feet, so to speak, is very diverse. From restaurant chains to marketing agencies, you can do it all – there are no rules or restrictions once you get a bit further into the game.

Once you start generating a decent amount of revenue, you’re going to start feeling the compounding effect a lot as you open up different businesses and progress further. The game does a very good job of bringing this aspect of entrepreneurship to life – the more you have, the more you’re going to be making.

All of this is done in such a way that allows for maximum immersion. What this means is that you start out by mopping floors, or doing some other task that is just as mundane, and with time and good decision-making you get to the point of successfully leading dozens of different businesses (or one big chain if you prefer).

One thing that could make the game even more immersive would be to fill up indoor spaces with more interactable content. Some rooms are quite big and open, which in turn makes them feel rather empty.

This is the inside of an Ikea-like store – rather empty indeed.

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