Brewer Reviews

Brewer is a very solid simulation / tycoon game. Its graphics might not be dazzling, but gameplay is where it shines. A lot of resource management, sophisticated systems (bars, staff, van fleet, recipes etc), good economics, and even a beer brewing mini-game - what else do you want? :)

Generally a good game- great tutorial walks you through it. Lots of maintenance, but that is the type of game I wanted - so I'm happy. Biggest problem - the list of Beer currently stocked in the pubs is a disorganized mess. I might have several batches of pale lager all at one time at a certain pub, all expiring at different times - I've got to scroll down the list and do a mental tally of about how many of that type I have on hand so I don't ship more over if not needed. Once you start getting a ton of beers types at the pubs though this list becomes impossible ---- its just a mess of stock on the list in no particular order. They offer a sort option on the recipe index for brewing - why don't they offer this same sort option on the lists when in the pub? Otherwise an enjoyable game

[h1]#tinygamereviews[/h1] Blander than Bud Light. [list] [*][b][u]Overall Score[/u][/b]: 2/5 [/list] [hr][/hr] [h1]Full Review[/h1] [table] [tr] [td]Playability[/td] [td]3/5[/td] [td]Some tricks and inconsistencies, but playable once you've identified them.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Difficulty[/td] [td]2/5[/td] [td]The only difficulty is general management of resources. Once you get it, [i]you've got it[/i].[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Graphics[/td] [td]2/5[/td] [td]In-game graphics and art are minimal/poor. The title screen is higher quality than the game.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Sound[/td] [td]1/5[/td] [td]Repetitive and bland.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Story & Writing[/td] [td]1/5[/td] [td]There's really no story. It hints at things like "your friend" and things like brawls happen, but nothing is expanded on.[/td] [/tr] [/table] I wishlisted this game a while back and was happy to see it on sale for so cheap this summer. Sadly, it didn't really deliver. [i]Brewer[/i] needs work. It's a run-of-the-mill resource/time management game, sure, but outside of the tutorial (which, like most tutorials, is fine - shows you the ropes - but still bland), there's no life to it. You have a "friend" who helps out for unknown reasons. Brawls break out and...that's it, nothing's described and there's nothing to see. I'd love to see it updated with a little more heart, but as it's a couple years old by now, I don't see that happening. [table equalcells=1] [tr] [th]BEST[/th] [th]WORST[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]The concept and its general execution. It [i]should[/i] be more fun, but it isn't.[/td] [td]It's just boring. There's no real flavor. Interesting things happen, but are described blandly.[/td] [/tr] [/table] [list] [*][b][u]In-Game Purchases[/u][/b]: None [*][b][u]Learning Curve[/u][/b]: Easyish [*][b][u]Replayability[/u][/b]: Low? [*][b][u]Recommended Purchase Price[/u][/b]: $1 [/list]

Sorry but no. I like the cuteness of this game, the graphics look nice, the user interface is not as terrible as others have said and the game is indeed repetitive but that's not really a bad thing if you like the concept all in all. I respect the developer who has worked out a fine looking piece of art (but stopped at the point where finalization should have started). For its price, you can't expect too much depth and features, I admit that, but it doesn't mean that those things the game does offers shouldn't be conceptually worked out correctly. One simple example is: inspections. The game may randomly send an inspection your way. If you have been good (and thus have not earned any decent money), you'll be fine, but the only way to make money is by doing dirty work, so you will eventually be fined due to an inspection one way or another. That's fine by me in a cheap game like this where the depth of the concept isn't expected to be super deep and the focus is aimed at relaxing experience. However, inspections have been implemented, so they should be functional. In my first game, after the biggest part of the tutorial, I get up to three inspections a day (with an average of two). Except for one inspection of those maybe 20 before I stopped playing, they found nothing. If it were properly implemented, this wouldn't be just a simple random roll with the dice. An inspection where they find nothing should make your chance for another inspection lower (like in real life) and extend the waiting period for a new inspection while an inspection where something has been found should maybe put you on schedule for a new inspection when you don't expect it. But in both cases, never more than once a day, never every day. It's things like this one that takes this really otherwise relaxing experience to a hassle where you constantly need to click away inspection messages and hope they don't get thrown at you during your 'dirty works'. The same with the visiting blogger who comes over every 3 days or so, taking down your pub's popularity.

Finally, between the corrupt politicians, the tax evasion, and the 2 hour delivery times to the my pub around the block, I turned a profit. I bought bigger brewing tanks, fancy recipes, and even hired a few relatives at slavery level wages to scrub said brewing tanks. The bribes piled up and the wages rose, but my new IPA brought in the crowds. The margins still remained razor thin. Every perk and upgrade meant more money, more problems, and more relatives. My little corner brewery is still not safe, competition has reared its ugly head and I just realized I cant afford a delivery car to haul my new dark across town.... This is a blast.

