14 May 2012

Fallen City


Gaming Genres: Puzzle, RTS
Story Genres: Non-Fiction
Graphical Styles: 3D, Cartoon, Low Resolution
Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X
Pricing Model: Free
Developer(s): Big Robot
Publisher(s): Channel 4
Initial Release Date: April 23, 2012
Website(s): Homepage pub., Homepage dev.
Description:
Cities are machines for making life liveable.

But when machines break down, they don't do what they are supposed to, and they can even be dangerous. So what happens when a city breaks down? Well, instead of making life better, it makes it worse. Don't just take our word for it - there's science behind it. Cities that aren't working properly make their inhabitants unhappy, and that's what Fallen City is all about.

The residents of these streets are definitely not happy, and the only way they'll ever get back to their normal cheery selves is by getting that machine running again.

So take to the streets with brooms and cups of tea to calm down the angry, find fancy hats in the rubble. We'll the get Fallen City back on its feet!

Key Features:

  • Puzzle your way through six ruined districts of the city, fixing up vital buildings to progress.
  • Work with the denizens of Fallen City to entertain the bored, repair ruined buildings, calm down raging angries.
  • Discover the vital uses of strange buildings across Fallen City.
  • Uncover collectible skills and items!
  • Cities and Citizenship?

This is a game about what cities are for, and what can happen when they go wrong. It's got some fun ideas and important theories backing it up, but mostly it's about what happens when people work together to see what cities could be, and why they make life better when they're working as intended.

Opinion:
An interesting game with a great concept, but a rough implementation. Quite an anti capitalistic, and somewhat pro socialist, story; That has you working together with your other fellow citizens to clean up and repair your city, and inspire and reform other citizens.

The strategy and puzzles come in mostly in what order you do this in. You have to create skills in a specific order so that you can unlock the different areas of the map and get the right new citizens to join your cause and the right new special buildings at the correct time to get 100% completion  (which means that you have repaired every house, swept every street, and put every blade of grass in its right place). These challenges are not really very interesting, and far to shallow.

The main problem with the game is really the controls. You use a RTS style interface, but can only control one character at a time (which does not work at all). You have tons of little tasks you need done and tons of little guys, but no way to get more then one working constantly, and maybe another half of the time.

Images (+):
Related Media (+):
Indieness: Quintessentially Indie
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