Denizen Review (PC)

Metro Sim Hustle developer Departure Interactive has just released a brand-new life simulation game, Denizen—an all-you-can-eat buffet that boasts a wide variety of jobs, homes, and communal events, to list just a few of its core features. On paper, it touts all the same key components of a cult classic social-centric IP — which is great, because at the end of the day, who wouldn’t want to emit the same energy in two identical scenarios; if you can make pizza at home, what’s preventing you from rolling out the dough in a virtual oven? Needless to say that, as far as life simulation games travel, Denizen follows in a similar pattern as, well, any other game that emulates basic human behavior and economic development. In other words, it follows the same road as The Sims, in the case that, you create, build, and ultimately prosper on your own terms.

Sure enough, the market isn’t exactly short on these sorts of social experiences, and so, the question is, what does it do to set itself apart from its peers? Well, therein lies a question that we’ll have to gradually unpack over a series of snippets and digital dough balls, with the latter being a tongue-in-cheek nod to the game’s weird obsession with Italian cuisine and pizza toppings. But, we’ll get to that in a little while, for there are several other things that we’ll need to cover beforehand — its social aspects, for instance. Care to hear us out? Then let’s jump right in.

Let it Dough

Denizen starts out in a similar fashion as a lot of life simulation games: you create your own avatar, and then begin laying the foundations for your own apartment—a minute task that mostly consists of slotting a few pieces of furniture down, and then running through the basic human functions before heading out for the day. Like in real life, you begin your morning routine by showering, eating, and checking out the latest developments via your trusty mobile phone. After that, well — that’s where things tend to go a little awry; the world outside your front door invites you to enlist in a local career, after which your only objective is to earn money. But that’s about as far as it goes, weirdly enough.

As it stands, there are several jobs to take on in the world of Denizen, though, strangely, the only one that actually work is the pizza chef position. Don’t get me wrong, I did try my hand at several other jobs before taking that one on, but to my surprise, none of them actually worked; they didn’t have any tutorials, and they didn’t allow me to earn any spare cash, despite my efforts to complete all of the jobs on the to-do list. For example, there’s a bartender job—a pretty self-explanatory career that asks only that you pour patrons their drinks, and wait for a timer to reach zero before taking whatever salary that the job promises in its application. But here’s the catch: you don’t actually earn any money from this, even after you’ve worked through the chores. And so, rather annoyingly, making pizza is the only alternative.

Money to Burn

As far as making pizza goes, the only thing you have to do is add toppings to the dough, after which you present the customer with the final product, and then take a small amount of cash on return. What’s annoying here, however, is that you don’t actually have anything to spend said cash on; you can invest in vacant properties, but that’s about it. Furthermore, as there are no endgame objectives to work towards, you literally have no purpose in life other than to make pizza and earn money that has no real value in the outside world whatsoever. For this reason alone, the in-game currency seems all rather pointless, as you are, in a literal sense, working for the next paycheck, but with no real reason to do so.

To say that Denizen is a work in progress would be an understatement, truly. It’s a crying shame, too, because, when it comes to its graphics, it’s actually quite a good-looking game, and several of its best features are tied to the glossy visuals and set pieces. But that’s about as far as it goes, unfortunately. Aside from it having a relatively clean interface, it really doesn’t have much going for it. It doesn’t take a great deal of time, either, to realize that there just isn’t much more to do other than create pizzas and earn a wage. Now, if I had something to do outside of the workplace, then I would’ve been over the moon — but the world just had little else to offer me other than a bland and frustratingly bare-bones locale that felt dead on arrival.

The Loneliest Road

There’s no dialogue in Denizen, or even any real human presence, for that matter. It also isn’t an MMO, and so, for the most part, you’re left to meander around on your own and essentially find a “purpose” in life. But that’s just it: you don’t have a purpose; you’re a lifeless drone who has little purpose at all, let alone the muse to climb a social ladder and become a staple amongst the community. In short, you wake up, and you grind out the same chores each day — earning a living that has no effect on the world whatsoever. Sure enough, you can buy buildings, but you don’t have anything to do with said buildings, and so, really, there isn’t any reason to pursue such things.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t last all that long in Denizen. In fact, it only took me three business days for me to lose interest in the routine and disembark altogether, for I had little reason to think that, by creating bottomless pizzas, I’d have something to work towards. It was a painfully dull experience that quickly burned out in a matter of hours — which is the last thing you’d come to expect from a life simulation game, truly. Sure, the driving experience was entertaining in short bursts, but the fact that I had nowhere else to go other than my apartment or my workplace meant that I had nothing more to see or do.

The good news is, Denizen does actually perform to a good degree; it doesn’t suffer from any low frame rates, nor does it bear any half-baked UI that prevents you from experiencing the breadth of the world and its true colors. But again, a smooth interface doesn’t necessarily make it a good game. It just works.

Verdict

Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room here: Denizen, despite setting its standards incredibly high, has fallen short in just about every way imaginable. It pains me to admit it in ways, but the truth is, this just isn’t a good game, let alone one that deserves the attention of anyone with a heart for life simulation games. On one hand, it’s a game that has the potential to be something much greater, but due to the fact that it has no appealing qualities at present, it’s hard to recommend it to anyone at all — even to those with an undying love for the genre and anything that emulates real-life situations.

Don’t get me wrong, Denizen does, at least, possess a quality selection of customizable features and set pieces, and it does generate a world that at least looks presentable — but that’s all it has going for it. As far as the gameplay goes, there just isn’t enough to keep you emotionally invested for the long haul, or even two or three hours, for that matter. The fact that most of the jobs on the board are half-baked and seemingly incomplete, too, makes the overall product come across as more of a shameless cash grab than a genuinely good experience. But then, for as little as $20, at least it isn’t a complete waste of money. Well — yeah.

To cut a long story short, if you are looking to set your sights on a new life simulation game, then take it from me: you don’t want to waste your time with this one. It isn’t a terrible game, but due to a lot of it having a lack of heart or structure, it just isn’t worth the investment. If you love making pizza, though, then hey — go nuts.