Review | City Rain
Format: PC | Genre: Puzzle | Publisher: Ovolo Entertainment | Developer: Mother Gaia Studios | Release date: 18/10/09 | RRP: £7.50
By Jennifer Allen
Every once in a while, a game arrives that makes you really question just how the concept came about.
When you put your mind to it, an awful lot of iconic games seem bizarre. Who on earth could have guessed that a game involving a plumber bouncing on monsters’ heads and running down pipes could have been so compelling, for example? Of course, as time goes on, it seems to be increasingly difficult to come up with a truly innovative concept, harder still if you want it to be fun as well.
In the case of City Rain, a concept conceived by a collection of students in Brazil, you have to wonder if the group were discussing their favourite genres then suddenly thought, ‘Hey, why don’t we combine Sim City and Tetris together?’ Perhaps one cynical lone voice in the crowd pointed out that it sounded a little silly and implausible. Hopefully not, though, as whoever came up with the idea deserves praise indeed: City Rain is excellent fun and a great twist on two much-loved genres.
//The ecological equivalent of SWAT
It’s a very intriguing concept, made even more so by the strong focus on the ecological message that it holds within. You play a member of RAIN, the Rescue and Intervention Non Profit Organisation, who must save cities currently on the WEPA blacklist. As the press release suggests, think of it as like an ecological SWAT team, but with less guns and more trees. With the seemingly omnipresent Bane Industries out to wreak ecological havoc everywhere, there’s certainly plenty to do, with 20 levels in the main campaign as well as two more frivolous modes of play.
The first few levels provide a very handy tutorial to the ways of City Rain, as at first it’s quite a lot to get your head around. The urge to treat each level as Tetris rather than a more complex beast is certainly strong. Luckily, with the help of Catherine – your cutesy anime assistant – it’s quite simple to get to grips with and, better still, it quickly feels refreshingly unique.
Each level has a number of different aims. Some are relatively small, such as placing a fire station, while others involve accruing a certain amount of money within a set number of rounds. As the levels progress, so do the amount of different types of building. Special building types emerge, such as water filters or air filters, all with an aim to reduce pollution in the area and make the city more ecologically sound as well as more sustainable. For the most part it’s quite simple to achieve the aims without too much thought, but in later levels the need for strategical planning starts to become more urgent. Levels 15 and 17 proved the most difficult for me to complete, but it was nice to see that I was finally being stumped by this fun little game.
This is the only significant problem with City Rain: it takes too long to provide a real challenge. It’s terrific fun while it lasts, but with each level only taking a couple of minutes to complete once you’ve figured out what to do, it doesn’t quite feel challenging enough to be truly great. Although the last five-or-so levels are quite testing at times, I finished wanting more, with my urge for SimCity-meets-Tetris fun not quite sated. Having acquired the relevant skills to be able to balance ecological sustainability safely alongside industry and the wants of my people, I did wish I had more to do and that there was a little more depth to the campaign.
City Rain does also come with two smaller modes of play, Blockmania and Quickplay, which do alleviate this to a certain extent. Blockmania is essentially just Tetris in City Rain form, but Quickplay is good fun as it focuses on the balancing act of the campaign. Quickplay means some careful juggling of the needs of the people and the ecology of the area, with the handy Sim City-esque bars down the left hand side of the screen being especially helpful at ensuring you maintain the balance. Again, it all ends a little short, but at least with various difficulty levels available Quickplay’s longevity is more exaggerated than its name suggests.
Really, it all comes down to greed. For a mere £7.50, it would be wrong to complain about the length of the game, but I do wish the more challenging levels had appeared earlier on. With a relatively easy ride throughout the first two thirds of the campaign, it all feels a little too simple to be truly satisfying until the latter stages. It’s a credit to the developers at Mother Gaia Studios, however, that their quirky game can pack so much fun into such a small package. As clichéd as it may sound, despite its shortcomings, it’s the kind of game you play for five minutes then realise an hour or more has suddenly passed.
7/10
City Rain is available through Direct 2 Drive, or directly from its developers’ website.
