Bear and Breakfast

You can put pants on the bear.

I was actually pretty unsure on if I would be recommending this game, as I've decided to stop playing, but I realize that I've put 8 hours into it, and I don't regret those hours. That said, it's definitely not a game for everyone. To start on a strong positive, I really do love the atmosphere. I was surprised to learn the game was developed in Romania, as it does seem to have a strong understanding of the American West Coast and the variety of wilderness present in the area. Timber crossing is the Redwoods, A24 is the Colorado Desert, and Highlake reminded me of the Lake Oroville. I'm convinced that the devs must have vacationed in Santa Cruz at some point to have made what they did. The core gameplay loop is unlock a hotel, scavenge the map for materials to build up the hotel, obtain one or two permanent upgrades for the hotel, and then move to a new area with a new hotel. Each new area adds a new room type to account for in the layout, and provides new resources to scavenge. The new rooms usually add a layer to the management as well; the kitchen adds cooking and food to keep stocked, and the boiler rooms require regular fuel refills. You can also unlock employees who will automate some of the hotel's tasks when you start to be spread thin; I only unlocked one, and found he was only useful in a hotel that I had maxed out the potential of already. Generally this core loop holds up decently well, although it can leave you with a lot of downtime just wandering the map scrounging resources you already have too much of, even while you have guests who aren't satisfied, because the tools to satisfy them simply aren't available to you until you progress to a new tier. Often, the path forward to the next tier isn't too clear, and while the game is generally tutorialized well, I found myself having to look up mechanics on reddit or steam guides because they were never addressed by the game directly. I ultimately chose to stop playing when the next phase of progression was to spend about 4 in game days scrounging the same resources from the same locations and waiting for the revenue from my other hotels to allow me to actually build rooms in the new location. Up to that point, I did find myself engaged with the systems, in a manner that wasn't too strenuous. The story (up to the point I reached) kept things very light hearted and playful, with the characters being the star of the show above plot development. This surprised me a little bit, as from the marketing I had expected a plot to slowly unfold about some eldritch cryptid. That may just come later in the story, and it was hinted at in the intro, but seemed to have nothing to do with the gameplay and story in the 8 hours I had played, which I don't consider an insignificant amount of time to reveal at least something in that regard. All that said, I still really enjoyed the character focus, even if they felt a bit generic at times, the writing maintained a consistent wit to itself. If you think you'll enjoy a game that's light on plot and doesn't demand a whole lot of micromanaging, you might enjoy this. If you're not the type to think super hard about mechanics and try to optimize your profits, and just make a nice little cabin for folks to stay at, this is your kind of sim game. If you've experienced the miracle of Stardew Valley's management mechanics, this might struggle to wow you; it would be like trying to leave behind the strongest narcotic you could pick up in favor of lavender oil. There's nothing wrong with lavender oil, but it sure isn't fentanyl.