Going into the brewing industry, this game caught my eye. So far its been pretty enjoyable. As a brewing sim, its pretty fun. As a tycoon game its amazing. Really in depth, fun and addicting. The dev did an incredible job so try this game out why dont ya

I'd like to recommend this, but I think there are too many issues holding back what is actually quite a fun concept. To start on the positive side, the concept here is a fairly simple supply/demand game based around pubs and beer. You brew beer, transport it to pubs (which have tastes based on the inhabitants of that district) and expand across the city, taking out competitors as you go by having better beer and nicer pubs. The variety of beers is pretty fun and the basics of generating your beers and transporting them to the pubs is pretty straightforward (at least initially). So, the challenge lies in getting the right type of beers in the right proportions to serve the tastes of each pub. That's the puzzle really and it's surprisingly satisfying. Brewing up 1000 pints and watching a pub consume the lot in one night is quite fun. Similarly, watching your staff level up and seeing the quality of everything improve is a fun mechanic, alongside the pub and brewery upgrades. I didn't even get as far as brewing my own special recipes. However, that's where the good points have to end. Unfortunately in the one evening I played this, I came across multiple bugs (stuff that basic play testing really should have found) and the UI is a bit of a disaster. The bugs are a bit annoying, but the UI is the real villain here. In terms of UI gremlins: - Beer in the brewery or in pubs is listed by batch and not collapsed down to type. Once you're brewing a lot of beer, you can end up with many batches of the same beer and so getting an idea of the total of any given type (in the brewery or a pub) is very difficult. - There's no way to get a summary of how much beer you're brewing based on the schedule, which makes scheduling deliveries quite difficult, since you have no idea how much you might have. Once you have multiple pubs, that's a real issue. - Beer prices are generally based on batch (other than the base price). I couldn't find a way to change price for all beers of a certain type within a pub. - The schedule has no edit option. If you want to change a task, you have to delete it and remake it. This is especially annoying with deliveries, as they're quite complicated to set up. - The scheduler allows you to schedule staff members for longer than they'll work without the overtime button clicked. Took me over an hour to spot that that was the reason why my first pub wasn't opening on schedule. No warnings are given. - The pop ups about inspectors basically force you to go down the route of bribery and tax avoidance, which means setting up more staff. You make more money this way, but I'm not American and so I don't fear tax. Having to schedule a task just to avoid pop ups feels a very strange game mechanic. - I suspect that deliveries aren't made if the exact order you've specified can't be completed. I seemed to get in a situation where no beer at all was going to a pub because only a partial load was available. Again, no warning given here. Just a pub with no beer and angry visitors. - Some of the suburb overlays usurp the pub overlay, for some reason. I'd click on the pub and instead get shown the district's stats, meaning an extra click is needed in that particular suburb to get to the pub screen. - Don't think there's any way of moving beer between pubs if you mistakenly send something to a district where it won't be sold. Bugs: - My brewery was filling up with beer which had 0 units, sometimes of a beer I was no longer brewing. You have to manually dispose of this, as it otherwise completely clogs up the already cluttered beer inventory. - Pretty sure the daily financial summary is broken. It showed me making a loss every day, meanwhile my cash was higher at the end of each day. - English translation is very spotty (although I wouldn't hold this against a small developer). So, there's a fun game in here somewhere, but I think it needed more work to really fulfil its potential as a nice, beer soaked sim/puzzler.

I do like the game but it really isn't playable due to the bugs that stop you from expanding to higher levels. It's frustrating that it deletes your schedule and you need to spend another half-hour rebuilding it when a pub closes and deletes other staff that aren't related to that pub. Scheduling is a must to own multiple stores but it is clumsy and takes ages to do but as you cannot edit, each change requires you to redo items from scratch. Once these issues are fixed, this could be a good game but at the moment I can't recommend it.

Overall: I've paid a lot more money for a lot less. This game is a steal at it's regular price. I'd buy it again. I'm not sure if it's something that could be DLC-able, but I'd buy those too if I could. (Mead, wine, cider maybe? :D) If you're on the fence, buy it. Good: Complexity - As complex as you want to make it. I've currently got a spreadsheet going to track my various sales. However, you can definitely just play it without all that effort. Replay Value - I've gone through a couple rounds with this beast. It still feels fresh when I start a new game. Achievements - The achievements aren't easy to achieve. I'm not a fan when they just get handed to you; This game rewards actual effort and solid gameplay. No Beer Knowledge Needed - I was a little worried that I wouldn't appreciate the flavor of the game since I'm not that into beer. That's not the case, and I've learned a whole lot about beer in the 15 or so hours played. There's even a few that I'm going to seek out to try IRL. Needs Improvement: UI - Some of the bells and whistles aren't easily found. For example, nothing in the tutorial goes over where to find the stats on the actual types of beer that you sell each night (you find it by hovering over the beer sold stats on the pub stat screen.) Beer Stats - Tied in to UI, but more specific: The bars that represent the various base stats of the beer are useful, but you're on your own to figure out what each section of the bar represents. (For example, the three sections of Creativity are done up by number (0-100), but the beer preferences for the various customers refer to traditional/creative/unusual instead of numbers. I haven't found anything that really explains the sections or the correlation between the numbers and labels. Day/Night Transition - Being able to activate it with a key rather than clicking would be cool. It's a bit of a pain to have to press space throughout the daytime schedule, but click to end it. Suggestions to the Developer: 1) Don't undersell your project if you make more in the future. Seriously, I would pay a lot more for this game; $10 seems like a good starting point. 2) On the end of day summary, giving the option to click to see each pub's balance sheet would be cool. It would also be a really good, intuitive place to show the sales for each specific beer at each location. 3) Separating the schedule by location would also be amazing (one for the brewery and one for each pub). Alternatively, the ability to drag/move people in the schedule sheet would be great. Anything to help group schedules pertaining to certain tasks together without having to redo all the schedules. 4) Windowed mode.

There's a lot of busywork in this game, plus some genuinely interesting decisions. Really good for when you want to zone out. The developer very plainly cares about the game, and was super responsive when I spotted a problem. The 1.1 update brought some really valuable relief from a previous frustration (you can now set a schedule for staff to follow, if you know when and where you want them to do a particular thing every day) and came with a minor bug. I reported that bug, got a reply to my forum comment from the developer 5 minutes later, and a few hours after that, the bug had been fixed, and the fix had been rolled out! I don't think you can ask for more than that.