The Startup: Interactive Game 12+

When i first started the game it seemed a really fun, simple game. It looks really nice, and i really liked the concept of it. I mostly bought the cheapest options because you are only given 200k at the start, only i ran out of money and therefore couldn’t buy the rest of the things. This was after having to wait an hour to continue playing as there are periods where the game makes you either wait 1 hour, pay 4.99 a week or something ridiculous like that or watch 5 adverts. I did not take either of the second options, I decided to wait as i hadn’t even played long enough to have a decent judgment of the game so I certainly wasnt spending money on it at that point. In my honest opinion this game is just a cry out for money, with the crazy amount of ads that pop up and the fact the game wants you to pay a subscription to not have to wait an hour after buying a couple things. This game has great potential and if you made some changes to the way you do things this could be a really good game, im fine with a couple ads here and there. It doesn’t normally bother me if a game has a subscription, but the fact that you are not given enough money to buy everything you need added to the fact that you have to wait an hour after making a few clicks that make you watch adverts just ruins the game. I hope you realise these issues and fix them.

So it seems, after reading all the other reviews, I’m not the only one with this issue. It’s a poorly made game…

It looks good and the concept is great! I wasn’t too bothered about an ad every now and then but the game slowly starts giving you more as you go on. You’re given a budget of 200k to build your business up. Seems legit. Only the options given to you are way too much money and after a couple mandatory purchases, you’re made to either wait an hour, watch a few ads or pay for the subscription. I thought “yknow what? that’s fine. Seems like it’s a realistic type game with real wait times” so I waited, came back and then after a couple more purchases, I was asked to invest in something. It took all my remaining money and I was then given the choice to either use an in-game credit card (they make you watch up to 150 adverts to earn one that would allow you progress) or use in app purchases… you’d have to spend upwards of £20 just to get back in the game.

It’s been said before and I’ll say it again. This game is a desperate shout for money for the creators. It seemed so good but it’s clearly just some sort of scam. I hope they change the inner workings of the game because it seems like it could have a lot of potential. Until then, I wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone.

I am in disbelief that I fall for this! It’s like a teleshopping scam constantly asking you to pay for stuff. I love the idea and I don’t mind that it’s all text based. I want a premium experience with my games, so I paid for the £5 a week subscription. Within minutes, my startup ran out of cash and I was kindly presented with various options to buy more cash with real money, with a range going from £5 to £85. Ahahahahaha! I want to PLAY the founder of a start-up investing real money into it, not actually do that with my own finances. I would have expected the game to allow me to seek some investment at that point, but no, the only option was to buy money with money. I have to say this is extremely aggressive. Everything about it really. The fact that they monetise with a subscription (and an outrageously expensive one), when there is nothing about this game to suggest that this is an ongoing service is silly. This is a text based sim, which a couple of students could write by themselves very easily. I am all for supporting indie devs, but AAA games built by tens of people charge that much as a one off (check the premium category), not per week. Then if you somehow get over this fact and actually sign up to this subscription, you still can’t play because you need to “unlock” more cash with real money. No, thanks. This will be my very first time asking for a refund on the app store.