Urban Flow is a metropolitan puzzle game about traffic management. Baltoro Games’ has released the game onto the Switch and Xbox, and now has come to Steam. It’s not a powerhouse of a release for PC, but it is a standout game that has a lot to offer for all ages and skill levels. While traffic control on this scale is usually something automated through a city’s infrastructure, the game poses the question of “what if it was manual?” – and this is where you come in. Urban Flow is controlled chaos where its carefully constructed puzzles demand more of you with each new level for some surprisingly fun challenges.
The premise of Urban Flow is simple: you control the traffic lights that ensure the flow of traffic is even and smooth. As you play, new mechanics and systems are introduced. You inherently understand that emergency vehicles need priority, trains have a schedule to keep, and even * cough * tanks need to get through in extreme circumstances. The game’s complexity with train tracks and bridges grows in concert with the power-ups that let you slow down time and the like. It’s a really engaging game that slowly ramps up the challenge in clever ways. It’s a game that demands multitasking, and failure is inevitable at least once.
The campaign is a traditional series of levels that gradually increase on demand and complexity. As you continue through its fifty levels or so, you’ll be tasked with discovering the best way to keep the people safe and the traffic flowing. You’ll be given a star rating for getting all cars safely through, anything less is given stars in tiers. This is the best way to be acquainted with the game and its mechanics. The other modes like Endless and Special Levels are really for the experienced and expert players, who’ve completed the entire campaign. The endless mode is exactly what it sounds like, where you chase for the highest score possible. The special levels are broken up into Challenge levels which add a layer of difficulty to things. Snow Flow is a winter-themed series of maps, and Other World takes players to London for a unique set of levels different to that of the campaign levels.
The game can be played with a keyboard or controller, and either feel totally fine, with the controller being the most natural as it was designed for other platforms that rely on them. I can’t say anything bad about the controls, they just work. controller feels best. There are times where there are so many different traffic lights, you’ll have to press a combination of two shoulder buttons to initiate. This at times felt inconsistent, but was the only issue I experienced while playing the game.
Urban Flow does have some clever visual indicators to what’s going on to help you better get the flow of traffic moving. Cars have blinkers, and will indicate the direction they are turning, which can be helpful in knowing if you’ll be forcing a collision if you let traffic go at a certain moment. There’s a bit of a road rage meter, where it’ll fill up as drivers will get fed up waiting for the light to change. If you let it fill completely, then they will blow the intersection and possibly crash into another driver.
The fail state you’ll encounter most during Urban Flow is having too many collisions. The game keeps this light of course, without showing much but a simple explosion and immediately clearing them from the roadway. But it’s hard to deal with getting this wrong. And with around a one-hundred levels across every mode, you will fail eventually.
You can make things a bit more bearable, and a lot more fun through the supported party play. You and three other friends can play the game cooperatively to work through the game’s levels, divvying up the task of getting traffic flowing safely. It’s a great way to play the game when stuck, or simply overwhelmed in the later levels. If nothing else, there is a zen mode that removes all frustration and challenge, and just lets you chill.
For a game released on PC, Urban Flow doesn’t really feel like one. There are no graphics options, and it doesn’t support 21:9 resolutions. It’s a rather bare bones release, but it is not a detriment. The game looks good, but it doesn’t exactly look as good as I would’ve wanted. I think Baltoro Games could have made some tweaks to really get the most out of this with its visual fidelity. Though it’s very passable with what’s here, and will run on a variety of systems with ease.
Urban Flow ‘s translation to PC is warranted if not a little barren in terms of customization. The sometimes manic and manual control of each city’s traffic lights is exciting. That said, it can get very challenging is and good at what it does. It follows Bushnell’s Law whereby this is “easy to learn, but difficult to master”. Urban Flow is a straightforward game, yet has lots of longevity and sustainability due to its tense gameplay and need for quick decision making.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
