News Tower Review (PC)

Before AI-driven drivel and generic tabloid journalism became commonplace, the “old timers” had a finger in every pie—a hand on every scoop. In the 1930s (or thereabouts), the press, while keeping to authentic storytelling without the padding, drew blood from the beating heart of unadulterated reading materials—forehead-slapping headlines and factual reports, bitter truths and harsh realities. It was during that period of time when New York, being at the center of the global newsroom, knew how to tell a story.

News Tower, much like the heyday of the New York press, also knows how to entice its readers with ironclad journalism. Gracefully, somewhere within the borders of an otherwise textbook business sim, it doesn’t just have its finger on the pulse; it has the keys to the heart and all the chambers that connect to it. Oh, it doesn’t bleed cookie cutter nonsense; it bathes in swathes of starch and ink. And I mean that in a good way, believe it or not.

See, News Tower isn’t your ordinary business sim; on the contrary, it’s a jam-packed inkblot affair that not only taps into the traditional trappings of a career sim, but also latches onto dozens of additional pieces and other multi-genre hooks, too. To that end, you don’t just have a rags-to-riches (pun intended) ordeal; you have an in-depth headline that spares no expense on the finer details. City-wide takeovers; bottomless customization; warring factions; propaganda; bribes; and, above all, a newsroom that feels alive with each publication. Oh, News Tower is a lot of things, and frankly, none of them are bad.

Making the Front Page

To put you in the picture, News Tower takes us back to the 1930s—a time when warring rags converged to harness global influence and capitalize on hard-hitting headlines, as well as frequently compete to claim dominance over their respective media oppressors via an avenue of propaganda and bribes, scoops and well-orchestrated alliances.

At the heart of all of this is an incredibly addictive sim in which you, the owner of a local rag, build your own newsroom from the ground up. From humble beginnings to great successes, News Tower invites you to walk the path and establish the press—a job that involves hiring reporters, janitors, and other staff to capture stories and interviews, as well as persuade readers to subscribe to the weekly digest in any way they deem “appropriate.” And behind all of this, who else but you take the reins and decides what goes out and what stays in. There are shady requests to consider; faculty to juggle; headlines to tailor; topics to branch out to; and, more importantly, audiences to poach.

From the moment you step foot into the newsroom, you aren’t just given the chance to shape the headline; you are also given the opportunity to weave the plot and curb the narrative in any manner you see fit. With all of this in tow, you essentially have access to an in-depth toolkit that doesn’t shy away from the intricate details. And when I say in-depth toolkit, I mean it.

Read All About It!

See, where a lot of business sims cater to the single strand, News Tower finds the perfect place to store all of the elements that we know and crave when it comes to pulling the strings and building a coherent tapestry. Aside from its plethora of options and thematic avenues of development, News Tower also comes equipped with a ton of different topics to explore, as well as propositions that come in the form of alliances and back-handed dealings. More to the point, the game makes it so that you always have to think one step ahead of the competition in order to establish a foothold on the ladder. And you know what? It’s a lot of fun, albeit a great deal of work.

News Tower is definitely a more-ish affair that keeps you hooked over the course of its campaign. With a wealth of headlines to publish, stories to follow, and a tactics-based progression system there to keep you thinking outside of the box, so to speak, you always have something to do or look forward to. And that’s something that I love about News Tower: the fact that it entices you to travel the world and chase the beat for hours, days, even even weeks with its infinite supply of incentives and other milestones.

To add to all of the above, News Tower truly does capture the heart of 1930s journalism culture, not just in its prime time editorial format, but in the visual and audio cues, the grainy yet historically apt effects and the subtle yet on-point cultural changes. Suffice it to say that, for a game that bleeds old-school press and New York media, it certainly hits the nail on the head with a striking headline that oozes pre-wartime nostalgia. That, along with its trove of great gameplay elements, make for an absolute blast from the past—a period piece that anyone with a fascination for news will no doubt enjoy spooling through.

Verdict

News Tower publishes a headline that’s as striking as it is capable of enticing even the weakest bookworms to indulge in its time-centric passages and wartime stories, no doubt due to its strung-out composition and wealth of material that compliments what is, in all honesty, a jam-packed tabloid. Suffice it to say, News Tower delivers a one-of-a-kind reporting sim that feels tremendously satisfying to unravel, with its troves of customization tools, business development opportunities, and warring factions providing a firm but fair experience that gives just as much as it takes.

Unlike your bog-standard newsletter that favors unnecessary padding and clickbait over factual data, News Tower adopts a weighty article that turns a blind eye to jargon and squeezes the vein of a higher caliber outlet. With copious amounts of avenues for you to explore and hundreds of tailorable components to manipulate and make your own, it doesn’t just settle for being an admirable love letter to journalism; it strives to be an encyclopedia that yearns to be the ideal canvas for fledgling reporters. And I’ll be frank with you — it hits the nail on the head, and then some.

Perhaps I’m being biased here, but if I’m being honest with you, I would argue that News Tower is, despite its one or two minor shortcomings, one of the better business simulation games of its ilk. It’s weighty, digestible, and an absolute delight to spool through from the moment you publish your initial article to the second you garner citywide recognition and all of the benefits that tie in with it. If that sounds like your ideal cup of tea, then honestly, you would be a fool to pass up the opportunity to subscribe to this ol’ rag.