Another Brick in The Mall Review Summary

Last updated: 2026-02-05
  • Enjoyable and addictive gameplay experience.
  • Creative and flexible building mechanics.
  • Offers good value for money.
  • Suited for casual and inexperienced players.
  • Technical issues and bugs present.
  • Lacks strategic depth and content.
Another Brick in The Mall header

Emotions

What players like:

Common complaints:

Gameplay feedback:

Performance notes:

Recommendations:

Other player notes:

Review evidence

Why players say this

What players like

Enjoyable and Addictive Gameplay: Many players find the game incredibly fun and addictive, with a variety of management aspects and challenges that keep them engaged for hours. The gameplay is described as smooth, entertaining, and suitable for all audiences.

Creative and Flexible Building: Players enjoy the creative freedom and flexibility in building and managing their malls. The game offers a wide variety of shops, items, and design possibilities, allowing for a personalized experience.

Good Value for Money: The game is seen as a good value for its price, especially when on sale. Players appreciate the lack of micro-transactions and the extensive content provided, making it worth the investment.

Suitable for Casual and Inexperienced Players: The game is easy to learn and suitable for casual and inexperienced players. The intuitive controls and helpful tooltips make it accessible, while the depth of management provides a challenge for more experienced players.

Simple and Clean Graphics: The game's graphics are described as simple, clean, and functional. The retro-inspired 2D art style is appealing and fits well with the game's theme.

Common complaints

Technical issues and bugs: Frequent crashes, savegame corruption, and various bugs plague the game. Players report issues with AI pathing, builder bugs, and general lack of optimization, making the game frustrating to play.

Lack of strategic depth: The game is criticized for its lack of strategic depth and complexity. Players find the research tree underdeveloped and the overall gameplay too simplistic, lacking the depth found in similar games.

Lack of content and depth: The game is criticized for its limited gameplay options, lack of advanced features, and repetitive tasks. Players find the game shallow and underdeveloped, with not enough variety in store types, items, and customization options.

Poor user interface and mechanics: The game's interface is described as clunky, confusing, and not user-friendly. Mechanics for building, staff management, and product shelving are criticized for being tedious and non-intuitive.

Lack of updates and support: Players feel the game has been abandoned, with no significant updates since 2021. This lack of continuous updates and improvements has led to a sense of neglect and frustration among the player base.

Gameplay and performance

Comprehensive management simulation: The game involves a wide range of management tasks including hiring and managing workers, building and designing stores, managing logistics, and financial management. It also includes elements of city-building and business development simulations.

Diverse gameplay mechanics: The game features various mechanics such as grinding, achievement systems, visitor behavior simulation, and an employee skill system. It also includes research systems, economic simulation, and customer satisfaction mechanics.

Sandbox and modding support: The game offers a sandbox mode with a huge map size and various scenarios. It also supports mods, allowing players to add new items or change the game's appearance, enhancing replayability and customization.

Detailed customer and staff mechanics: The game includes detailed mechanics for customer pricing, salary increases, and traffic systems. It also features staff hiring and management, with options for employee schedules and traits.

Research and unlocking system: Players can research new technologies and products, unlocking new content and enhancing their stores. This system adds depth and progression to the gameplay.

Frequent game crashes: Many players report that the game is unplayable due to frequent crashing. Issues include crashes on first click, during gameplay, and problems with reopening the game after a crash.

Lag with high customer numbers: The game experiences lag issues when there is a high number of customers or with larger stores, affecting gameplay performance.

Bugs with pricing and parking: There are potential bugs related to pricing mechanisms and issues with underground parking functionality.

Small game size: The game has a very small file size, noted to be around 200 megabytes, which is comparable to the size of a floppy disk game.

Game speed and optimization: There are mentions of game speed and the need for optimization, indicating that these are areas of concern for players.

Recommendations

Worth buying on sale: Many reviewers suggest that the game is worth purchasing if it is on sale, especially at a deep discount. Some recommend waiting for updates or buying it only when it's significantly reduced in price.

Recommended for strategy and management fans: The game is highly recommended for those who enjoy strategic thinking, planning, building, and managing. It is particularly suitable for fans of city-building, economic simulations, and business management games.

Potential for future updates: The game is recommended based on its current strengths and potential for future updates. Reviewers suggest that the game has potential and expect more content and improvements in the future.

Add public transportation and camera rotation: Reviewers suggest adding public transportation options and the ability to rotate the camera to enhance gameplay and provide more control and variety.

Not for those averse to bugs: The game may not be suitable for players who dislike bugs and crashes, indicating that there might be some technical issues that need to be addressed.

Other review notes

Frequent updates in Early Access: The game is currently in Early Access and receives constant updates, which players appreciate for continuous improvements and new content.

Texture change guide creation: There is a request or mention of creating a guide for changing textures, indicating players' interest in customizing or modifying game textures.