Birthdays the Beginning Reviews
The designer behind Harvest Moon returns with a game that frustrates as much as it fascinates.
Birthdays the Beginning is about as exciting as watching paint dry – even if you get to pick the colors
The ambitious-but-flawed Birthdays the Beginning is packed with charm, but suffers from a clunky interface and confusing systems.
Birthdays the Beginning is cute and nostalgic but there's not much depth
Birthdays: The Beginning is a cute and clever world-builder where simple actions can have deep, complicated results.
It comes so close to being something I love and then it has a hollow core.
If it was structured more like Universe Sandbox, or if the world behaved more consistently, Birthdays: The Beginning would have been a far more fun and educational experience, instead of a dull and frustrating one.
Birthday the Beginnings may be fun but it also has a very plane gameplay. A game that may be fun for the usual management players, but with a very modest visual look.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Birthdays the Beginning begs to be enjoyed by a particular gamer, which could hold it back from non-simulation fans to give it a try. I would have enjoyed more interaction between me and my organisms, but the game draws the line of interaction with the world to merely altering the land. With that said, the systems introduced in the game work well for a game that is supposed to the “beginning” of a much larger idea. I'm excited to see where the series goes moving forward as well as the incredible environments that are sure to come from the community.
Birthdays: The Beginning is a nice simulation game with a really cute art direction, which fans of the genre and people who seek a relaxing gaming experience will probably enjoy. Unfortunately it has its flaws, like poorly detailed graphics, slight frame rate drops and clunky controls, that we hope will disappear in the next titles of the series.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Despite the many obvious flaws there's a mesmerising quality to the game's artificial worlds, as the gameplay itself creates a surprisingly palatable form of edutainment.
Even though certain design elements aren't as streamlined, fleshed-out, or user-friendly as they could have been, part of me is just thankful Birthdays even got greenlit. Niche as it might be, I've wanted something like this for years, and despite my admittedly high expectations, I still came away impressed. I hope the game is able to find an audience, because it so clearly deserves one.
As a simulation, Birthdays the Beginning is a fairly unique approach to the open-world sandbox simulator. It does a fantastic job of demonstrating how important it's to maintain balance within an ecosystem, in order for life to thrive. It also helps to drive home how even the smallest of organisms can make a gigantic impact on the world around them. The main issue is that the campaign is so focused on introducing new mechanics that it seems to lose sight of this unspoken thesis. In turn, this leads the player on a mission to track down answers that should instead be provided to them at a glance. Due to this, it's hard to shake the feeling of being thrown into the deep end of an algae coated swamp, without a life raft.
I enjoyed my time with Birthdays the Beginning. It's not an action game or even much of a strategy game. It has some fun elements to it that allow players to create and relax. Finding all the life forms is a fun endeavor, and one that I think people who enjoy games like Viva Piñata and to a sense, Minecraft, will have a lot of fun with it.
Birthdays the Beginning could be the love child of Minecraft and Spore, evolution merged with sandbox in its purest form. It's an interesting idea, at least in theory, but you're gonna need a lot of patience and dedication to fully appreciate it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Birthdays the Beginning is an oddity: it's a relaxed, cutesy god game, but it also requires you to follow strict rules and pay attention to a vast array of stats, which can kill the fun factor to a degree. The free play mode makes for a more chilled out time, however, while the challenges offer more objective-based gameplay for those that want it. The creature capturing is initially compelling, but once you've seen everything, the game doesn't really have anything to draw you back in.
Despite the sometimes clumsy controls, though, Birthdays is still an incredibly easy-to-play game that serves as a great go-to for a quick bit of gaming. My entire family was intensely interested, and it became something that we got to explore together.
Birthdays is a fantastic idea on paper, but suffers from some very poor execution that hinders the overall experience.
Ironically, the only thing holding this game back is a lack of evolution.
I wouldn't recommend Birthdays the Beginning to anyone. Its biggest problem is badly done tutorial, which doesn't help in understanding this complicated game. Beside original idea for gameplay, there is not much worth seeing.
Review in Polish | Read full review