BitLife - Life Simulator review

Life simulators are one of the oldest sorts of computer games. They are said to appear even in the pre-GUI era, being primarily text-based, but it’s still fun in 2019. BitLife is of those life simulators offering you lots of options and knitting your character’s life of them.

Gameplay 9/10

There are two sorts of life simulators. Some of them imitate the way life looks, and some are about the way life works. BitLife is the latter type: it shows the way you live and make your decisions.

So, your character is born. The first years of your BitLife run smoothly, and as you grow up, you discover more options. There are four parameters you need to keep high: happiness, health, smarts, and looks. The game offers lots of options for every year of your life. You can take care of yourself, start education, find a job, try a crime, have a good time, start new relationships or develop the existing, have a baby with your spouse or adopt a child if you’re alone.

All of these actions are interconnected. You probably will have problems with having a baby if you don’t own a house. Your education matters in getting a good job. If you have been caught and imprisoned, employers will mostly reject you, and your love is also endangered, and so on. BitLife has lots of these interconnections, and it’s worth learning.

There is also an achievement system, encouraging you to try everything: live long, live longer, end up as a millionaire, succeed in some activity or in love, be happier and the happiest for long, and so on. You’ll need many lives to get all of them.

The only thing it may lack is random force majeure factors that change life from the outside, unexpectedly and irreversibly. Not that all depends on you in this game: virtual people you interact with may have their own opinions on your relationship, career, health, attractiveness and so on. But all your decisions come quite easy.

Visuals 2/10

It’s a text simulator, and it’s not about visuals at all. All the options are written for you to read, and as you select one, you just proceed to more options. Surprisingly, the most spectacular elements of this game are the ads you watch when you visit the cinema. The rest is just plain text, though packed in a good-looking interactive menu.

Play Play Repeat 10/10

Stuffed with options, this game is very highly replayable. After the first BitLife, you live you’ll certainly want to try it another way. Your character will be born in a different family, take a different start, make other decisions, and you’ll explore other lifestyles. Though real life is much richer, it only gives one try, and in BitLife you can have as many of them as you wish.

Controls 10/10

There’s nothing to learn or to confuse about. When you see a menu, tap the option to select it. When you see the main screen, select the domain to make another step in your BitLife. That’s all, with literally nothing to be wrong about.

The Verdict

This game is a great life simulation, with tons of choices and options, bringing responsibility and teaching consequences. But anyway, it doesn’t matter if you have a big family or don’t have one at all, if you’re getting big or settle with your job, it matters whether you’re happy, healthy and smart; the rest is details.