It's been a rough day. You finally made it to London with visions of super-wealth in your head. This was you big chance to show those back home that you could make it in the big city. Then your backpack was stolen. All you've got now is four pounds in your wallet and a cell phone. But, as you stand flummoxed in the rain, someone in a car driving by take pity on you and offers to give you a lift to the police station. That said person turns out to be local millionaire Mr. C, whose ailing health has conveniently left him in search for a young successor to run his empire, can only be called coincidence. Still, now opportunity knocks, and if you make some smart choices, you just might make it to the penthouse at... 56 Sage Street. A role-playing/simulation advergame from Barclays, BBH London and B-Reel that's out to provide a bit of financial literacy education, 56 Sage Street has quality you can take to the bank.
Played entirely with the mouse, save for a few of the minigames, the goal of 56 State Street is to show enough financial savvy to prove yourself to be a worthy inheritor to Mr. C's fortune. Making money relies on many things, with your main stats of reputation, energy and appearance represented at the bottom left of the screen, and the time of day at the upper left. Around the map are icons referring to the various business of the city. Doing jobs makes cash, naturally, but it requires spending time and energy. Some jobs you can't even get without a good enough appearance or reputation. Food and rest restores energy, shops and stylists can help with your appearance, doing jobs and making connections improves your reputation, and banks make it easier to keep track of your financial obligations At the bottom of the screen is your cellphone, used to keep track of finance and receive assignments from Mr. C. Progressing enough unlocks various mini-games to play and new parts of the city to explore. Do well enough and you'll rule London... or at least a couple streets.
56 Sage Street is a very impressive game, even if, as edutainment, it's a little simplistic. The target for the educational portion is obviously teens who are beginners to personal finance. The challenge is thus muted a bit for those who've been balancing their checkbooks for years. That said, even if the advice the game gives is basic, it is well worth listening to: live within your means, don't overdraw your bank account, get a haircut and do your laundry before a job interview, and don't give that friendly African prince your PIN code. Of course, a game based around the theme of equating success to money, a swanky apartment and the coolest fashion leaves itself open to criticism. However, that may be asking too much philosophy from a work in which you can just show up to work a shift at the local firework factory whenever you please.
Where 56 Sage Street really shines is in its aesthetics. B Reel has put its high-production values to work in designing a truly awesome setting. Its a darker brooding cousin of Sim City with enough graffiti and garish neon to feel living and lived it. It's impressively stocked with businesses of all kinds and prices. Certainly some are interchangeable: it probably doesn't matter whether you choose to restock your energy with fish and chips at one place or tikka masala at another, but merely having those kinds of options feels very cool. This attention to detail is maintained in all aspects of the work and is one reason the game is so addictive. While 56 Sage Street does fall victim to the same problem many of its life sim brethren have (the accurate repetitiveness of the work, eat, sleep cycle), the world is wonderful to spend time in and you'll be hard pressed to stop until you make it to the top.
Note: While it is perfectly playable from start to finish without it, 56 Sage Street uses Facebook Connect to save your progress, and to optionally request gameplay bonuses from friends.
Why is there an elephant trumpeting? It just started, with no in-game explanation for the noise. It goes off every few seconds and I've had to mute the game because it's extremely annoying. Does anyone know how to make it stop?
I was enjoying this right up until I went to Tony's to work and found myself playing a time management game a la Diner Dash. Not really my cup of tea, those.
...I ran into a problem where I was meeting the third checkpoint of 750 pound, but not receiving the next doodad.
So I stopped.
If I can hear anything about that, I'll pick it up again. I want to see it through to the end.
Great game, I'm almost finished, and even then I'll probably go back and get any awards I haven't already gotten. Not too much replayability, but still fun.
@ChaoSpectre: Did you make sure the 750 pounds were in savings? I know I was confused at first when I got to that checkpoint, until I read one of the messages Mr C. had sent me and noticed it said the money had to be in your savings account, not just your regular account like before.
@ChaoSpectre
I did the same thing, read the objective again it says 750 in your savings account just transfer some over and it will work.
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I thought the game was pretty good, as was said in the review quite easy. It would of been nice if there was some kind of change from one section to the next other than better paying jobs and higher costs.
A few random events would of fit in well, the only ones I hit were my scooter getting broken the moment I bought it and blowing away a chihuahua with a leaf blower.
Where do I buy insurance? Also, someone needs to kill that elephant. I'll do it for free.
Ok, I figured it out. Insurance is at the bank.
Question for those of my fellow JIGamers who have gotten to the final task of the game...
How do you get the key for Mr. C's vault? Not to mention the fact that I feel a bit like I poisoned him or something (he always had so much faith in me! *tear* or the fact that I don't want to share with my Facebook friends that I play this game by asking for their help...I'm not sure at all how to proceed and finish the game.
I want to finish, but if the final task is like
getting the key that the mayor lost, which seems to require involving Facebook friends
, then I don't think I'll be able to.
Thanks for any help!
Love this site and its people!
-ALK
The game bugged out on me at the 3rd minigame - the guy would finish dictating, then he would keep doing his talking animation and not say anything, and the minigame wouldn't end.
I don't like it requiring facebook connect to save, but I decided to cave in and use it to save anyway. However, on second thought, I don't know if I want to come back and play this game again.
Yeah, the text moves way too slowly for me. I didn't enjoy having to wait five seconds after I finished reading every stupid bubble that popped up before I get back to the actual game. Not even worth checking to see if that can be changed in the options.
Margret Thatcher would have her joice in that game. The classic from dish-washer to multimillionaire myth (where so many people forget e.g. that gates came from upper class already his parents owning a lawyer company).
