An unpleasantly restrictive city-builder that’s built on microtransactions
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There are some genuinely neat things about Bixity: It’s got a cute look, a sense of humor, and offers the ability to cruise around town at street level that could be pretty exciting. Unfortunately, at its core, it’s nothing much more than a collection of disturbingly predatory monetization schemes, and even its promise of a creative sandbox is only skin deep.
Brixity has the usual half-dozen currencies to collect, each powering a separate aspect of the game. To build, you need coins, which you can earn in-game in commercial buildings. To make these buildings really productive, however, you’ll need to staff them with Pipos—that’s Brixity’s term for its citizens—which arrive in your city at the spaceport.
I was disappointed that Pipos aren’t drawn to town because of economic opportunities or recreational facilities. Instead, the spaceport is a standard gacha vending machine, and it spits out random Pipos with varying degrees of rarity and sets of skills.
Construction looks fun, but it is shockingly non-interactive: After placing a blueprint on the ground, I was limited to simply moving parts out onto the foundation in a set order, with the game automatically completing the building as I dropped parts in the correct locations.
Naturally, the timers governing construction and expansion get longer and longer as the game goes on, and it’s only possible to reduce these by paying for premium currency. In a game that’s clearly marketed to children, this feels cynical and predatory. Avoid.
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