Critical Buildings

You can buy your stars palatial trailers, set your studio up with an onsite cosmetic surgery center, or lay down the foundation for a rehab clinic right next to the casting office. All very charming - until you realize how critical each is to the game. Perhaps in an attempt to capture the reality of tinseltown as sold to us by the gossip rags, your stars quickly become a management nightmare. Each has a rating in regards to a number of different categories like status, relationships, looks, physique, fashion, stress, addictions, and genre experience. All of these must be carefully monitored constantly. If you don't, directors will throw tantrums on set, actresses balloon up in size as they gobble down food, and your leading man may start stumbling around drunk and catch the attention of the paparazzi that wander around your studio. The only solution is to make sure directors only work with those they get along with, stars visit the gym regularly, and starlets get plenty of positive attention from the press. If it sounds complicated that’s because it is. In addition to the constant attention your stars need, the studios building's themselves must be regularly maintained by repaired by your building crew, and janitors need to stay on top of the trash you will see the talent tossing anywhere they please.

All of these must be monitored fastidiously because they all effect movie ratings and your studio prestige - which in turn effects what awards and certificates you earn. Since the game has absolutely no story to speak of, achieving them is your only indicator of your success in the tycoon portion of the game. In traditional tycoon-style games, some micromanagement is to be expected and could be considered part of the fun. But here, The Movies actually suffers a little under its Hollywood theme. Most players will find that their perception of the film industry may be too idealized to appreciate the attention to detail needed to keep the studio in the black. After a while any respect you had for the "brilliance" of the idea to make a game where you get to run a movie studio turns into "who's idea was it to make a 'Spoiled Stars Personal Manager' simulation?"

But once you progress far along enough in the game and establish a rhythm for balancing out the needs of the "talent", you can finally spend time crafting your very own magnum opus. And this is the third game alluded to in the introduction. If you choose to give up before you explore this aspect of the game you are doing yourself a real disservice because the quality of content you can produce versus what you may have watched through the previous portion of the game is like day and night.


As just one example... Even though The Movies uses conventional genre divisions like Sci-Fi, Action Horror, Romance, and Comedy, the mini-films generated by the game's engine often do a poor job of showing any distinction between them. What you end up with are pictures like one of my higher-grossing films, "Buffalo Hunter". Though the script it was shot from designated it an "Action" picture, it featured the main character dressed like Davey Crocket, fighting against ghosts and a werewolf against the backdrop of a modern cityscape. The result of this strange disregard for the classification system, is that every film comes out a comedy. Its even further compounded by the Sims-style over-acting and unintelligible gibberish used for speech. Very humorous the first few times, but unrewarding thereafter.