The economic simulation “Big Ambitions” is a pleasant big surprise for many in spring 2023 on Steam. People love the game, praising in reviews the “realistic simulation” of the rise from supermarket cashier to millionaire. Our author Schuhmann says: You would have to pay me a lot of money to make me play it.
What kind of game is this?
- Big Ambitions was released on March 10 on Steam and costs €23 (via steam). It is still in early access – is supposed to officially release at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.
- In the game, you start as a young man (or young woman, there is a rudimentary character editor) in New York. However, you have a wealthy uncle who gets you your first apartment and makes the transition to “adult life” easier.
- You can plan your rise in capitalism in New York, buy businesses, work your way up, and become rich. The apparent goal is to virtually treat yourself to your own yacht, which everyone yearns for in real life.
Steam reviews rave: “Sims meets GTA meets Retail Tycoon”
Why do people celebrate the game? On Steam, “Big Ambitions” has an impressive 95% positive reviews. Players are enthusiastic:
- “Sims meets GTA meets Retail Tycoon. It’s addictive and still in early access. Can’t wait to see what else they have planned. Easily my favorite game of 2023 so far.”
- “The business simulation we have all dreamed of,”
- “Big Ambitions is a very interesting and varied economic simulation combined with a life simulation.”
Why was I looking forward to the game? After reading the reviews, I was really looking forward to the game. For almost 30 years since the first Anstoss, I have been into economic simulations:
- I played the original German simulation “Kaiser” on the C64
- As a teenager, I played Anstoss on the Amiga at friends’ houses or at least got to watch others play it in small rooms filled with too many teenagers
- I spent countless hours later on Sim City with my own PC
- I developed a nearly scary obsession for Biing
- I dug into indie gems like “Project Hospital”
- I don’t even want to start about the thousands of hours in various “FIFA Manager” versions.
This should say: I really enjoy economic simulations.
Instead of clicking through menus, you really have to walk in Big Ambitions
Here is the difference with Big Ambitions: Most simulations are abstract; you, like a godlike being, direct the fate of your employees or your world. But in Big Ambitions, you really play the character, the aspiring business magnate, and instead of clicking in a menu, you actually have to walk from A to B. In doing so, you must pay attention to, like in a survival game, to have eaten enough and gotten enough sleep.
The game does something in the first 50 minutes that is known in MMORPG terms as “backtracking”: You have to walk the same paths repeatedly.
In “Big Ambitions,” you start in a kind of tutorial and, like in “The Sims,” first set up your apartment anew. While in “The Sims” everything can be bought in a menu, “Big Ambitions” seriously expects me to walk down the street to buy groceries in a store.
No sooner have I trudged back to my apartment than the game sends me back to the store – I am supposed to complete my first shift “as a salesperson” there.
Where it was still “ultra-realistic” before, now comes the harsh break: The shift consists of me clicking on my workplace and then a timer counts down 8 hours, while nothing else happens. Right at the point where realism would be appropriate, and where a new gameplay element could be introduced, the simulation becomes totally abstract.
I watch a timer ticking down. Exciting.
If you think that the game then really begins, it sends you back home to sleep and the next morning again in the direction of the supermarket just one block away, to buy supplies for your first shop. But you don’t do that on foot anymore; you have to struggle through the dense traffic of New York in a car and find a parking space and park correctly – otherwise, a parking ticket will strain your limited budget.
I don’t make any decisions, just walk the same route from A to B
This is my first impression: At this point, after about 20 minutes, I haven’t made a single exciting decision yet, but I have already walked the same route from my apartment to the supermarket or to the other store 4 times. The last time to buy receipts and a cash register, to carry packages to my car, and then to trundle with these business supplies to my shop and set them up there.
And after that, it continues just as before: The game sends me to some library, where I have to complete a “management course” to employ the first employees.
So I click on the study spot and again the timer runs. Because my character hasn’t eaten anything or is still tired beforehand, I manage to cram for the course, but afterwards, I faint and am taken to the hospital, where the game seriously expects me to walk all the way back to my house.
So with all the love and positive expectations. At this point, I requested my €23 back from Steam.
Big Ambitions is like setting up cones instead of buying players
This is my conclusion: If Anstoss 1 had been like “Big Ambitions” 30 years ago, I wouldn’t have assembled a roster or expanded my stadium, but I would have first set up cones in training for two hours, then massaged Thomas Müller’s left and right calves, and afterwards been allowed to drive home from the training ground through downtown Munich, stopping only for a moment to buy frozen groceries so I wouldn’t faint on the way to bed.
One might find this a totally realistic life simulation, after all, in real life you also walk the same routes all the time, but my love for simulations just doesn’t go that far.
I can explain the 95% positive reviews by the fact that Big Ambitions actually appeals very well to a certain target audience (probably the same nerds who spend 3 hours driving a bus in Bus Simulator) – and everyone else should leave it alone from the outset.
Maybe I’m doing the game wrong, and it becomes fantastic and open after the tutorial, but one probably needs a certain affinity for backtracking and a high tolerance for frustration to even get through the tutorial.
As I said … bus nerds:
My new steering wheel for €250 was my most important gaming purchase
