After busting down the citadel door with their chaotic, siege-based citybuilder Diplomacy Is Not An Choice final 12 months, the very last thing I anticipated to see subsequent from builders Door 407 was a chill, meditative puzzle recreation that is nearly, effectively, constructing tiny cities. In Urbo there aren’t any sky lasers, no oncoming hordes. Nothing. Simply dinky little grid-based maps, and an limitless stream of tiny lovely buildings to plonk down on them within the pursuit of candy, candy level scores.
This being a puzzle recreation, the purpose right here is to position three buildings of the identical sort altogether, both in a line or right-angled cluster, at which level they’re going to all shzooge collectively to degree as much as the subsequent constructing sort. That is the place the Threes comparability is available in, although you’ll be able to zhuzh greater than three of the identical constructing collectively should you’re good to earn extra factors. But it surely’s not fairly so simple as that. You see, your buildings will solely shoump onto the tile you positioned down final, and cautious metropolis planners will doubtless need to take into consideration inserting their buildings in reverse so that they find yourself with their fancy new home within the place they really need it, not in a clumsy center spot that cuts off two treasured tiles from play, or awkwardly sits in the midst of one other chain of dwellings unintentionally. And yep, that is the place the Dorfromantik connection is available in, and I actually do prefer it very, very a lot.
First launched in September as a enjoyable, enjoyable recreation to occupy Door 407’s playerbase whereas their growth on Diplomacy Is Not An Choice continued, Urbo is small, however completely fashioned. First you choose the setting of your town-to-be. You begin with simply the nice and cozy, orange hues of its easy Dunes, however as you attain larger and better milestones along with your level rating, you may progressively unlock the grassy, white stone cliffs of the Glade and Valley and the rippling coastlines of the Waterfall and Archipelago. Every board has its personal distinctive form and circumstances, and dealing these out as you play is all a part of the enjoyable. Some may need particular areas that double your rating rely, for instance, whereas others have boards break up between totally different areas. A few these dual-locations even have guidelines that play throughout each zones concurrently, giving your mind a lot to chew on as you chase these excessive scores.
You can even select your time of day – one other beauty addition, however one which enhances Urbo’s wealthy sense of ambiance. I notably love the delicate shadows of the night, and the golden gentle of the morning. Picture credit score: gamerjive Shotgun/Door 407
You may unlock extra constructing sorts over time, too – although these are all purely beauty. Nonetheless, their respective toy-like designs scratch the identical sort of dioramic itch that Dorfromantik does, simply in a extra contained house. You may begin a recreation after which marvel the place the final two hours went, and I really like the way it saves your ‘accomplished’ cities on the menu display screen so you’ll be able to come again and admire them later. It is the sort of characteristic I want Dorfromantik had once I first began enjoying it a few years in the past, so it is nice to have this type of file of your creations proper from the off.
It is also simply fairly enjoyable and charming to think about how the blocky, desert-oriented, flat-roofed Chimalma would possibly look in a forest setting, for instance, or how a Japanese-infused Satori settlement may need come into being within the mountainous, yellow grasslands of a coastal outcrop. In the end, that is fairly a pure, nuts and bolts puzzle recreation on the finish of the day, however that further layer of presentation leaves extra room in your creativeness to undertaking little tales onto them than, say, one thing like Threes does (and I really like Threes’ lovely little playing cards, however what can I say, I am a sucker for cute, pastoral village scenes). Every constructing set has eight totally different ranges to them as effectively, each larger and extra grandiose than the final, and efficiently thwomping them into their most majestic remaining varieties not solely offers every board a satisfying sense of top and selection, nevertheless it actually does appear like a beautiful little hodge podge of a group, too.
Urbo has one further trick to tax your technique mind even additional, too. Three may be the minimal variety of buildings you’ll want to degree up, but when you can also make it 4 or 5, for instance, you may not solely acquire further factors, however you may additionally acquire playing cards that allow you to place different, totally fashioned buildings on the map from a random assortment of choices. The run of the mill buildings you get within the limitless stream, for example, typically solely vary between ranges one to a few more often than not, so enjoying a card to probably plop down that remaining degree 5 or 6 constructing you would possibly want might be essential. Some playing cards additionally allow you to swap buildings already on the map, or shunt an current one to a spare tile. You by no means know what you are going to get, so selecting when the deploy these playing cards all turns into a part of your total puzzle technique.
I did have one minor gripe when Urbo first launched, in that it was typically laborious to discern the precise degree of explicit buildings, however a latest replace has fastened this so you’ll be able to all the time see precisely what’s in play. So actually, I’ve no complaints about this in anyway. Neat! If I used to be being nitpicky, I might nonetheless say that Dorf might be the extra nourishing puzzle recreation for me, what with its quests and discoveries and near-endless map sizes to play about in, however should you’re extra of a cerebral Threes-type, then Urbo will match proper into your common puzzle routine. It truly is a beautiful little factor, and a really chill strategy to whereas away a darkish and wet afternoon.
This overview is predicated on a retail construct of the sport supplied by builders Door 407.
