Town to City might be the best city builder this year. Now, that might sound boring, but I’ve come away incredibly impressed from this new indie game. It had a successful playable demo before the full launch, but you can still try the demo out before making the purchase. Despite the amount of time I’ve put into the game so far, I’m still treating this as an early impressions review.
The game is out now in Early Access for $25, and there’s a solid core to work with at launch. While the game has that beta tag, this is a highly polished game with some exceptional quality control. I have had no bugs, crashes, or glitches through my 10 hours of gametime so far, and Town to City is one of those games that keeps on giving.
Citybuilders have a fair bit of variety these days, ranging from cosy terrariums where all you need to do is fulfill your creative dreams without worry to brutal struggles where the slightest mistake will doom your colony to extinction. I’m looking at you, Frostpunk 2! Town to City is very much the former, favoring a gridless building system while keeping everything as relaxed as possible. You don’t have to worry about citizens dying from starvation, for instance, which is nice.
There are requirements to meet to advance in technology, and citizens still need to be kept happy, but the consequences are less punishing than in other city builders. This is the perfect example of balancing a comfortable experience while still keeping in some challenge, and Town to City comes out of the gates swinging. There are happiness meters to meet with several ways to improve that. Between leisure, food, living space, and beauty, there are a lot of things to consider. With dozens of techs to unlock through research and six city levels to ascend, there is more content than you might expect for an Early Access city builder.
I commend the visual design here because this is a gorgeous game. The graphics have a nice voxel vibe with some excellent lighting, and the game allows free camera movement around the map. One of my pet peeves in city builders is when the camera restricts you by zooming right into a bustling village, but in Town to City, you have complete control. Being able to pull the camera from all angles and view the little people as they go about their lives gave me god-game vibes from when I played Black and White 2.
It has been a while since I played a city-builder that is this solid and charming out of the gate. There’s a polish in Town to City that few others have managed, and this is how you should do an Early Access game. All the bones are here, with plenty of content. It’s more a story of what to add to the game than refining the guts. The story maps have some solid writing as well, and if you really want to relax, the sandbox mode is already in the game for you if you wish to build without financial limits.
