I was a huge fan of SimTower. I remember playing it for hours when I was a kid. I bought Project Highrise because of the nostalgia factor and I was not disappointed. I don't understand why this game has so many negative reviews. It has everything that I liked about SimTower and more (with DLC included). Not only that but it removes the only thing that really bugged me about Sim Tower: elevator management. Elevators still exist but having people reach the top floor no longer has the same level of difficulty as climbing Mount Everest. Contrary to what the other reviews say, managing utilities is not that big of a pain. Just periodically check the capacity and usage. Also make sure that you know what services the rooms will need before you build. If I have one criticism of the game it is grime mechanic. Apparently, these tower dwellers are total slobs. I found keeping on top of the condition of the rooms to be rather tedious. If you were a fan of SimTower, you will probably like the game. If you were never into SimTower, I don't know. Nostalgia certainly impacts my impressions of the game so you might not get as much as I did out of it.
I am about halfway through the second scenario and I was really surprised at how much I enjoy this game. I don't even smoke weed anymore and it is still a lot of fun. The game mechanics are more complex than you would expect. There is some clickfest stuff when harvesting but there are other elements too. The scenarios could be longer or maybe there could be more of them but that is to be expected for a $20 game. Maybe more will be available later. I agree with some of the other reviews that there are quite a few bugs. I wouldn't say it is unplayable but the game freezes quite often (make sure you save frequently). There are also a couple of annoying features such as being interrupted by dialogue which messes things up when I am trying to trim my plants. Not a bad game for the price.
If you are going to call a game a "spiritual successor" to another game, especially a game as legendary as Planescape: Torment, it is best to not change fundamental game mechanics from the original. I was a huge fan of PS:T. Part of the reason I liked it (among many other things) is because I like the RTwP mechanics. Turn based just isn't my thing. When you try to expand upon legendary games and move away from fundamental things that made the original game great, you end up with things like Deus Ex: Invisible War... or Tides of Numenera.