Everybody become a multimillionaire if s/he works hard enough, and if not you, it's just because you're a lazy [something]. (And our economy would work if we were all millionaires? And not for most an empty promise kept as carrot in front of their nose?]
I doubly tricky's comment the theme can be well debated.
I'd wanted to play the game in one sweep. No way I bug my "friends" on facebook about yet another game they likely don't care about. The third minigame stopped me, as a motorcycle was brumming all the time (bug or feature?) and could not understand a word (btw. due to the minigames this game obviously is not mouse only)
Oh and this and our of this game world (facebook required to save really?) also seems to respect hardly privacy as Mr. C seems to automatically get informed about the status of my bank account.
Oh and seemingly alltruistic tasks and jobs aren't about alltriusmn at all! You only do that to increase your 'reputation', which main effectivness is to get you better jobs and net you more money after all. Its all about the M.o.n.e.y.
FuzzyFace:
It's especially interesting to contrast this game with the earlier reviewed Spent: https://jayisgames.com/archives/2011/02/spent.php
Certainly, I would say that both games in tandem give a better view of financial life then either individually.
Question: Does the medium of games naturally lend itself more to the philosophy of individual efficacy?
Yes, well one can view this game as spot on parody of our commercial society.
Answer: Nah, not the medium by its nature, but the games we pick. I suppose on computers we developed games of indivial efficacy because of the society/sphere these games come from. At least of the screen take soccerr and basketball (basically many teamsports) as counter example of non-inidividual-efficacy. Or world-of-warcraft. While its also kind of capitalistic economy (you own your equipment which is basically the capital to earn more stuff) at a certain point in the game you have to go in a team to get anywhere.
Can someone please help me? I have big problems with the lawyer. I don't understand a single word. Is it always the same sentences. Any tips?
I really enjoyed the game and would recommend playing it. It can be finished in 2 hours I think, a bit more if you want all the achievements. You also don't need help from your Facebook friends, except for
the last achievement where you have to find the Mayor's key, or if you want to stay in the special hotel in area 4.
* I also experienced the annoying trumpeting/motorcycle revving/city noise problem. The dictation task is very difficult but still doable since you can catch the guy's words when all is a bit quieter, and then improve; but it took me about 20 tries to get a gold achievement on it.
* I think the game could do with a faster navigation system, like a clickable minimap to move to different areas.
* I like fuzzyface's cynical ironical view of the game and what it says about making money.
* I experienced a bug where my character changed from male to female after I had completed the game.
* Text boxes that appear when you click icons could appear a bit faster, especially when dealing with the Bank.
* I think it's a bit cheeky to expect people to use Facebook to save the game. It's like giving someone a bucket and then asking them to do you a favour before you give them the handle.
i really didnt like the facebook option for saving and some medals. The entire game is great, although i didnt like the minigames, like the dictating minigame. Took me an hour. Oh and i started out the game as a boy but at the end somehow i turned into a girl. Does anyone know how this happened?
[Spaces added after your punctuation. Please, for the sake of legibility, add them yourself next time. Thanks. :) -Mod.]
I seemed to have an issue saving. I saved many times and I went back later an hit load game and nothing happened. guess ill start over :)
when i get to the task where i need to play the piano it tells me that i missed every single note. it doesnt really seem possible to me that this happened but i guess it did. any tips??
why is it that I can't find restaurants when I'm inspecting them?
You don't need friends to finish the game. Alternate solution:
You can play a safe-unlocking minigame if have a pair of xray glasses. You can get a pair from a store uptown, or if you trade stocks, the man you work for will give you a pair
What the...? I was really having fun with the game but I had to restart the browser after it crashed. Now I have no HUD overlays at all! No clock, no vital stats and no money! I can't play this way!
[Try emptying you browser cache and reload. Or try another browser. -Jay]
Why does it keep on saying Minimal withdrawal is 10?
Jig Guest: You don't have to wait for the text to go away, just click the bubble and move on.
Anyone have any clue how to get access to the brain surgery job?
Same problem ALK asked how do I open the safe at the end? I got the x-ray from that terry guy but before that I bought them. I don't know what to do. Also, while I was doing the typing part I guess your comments have been heard because I heard the guy loud and clear. No revving or motorcycle noise here.
Was enjoying the game but after about an hour and a half it locked up right after playing at Jolly Roger. Running Win7 latest updates and Firefox 6.01. Would have enjoyed the game more without the Facebook tie-in but I liked the overall concept. Wouldn't mind seeing more games like this but maybe include a save function for us non-Facebookers.
It's a pretty fun little game. Materialism galore though.
I also had the problem where my character switched to a girl at the end of the game. Later on I decided to play the game over again as a girl just for the heck of it, and at the end she switched to a guy. Someone screwed up on that bit of coding big time. But still, it was pretty fun.
I was playing this game a couple of days ago, saving my progress and as of yesterday when I click to play I get a blank internet explorer page- what's going on- problem with the game?
[Try emptying your browser cache (browser history) and reload the page. IE loves to hoard its cache of web pages and never refresh it, and that can cause issues with dynamic content. I had the same issue with IE, but emptying the cache and reloading fixed it. -Jay]
Hi, I need help!! I'm playing in this game but I'm not English, well i'm in the 3rd minigame when you have to write the letter by the dictation and I can't understand anything :'( Could sombody help me please(:
Im not deaf but a few of my friends are and it would be rather difficult to do the 3rd minigame because you need to be able to hear to play it. :(
when i load it its just a blank screen and i cant play :( whyyy???
[The game appears to be down at the moment. Try again later, please. -Jay]
The game appears to still be down. It says for updates.
I wonder if the game is really down for update or if he is down forever, the update lasts since 3 months...
Seems the game has been taken down for good.
That's a shame, because I really liked coming back and replaying it.
Update