The Executive Review (PC)

The Executive has, after several years of rewriting its scripts, threading out bloopers, and barking “LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION” at its fledgling movie buffs, hit the big screen in an attempt to rekindle the flames beneath the star-gazed legacy of The Movies. The sim, which draws inspiration from countless clapperboard-centric business simulation games, comes equipped with a rags-to-riches career mode—a segment where players build their own 70s-style production company and chop through the various silver screen eras—and a plethora of components akin to those in a time-appropriate Hollywood setting, including tailorable themes, celebrity cameos, modes of distribution, franchising opportunities, and even an in-depth monetization system, to list just a few of its prime time features.

At first glance, I thought The Executive would be of a similar taste as 2005’s The Movies and, more recently, Movies Tycoon. And to some degree, I wasn’t wrong; it is, more or less, a sandbox simulation that earmarks a lot of the same audiovisual elements, and is more in tune with Movies Tycoon, in the case that you launch your career as a low-level assistant in the preliminary stages of big-screen production, and gradually begin to sift through the various aspects of the film business in a bid to outgrow small time constraints and break into the Hollywood Hall of Fame. But that wasn’t enough to steer me away from it, and despite its blatant similarities with its adversaries’ worlds, it was enough of a curiosity to persuade me back into the director’s chair for yet another stab at cracking the film industry and churning out some blockbuster hits.

Who’s Who in Showbiz

Waltzing into the cutting room for the first time is a lot like starting a new job as an entry-level undergrad — you don’t know anybody, every lesson you learn is going straight through one ear and out of the other, the overhead of your department is demanding, and you’re already thinking about the future, and how you might be able to transform it into something special with a little finesse and fine-tuning. Well, the same experience more or less applies in The Executive; it accommodates a ludicrous amount of data, a lot of dos and don’ts, and expects you to crack the code and elevate your knowledge to meet the company’s standards. And believe me when I say, there is a lot to learn, as movie magic isn’t just about creative ideas, but also about juggling finances, fostering ironclad relationships with actors, and tuning in to the latest trends.

The journey starts out relatively simple. Well, I say that, when really there’s still a good amount to pick up and roll with. With the studio’s humble beginnings in mind, the initial portions of the campaign are all about finding a foothold in the industry—a process that primarily involves hiring cast members, allocating funds, and choosing between a selection of genres to work with as you begin shooting your first low-budget movie. The goal of the game, which doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, is to outmaneuver your rivals, capitalize on specific trends, and build a studio that can ultimately dominate the box office with epic titles and star-studded performances. And if you think that sounds like a walk in the park, well, that’s because it is — if you have Tom Cruise in your back pocket. For the record, you don’t, and Hollywood is cutthroat.

Making Magic

The core gameplay loop is a bit of a mixed bag of tricks; you’ll laugh, cry, and pour your heart and soul into the art of moviemaking, blissfully unaware of how each project will turn out. Will you make enough cash to cover your casting expenses? Will you turn heads at the premiere with your choice of genre? How will the critics score your questionable taste in set design? A lot of these questions tend to orbit most, if not all of the things that you do in The Executive, which can feel rather overbearing at times, but with the inclusion of a good selection of tutorials and an organic stepping stone procedure, the act of making good movies is never made to feel impossible, much less out of reach.

The Executive doesn’t always prepare you for the consequences of your actions, which is a challenge in itself. For example, you might find that your leading star has been involved in a scandal, at which point you would have to navigate the aftermath of the event and pull a few strings to soften the blow of your movie’s reputation ahead of its debut. And then there are other things to consider, like deciding whether or not a dinosaur flick would work as a comedy, or if the pitch of your co-star’s voice might begin to grate over a certain period of time. There’s a tremendous amount to take into account here, but thanks to the game’s pre-production screen and simplified configuration, these possible outcomes aren’t especially tough to decipher. Granted, it doesn’t always hold your hand, but it does a splendid job of teaching you how to play the market.

And For My Next Trick

With a lot of potential scripts, themes, and characters to choose from, you could quite easily lose a lot of hours to the art of moviemaking in The Executive. The visuals aren’t all that great, I’ll admit, and generally speaking, it could do with a bit of extra TLC to really bring out its finest qualities. But other than that, there’s a great deal to fall in love with here, and as it stands, it’s possibly one of the more memorable movie-centric simulation sims on the current market. Granted, its competition isn’t massively fierce, what with the concept being so niche and it having very few torchbearers to illuminate the scale of the feud. But, for what it’s worth, I do believe that there are some strong bones here, and if said bones can generate a few more ligaments in future updates, then the sky’s the limit, truly.

Of course, several things do tend to dampen the overall gameplay experience, such as the lack of creative control over the filming process, for example. This isn’t that sort of game. No, The Executive is, if anything, a behind-the-scenes simulation experience, which means that, while there are still plenty of things to do, the game doesn’t cover all areas of the filmmaking process. It’s a shame, but at least it brings what it does have some level of justice and plausibility.

Verdict

Looking back, I’m not entirely sure whether or not I was an admirable studio hand, but the fact that I didn’t have to juggle with the traditional constraints of a tight-fisted, no-nonsense figurehead of a movie exec made the journey feel less of a chore than it could’ve been. It had its moments, and it bore its teeth in the initial pre-production phases with a notable learning curve and a lot of unfamiliar mechanics — but once the cogs began to turn and the bulk of each project shifted from cutting room floor outtakes to feature-length nuggets of movie gold, it became incredibly rewarding—magical, even. And I think that’s what I recall the most: the red carpet debuts, and the payoff that came after several hours of constantly adjusting algorithms and testing the waters with vast quantities of combinations and potential scenarios.

To say that The Executive is peppered with the finest audiovisual aspects in the world wouldn’t be entirely accurate, for it does fall short in several of its key areas. However, when saddled next to its other major elements—bottomless themes, scenarios, and casting cards, for example—this lack of technical polish is a minor issue in comparison with the more complex components. And, to be fair, the actual process of building a set and creating a movie is a lot of fun, even if, say, a lot of said movies fail to make ends meet and diminish your overall excitement for the art. It’s a learning curve that yearns to be conquered, and if it taught me anything, it was that patience pays the bills and the hearts of critics alike.

To put it simply, if you’re in the market for an in-depth moviemaking simulation game with all of the Hollywood-like bells and whistles — welcome aboard.