Highrise

About

Highrise is a multiplayer action game. It was developed by Pocket Worlds and was released on October 22, 2025. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Highrise is a casual, massively multiplayer social game where millions connect, chat, and compete in vibrant interactive rooms. Players customize unique avatars, build spaces, and participate in events to earn exclusive rewards. With real-time voice and text chat, it offers an engaging, social experience in a safe, welcoming environment.

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79%

Audience ScoreBased on 126 reviews

music3 positive mentions

grinding7 negative mentions

Highrise offers a vibrant social experience with opportunities to make friends, participate in events, and express creativity through avatar customization and room building.
The game has a wide variety of items and events, allowing players to collect unique outfits and pets, and engage in creative activities like designing their own worlds.
Many players appreciate the community aspect of Highrise, finding it a fun and engaging platform to connect with others and share their creativity.

The game has been criticized for its heavy monetization and pay-to-win mechanics, making it difficult for free players to compete or enjoy the full experience without spending significant amounts of money.
There are concerns about the toxic community culture, with reports of elitism, cliques, and a lack of moderation leading to unsafe interactions, especially for younger players.
Many players feel that the developers do not listen to feedback and have neglected important issues, leading to frustration with gameplay mechanics and the overall direction of the game.

story
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The game's story aspect is deeply intertwined with fashion and social interaction, allowing players to express their individuality through outfits and items that convey personal narratives. While the event quests can be frustrating due to their reliance on other players, the introduction of a season pass adds structured storytelling and quests, enhancing engagement and providing a sense of progression. Overall, players appreciate the rich details and creativity in the game's world, which fosters a vibrant community of unique stories.
- “It's perfect for those who love fashion, storytelling, and building their own social world.”
- “Every outfit, pose, and item tells a story, and as a long-time collector, I’ve fallen in love with the details, the artistry, and the excitement of every new release.”
- “Its kind of like a small world where everyone has their own little story going on.”
- “I have never seen any game besides Highrise seem to make it their life mission to anger their player base.”
- “The event quests are often reliant on other players as well, making the gameplay extremely frustrating.”
- “Its kinda like a small world where everyone has their own little story going on.”
gameplay
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The gameplay is described as both engaging and relaxing, offering a creative outlet for players, but it is marred by issues such as janky controls and a frustrating reliance on other players for event quests. Additionally, the difficulty in earning gold and obtaining items without spending money has drawn criticism, leading some to suggest that even poorly reviewed games on Steam offer a better gameplay experience.
- “The gameplay is relaxing and engaging, making it a great way to unwind and express your creativity.”
- “From the very first moment, it pulled me in with its beautiful design, relaxing music, and creative gameplay.”
- “Make gameplay fun?”
- “From a gameplay and economy perspective, it has become much more difficult to earn gold or obtain desirable items without spending substantial amounts of money.”
- “Gameplay is as follows on PC: janky controls; you have to use your mouse to move, which makes it extremely awkward to use.”
- “The event quests are often reliant on other players as well, making the gameplay extremely frustrating.”
grinding
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and frustrating, particularly with the new season pass events that require significant time investment for minimal rewards. Many feel that the shift towards NFT integration has made the experience even more disappointing, as the effort put into grinding does not yield valuable returns. Overall, the consensus is that the current events are time-wasters that detract from the enjoyment of the game.
- “Most of the events are grindy, meaning you need to spend hours in-game to finish them.”
- “The new 'season pass' events have been so tedious that people mostly discuss them as frustrating and tedious, myself included.”
- “The main complaints for the season pass are as follows: they make the goals extremely tedious with extremely low payout, so it strongly feels like a waste of time every time you participate in the event.”
graphics
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
20%
40%
Reviews on the graphics are mixed, with some praising the lively and charming visuals that enhance the game's appeal, while others criticize the reliance on 3D design that detracts from originality and results in awkward character representations. Additionally, the polished graphics and customization options are highlighted positively, contributing to an engaging user experience. However, the disparity between 3D environments and 2D avatars has led to complaints about visual inconsistency.
- “The lively and charming graphics make every scene and character delightful to watch.”
- “Polished graphics, great vibes, and enough customization to make your digital self better dressed than your real one.”
- “The 3D-ifying of everything needs to stop; it's making games lose their originality in art style and straight up looks like AI slop.”
- “The graphics look horrible, as you're in a 3D space with 2D avatars, so everyone's characters look warped from the awkward angles.”
monetization
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The monetization strategy in the game is heavily criticized for its reliance on constant pop-up ads promoting expensive item bundles and features, creating a pressure to spend money. While there are some free rewards available through daily activities and promotions, the overall economy feels skewed towards in-app purchases, contributing to a toxic community atmosphere and raising safety concerns for younger players.
- “The game features heavy in-app purchases.”
- “While the monetization is significant, it doesn't detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.”
- “There will be constant pop-up ads about insanely high-priced item bundles, like the idollz thing, pets (and now their outfits too), and random new items that have features that never even existed before. Highrise is desperately trying to get addicted players to spend their paycheck on that nonsense before they miss out.”
- “However, it suffers from a toxic and cliquish community culture, heavy monetization, slow support, and serious safety concerns for younger players.”
- “In-app purchase heavy game.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
20%
20%
The music in the game is praised for its ability to create a relaxing atmosphere and enhance the overall experience, allowing players to socialize, dance, and customize their environments. Users appreciate the option to play music in their personal rooms, which adds to the fun and interactive nature of the gameplay. Overall, the music contributes significantly to the game's engaging and creative ambiance.
- “From the very first moment, it pulled me in with its beautiful design, relaxing music, and creative gameplay.”
- “You can build your own rooms and worlds, join friends in those rooms and worlds to socialize, dance, listen to music, relax, talk, just hang out, play games, host events, do whatever your mind can imagine!”
- “I love that we can play music in our rooms; one of my favorite parts is when I needed help, Highrise helped me right away, and I'm very grateful for that.”
- “Habbo hotel and coke music”
stability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability has received mixed feedback, with users noting that while they appreciate the PC version, it is often buggy and glitchy. Many players have come to expect these issues as part of the experience, attributing them to ongoing beta testing and frequent updates.
- “Love this game, so glad they made a PC version, but it's a bit buggy and glitchy, though!”
- “They use beta for everything, so having glitches as they fix things is just part of the course.”
- “You should expect glitches at this point.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is described as fun, contributing to an enjoyable and engaging experience for players.