Schedule I

There’s already a surprising amount of depth in this game, and I can’t wait to see what else the devs are cooking up for the full release. [Early Access Impressions]

Schedule 1 is a crime sim that mashes its dark subject matter and dirty jokes with surprisingly cozy management mechanics in a way that works really well, resulting in an extremely unique and highly amusing crafting game I happily sunk 40 hours into. Befriending my neighbors while getting them hooked on addictive substances grown in an apartment above a chinese restaurant is a goofy, satisfying hook, and leveling up my enterprise scratched an automation itch I don’t get to scratch often enough. This Early Access launch inevitably runs out of reasons to keep you playing since it’s quite clearly missing the back half of its campaign for now, and it has some bugs that give it a decidedly unpolished feel, but I still had a blast being an absolutely terrible human in the comfiest way possible. [Early Access Score = 80]

It's so mundane that I expected Schedule 1 to get boring by the fifteenth time I'd lugged a bulk order of plastic baggies to my crappy apartment, but like my latest strand of weed called "Wedding Ass," the drug-dealing sim dominating Steam right now is undeniably habit-forming...Chalk up that success to a lot of smart design choices from developer TVGS—its constant sense of progression, clockwork open world, expressive characters, gratifying supply/demand loop, day one co-op support—but I reckon Schedule 1's secret sauce is a crafting system that doesn't suck. [Early Access Impressions]

I suspect I’ll find myself returning to Schedule 1 as it receives patches, since the core gameplay is so satisfying. While my co-op server has gotten relatively far into creating illicit substances like high-end meth and cocaine, my solo game has stalled as I save up enough money for a larger property. Eventually, I’ll have conquered everything Hyland Point has to offer. For now, I’m just enjoying the ride, and I expect that trip will only grow richer in time. [Early Access Impressions]

Schedule 1 is the chillest game about running a drug empire I’ve ever played. My little dude, whom I’ve nicknamed The Eggman because all drug lords need a cool moniker, spends his time skating around town, laundering money at the laundromat, and peacefully snipping away at his plants in a dinky little room above a Chinese restaurant. When I invited my friend to play this new early access title, it wasn’t thirty minutes before three police officers were dead and half our supply was sinking to the bottom of the river. [Early Access Impressions]