Maximum Capacity: Hotel Giant

Personally, I found it very boring. You spend a LOT of time putting together rooms. It is time consuming and monotonous. For those who LOVE building their homes in the Sims, this would probably be fun for you! I found it fun for the first few hours.. but then I was so bored I had to force myself to finish and get to the fun stuff!

The game did have its good points though. The graphics are fairly good for a sim/tycoon style game and there are a LOT of item options you can choose from when desiging your rooms. Also, once you design one hotel room - you can reuse the same design over and over to get rid of some of the monotony involved in building so many rooms. Once you finally get out of pause mode from building, it is very fun to watch your guests (once they actually arrive!).

The staff controls are minimal at best .. you can't do much more than change salaries and outfits. You also can't hire maids (what kind of hotel has no housekeeping??). I would have liked more control here and more interactions.

In Sim/Tycoon style games I get more enjoyment out of managing all the little things than I do from designing, so this game wasn't great for me. For those who really love the design aspect, it would be MUCH more appropriate!


hotel giant is the best!!   November 24, 2003
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

When I first got this game I couldn't wait to play it. It is a really fun game to play if you like hotels. It is very realistic and the graphics are great. You get to watch your guests and see what they do in your hotel. There are also places you could build like swimming pools, restaurants, bars, meeting rooms, etc. One thing that you can't do that got me mad is that you can't hire maids. Also, when you want to build a hotel in a certain city, it only offers you one at a time. It is still a great game and I suggest that you buy it if you like these kind of games.


Not like The Sims...not supposed to be   August 17, 2003
 16 out of 16 found this review helpful

Being a huge fan of simulation games, I picked up a used copy of Hotel Giant with low expectations. I used to play Sim Tower years ago, and expected this game to be sort of like that, but with just the hotel elements (and better graphics, of course).

My used copy didn't come with a manual, so I installed and ran the game, hoping I could figure everything out. The tutorial to the game was excellent. I learned everything I needed to know about building my hotel quickly with a hands-on approach and without having to read a drawn-out manual.

After the tutorial, I played a few of the scenarios and met my goals easily. Then I decided to go on my own and build in a hotel of my choice. Designing the guest rooms in the hotel is the best part of the game, in my opinion. You can create one room and then use it over and over, or you can make every room different. You can look up what kind of rooms your potential guests are looking for and cater to their needs in order to get more people into your hotel. And if a guest staying in your hotel thinks they aren't getting their money's worth, they will tell you what they think needs improving.

One aspect of the game that I really enjoy is the different camera-angles you can view your hotel in. You can follow your guests around, seeing the hotel from their own eyes, or you can view it from a more Sims-like perspective.

While this game will keep you entertained for hours on end, I think that there is some room for improvement, or at least, expansion. You don't get to interact with the staff very much, other than managing their salary and choosing what their uniforms look like. There's no housekeeping or room service, and I think that a gift shop would also make a nice addition, as well as help you make more money (which I am finally doing after building my third hotel).

While many people like to compare this to the Sims, I do not. The two games have completely different objectives. In the Sims, you mainly control the lives of people. In Hotel Giant, the focus is on designing and maintaining a hotel that is profitable. Overall, I do highly recommend this game to people who love simulation games, as I do.