Let’s School review – Just keep trying things until it works

It takes a special kind of nerd to be into the management simulator genre since most of the time it is running some kind of business at its core, with Let’s School by Pathea Games being no exception to this rule. This title, much like the recent launch of Two Point University last year, centers around the player as the leader of a collection of schools that need your help to succeed.

Players will start by creating their own unique Headmaster before taking on a unique simulation title where players are immediately assaulted by incredible amounts of information at any one time. Something great about Let’s School is how much further it goes with the depth of running your own school, however, this feels like it’s at the cost of polish and controls sometimes.

That doesn’t mean it’s not fun, as players who’ve played a variety of these management simulators will learn to understand the different flashing icons and systems. That being said, new players are likely to be scared off within the first couple of hours due to the sheer amount of information and complex systems found within Let’s School.

All for a passing grade

The character customization is pretty basic and allows players to create a unique model of their school’s headmaster alongside customizing a unique school emblem and name. This makes the school feel uniquely yours, and the game continues these themes by letting you customize your school uniforms and the emblems that represent each unique room in your school.

Let’s School does its best to provide an easy on-ramp into the class scheduling system but I was still completely confused several hours into the game. Honestly, I just kept rearranging schedules and changing teachers until all the students were going to pass, not realizing I could train teachers to be better and I needed to unpause the game for those to progress.

As with most management simulators, I was often pausing the game to build something and hire new teachers, but this meant that I was improperly using my budget instead of letting the year play out and learn. I built three classrooms within the first week and even more by the time the second week rolled around, which ate into my budget as I also brought on the required facilities.

Each new tutorial was like an assault on my brain as I struggled to understand the system that had been introduced minutes earlier. It’s not that these tutorials were misplaced, as some of the systems are fairly complex. It’s just that Let’s School puts so much text and icons in front of you at any one time that I just felt overstimulated and had to kind of pause and take it one problem at a time, which served me well.

There are a lot of loopholes in this title, like being able to stack certain furniture in close spaces to reach a room’s requirements. It is definitely a more relaxed and whimsical take on the management genre and even manages to nail down a certain mood better than stylized management simulators like last year’s Two Point Hospital.

Simple, yet abundant

With a game this big and deep, it doesn’t surprise me that there are a number of bugs at launch, most of which are just simple animation stuff. For example, trying to get my headmaster to sit at his desk caused him to stand on top of it and begin the running animation for a few seconds, which doesn’t feel like an intended feature in this title.

Something I really appreciated that other management games haven’t done since the 2000s is the ability to become an individual and tour around the thing you’ve built. This isn’t executed in the best way because the camera’s perspective can sometimes force the player to look into the walls or be unable to see inside of smaller rooms. Even still, I appreciated the ability to see my hard work in perspective.

There are other smaller mechanics and mini-games surrounding the main school building, but these are largely minuscule compared to the base management mechanics. The game is needlessly deep, which longtime fans of the management genre are sure to respect. However, the game will still be introducing mechanics far into the game, so be prepared to learn.

The soundtrack and visuals both feel pretty basic, with only the former being to the detriment of the game. For example, the intro track for the tutorial just kept looping about 15 seconds in and it was really annoying before my brain seemed to just tune it out. The soundtrack is also overpowering when you first boot it up, as it is in most games, and wasn’t anything exceptional.

The overall design of the characters and models is also simplistic, with rectangles used to indicate the body, legs, and faces of the humans. The animals don’t look much better, with cats stalking the campus, but there are plenty of models for the different items in the game that keep it varied. Each room or area feels unique in design and that can’t be said for all games of this type.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website!