This Grand Life 2
- June 20, 2024
- Poking Water Games
Get on Steam"This Grand Life 2" is a colony sim-style game that explores the financial experiences of different people in the modern world. Manage multiple characters with unique preferences and behaviors in a multi-generational household, and make important decisions about their work, education, and living situations. The game's inflation-driven economy and character preferences system add depth to the simulation.
Reviews
- The game offers a deep and engaging life simulation experience, allowing players to manage various aspects of their character's life, including career, finances, and personal relationships.
- The developer is highly responsive and actively updates the game, addressing player feedback and fixing bugs promptly, which enhances the overall experience.
- The game features a rich sandbox environment with high replayability, allowing players to explore different strategies and scenarios, making it enjoyable for fans of simulation and management genres.
- The progression system can feel overly complicated and frustrating, with artificial barriers that lead to unforeseen failures, particularly in career advancement and financial management.
- The user interface is criticized for being unintuitive, with unclear icons that make navigation difficult, detracting from the overall gameplay experience.
- Some players find the game can become a grind, lacking engaging content and random events that would keep the gameplay dynamic and interesting over time.
- gameplay23 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 70 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "This Grand Life 2" is characterized by enhanced mechanics and expanded content, building on its predecessor to offer a more nuanced and engaging life simulation experience. Players can explore a rich sandbox environment with numerous scenarios and strategies, providing significant replayability and opportunities for creative problem-solving. While the game introduces some unique mechanics, such as an autoplay feature and delayed income, it also leaves room for further improvements in quality of life and additional gameplay elements.
“This game builds on its predecessor with improved mechanics and expanded content.”
“For those who thrive on detailed management and strategic planning, 'This Grand Life 2' provides a compelling and rewarding gameplay experience, ensuring that each playthrough offers new challenges and insights.”
“Unlike its predecessor, the game introduces refined mechanics and expanded content, offering players a more nuanced and engaging simulation.”
“Need many improvements that focus on quality of life, more mechanics, jobs, crime, government, army, family activity, etc.”
“I don't receive money from working right away, which is a weird mechanic and prevents me from buying food until the month is over.”
“That's including transportation, which this game already has a mechanic for.”
- graphics8 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The graphics are characterized by a stylized and visually appealing interface that enhances navigation and management, making complex tasks more accessible and engaging. While some users find the graphics to be improved and immersive compared to the original, others describe them as merely "okay" and not particularly special. Overall, the detailed interface and animations contribute positively to the gameplay experience.
“Stylized graphics with a clear, detailed interface that supports easy navigation and management, enhancing the overall simulation experience.”
“Its improved graphics and expanded content provide a more immersive experience compared to the original.”
“Clean and visually appealing interface that complements the gameplay.”
“Graphically, it is okay, nothing special.”
- replayability7 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 43 % negative mentions
The game offers extensive replayability through its sandbox mode, allowing players to experiment with various strategies and scenarios in an open-ended environment. This flexibility encourages diverse gameplay experiences, making it appealing for those who enjoy roleplaying and exploring different outcomes beyond just achieving wealth.
“The sandbox mode allows players to experiment with different strategies and scenarios in an open-ended environment, offering extensive replayability.”
“This approach allows for a high degree of freedom and replayability, as each choice can significantly impact the outcome of the simulation.”
“"This Grand Life 2" makes up for its lack of a traditional narrative with deep systems and high replayability, allowing players to explore various strategies and scenarios.”
“The replay value is quite low, as once you've completed the main objectives, there's little incentive to return.”
“While the sandbox mode offers some freedom, the lack of varied scenarios limits the overall replayability.”
“After a few playthroughs, the game feels repetitive and fails to provide enough new experiences to keep players engaged.”
- story3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -67 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game lacks a traditional narrative but offers a rich experience through its systems and decision-making elements, allowing players to create engaging stories based on their interactions with characters. The depth of the experience largely depends on the player's level of involvement.
“While the game does not center around a traditional narrative, its rich systems and decision-making elements foster an engaging experience.”
“There can be some interesting stories, depending on how much you involve yourself in the characters' arcs.”
“The story lacks depth and fails to engage the player emotionally.”
“Character development is minimal, making it hard to care about their journeys.”
“The plot feels disjointed and often leaves important questions unanswered.”
- monetization3 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's monetization model is praised for being non-intrusive, lacking ads and expensive in-game purchases, which sets it apart from similar mobile titles. Players can engage in various business activities without the pressure of microtransactions, enhancing the overall experience.
“While the game is still in early access, it offers a comparable experience to mobile games like 'Bit Life' or 'Family Life' on iOS, but without the intrusive ads and costly in-game purchases.”
“An interesting life sim about the horrors of big cities and an advertisement for semi-rural life.”
“You're also able to open your own businesses, hire people, work yourself into the business, buy furniture, supplies, and do ads to build up renown for foot traffic and payout ratio.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Overall, the game is well-optimized, running smoothly with minimal issues. Recent updates have effectively addressed previous performance concerns while also introducing new features that enhance the overall experience.
“The game runs smoothly with few issues; recent updates have addressed performance concerns and added new features for a more polished experience.”
“The optimization is impressive, allowing for seamless gameplay even on lower-end systems.”
“I appreciate how the developers continuously improve performance, making the game more enjoyable with each update.”
- stability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Users generally indicate that the game is not significantly buggy, suggesting a level of stability in its performance.
“I don't want to say that this game is buggy.”
“The game crashes frequently, making it nearly unplayable.”
“I've experienced numerous glitches that disrupt the gameplay experience.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the concept of managing a family in the game, but find the social system overly grindy and lacking in engagement, leading to a loss of interest.
“I liked the idea of having kids (who I would need to provide for), but the social system was so grindy and bland that I lost interest.”
“The grinding aspect of the game feels endless and tedious, making it hard to stay engaged.”
“I found the repetitive tasks required for progression to be frustrating and unfulfilling.”
