This review is an AI translation of the original Korean post. Proper nouns, and some game titles and expressions, may differ.
1. ‘Urbek City Builder’ Overview
The game I am reviewing this time is a construction and management game. The first impression is a modern(?) city-building game, even if the graphics are a little rough. It is true that city-building games of the Cities: Skylines kind, or city-building games like SimCity, take more time than you would expect and have a lot to learn.
On the other hand, I think ‘Urbek City Builder’, which I am reviewing this time, is made in a really simple and solid way. It does take a different line from management where you professionally build a city down to the details.
The Korean localization should be no problem for understanding the content. Terms are often inconsistent, though, so there are times when you have to infer what is meant. Understanding is fine, but the localization is on the slightly disappointing side.
I did not run into any bugs while playing, and it should be playable without problems. On to the Review.
2. ‘Urbek City Builder’ Review
2.1. Features
In a typical city-building management game, the usual thing is to build roads, build houses, collect taxes to build up money, and handle the power, water, sewage, trash, and so on that you need.
In the case of ‘Urbek City Builder’, which I am introducing this time, there are various resources such as food, wood, work, and technical work, and there is no concept of money. In this respect it reminds me of the construction and domain-management games with survival mixed in that I played before. If I list the games I reviewed, they are ‘[PC Game Review] Banished‘, ‘[PC Game Review] Settlement Survival‘.
‘Urbek City Builder’, building roads is free. Other than that, the other resources I mentioned earlier, such as food, wood, and work, are consumed as they interact.
Housing buildings have requirements, and if you satisfy those elements the buildings develop. This part is a little ‘[Classic PC Game Review] Caesar3‘, ‘[PC Game Review] ANNO1800‘ series in feel.
You cannot force limits on how buildings change, or designate a direction of development. I also think of it as the convenient sort that handles things automatically. Unlike other construction and management games, it is a game you can enjoy very lightly.
That does not mean it is a game with no content that wraps up quickly. When you start a new game, the Tutorial begins, and even playing just as it tells you to is not boring. It is quietly fun.
I started a new game right away without adjusting anything, and at the point where I feel I am experiencing nearly the late content, I am in a bind because there is not enough space. That lack of space actually raises the game’s difficulty, and there is fun in thinking about how to use a narrow space efficiently.
It felt like solving a puzzle, and I found myself playing while thinking, why is this fun? When a task tells you to try building some construction element or upgrading housing, solving it is not only a matter of thinking about the related element. You have to do your own calculation of whether food will run short or work will run short, so there is more to do than you would think.
That does not mean you are pressed for time and left fretting. It gives the feeling of working through the problems at a fairly unhurried pace, and I can say I liked that I could play comfortably because of that.
If I try to analyze the fun of ‘Urbek City Builder’ in my own way, tasks guide your play, and solving them unlocks construction elements that were not there before. You can feel a satisfaction as houses that started as wooden huts gradually grow larger and more beautiful(?). Building elements that did not exist in the past fill in, and you can feel a kind of growth in the process of becoming able to construct more elements.
It is also a construction game that has an ending, a clear, once you complete every task. Each climate is given different tasks, and there are different construction elements. I have only played the default climate, the temperate climate, but there should be fun in playing the other climates as well.
2.2. Graphics and Sound
The graphics are honestly not at that good a level. They are not smooth graphics, and if I had to say where I had seen them, they look like graphics I had seen in a mobile game. They are graphics with a pixel-art feel. Overall, they are still graphics you can feel the effort in.
Even if you call them simple graphics, they seem to eat up more resources than I expected, though I am not sure whether that is because there are many interactive elements. Of course, the one I reviewed before, ‘[PC Game Review] Settlement Survival‘, this one is better, but as the city grew the computer struggled more than I expected.
As for the sound, on the effects side it felt natural, like flowing water, and nothing was irritating. If anything, to my feeling, I think the background music was better than I expected. It was good enough that I sometimes hummed along while playing.
That said, the background music felt like something I had heard somewhere in the past. It is not quiet, unhurried background music. It is background music that is a little bright and has a rhythm to it.
2.3. Difficulty
I think it is a game you can enjoy very lightly. I do wonder whether ‘Urbek City Builder’ even has a game over. If it really will not work, I think you can delete everything and start again, and it will still start. When play gets stuck, you just need to look for several ways through.
The most important part, as I see it, is the resources called food and work. If those two get blocked, you cannot do anything. Unless you delete the buildings that were consuming them and move forward, breaking through the situation will take more time than you expect.
If I think of anything else as difficulty, I think the difficulty related to terrain is the biggest part. The difficulty of ‘Urbek City Builder’ comes from the fact that there are zones that must not overlap when you construct certain buildings. So the smaller the terrain, the more you become unable to progress the game while still not having experienced many construction elements.
What is disappointing right now is that I started on a normal-sized map and am wondering whether I have to start over from the beginning. If the map size becomes large, I think I could play quickly even if I start again, so I am not that worried, though.
If you play on a large map, though, I think you might step a little outside what the creator intended. I mean the fun of thinking about how to place buildings efficiently in a narrow area.
2.4. Play Time
In my case, just finishing the Tutorial(?) took 11.6 hours. You might wonder what that means, but I feel the game’s structure is really well done.
Letting you build every element from the start can also cut the fun of construction and management in half. You can see that point in Farming Simulator 2017, the farm-machinery simulation I reviewed before. Truly, working through the tasks one step at a time, having something that was locked come unlocked, and becoming able to use new and better features, is a really great pleasure.
Early on you get by running things with only a small amount of resources, and later, in handling resources so huge that those early resources feel truly paltry, you will feel a really great sense of growth.
While playing ‘Urbek City Builder’, I think I played without noticing how this play time passed. There is fun in wondering how you can place buildings more efficiently. That same part is one that could draw a harsh review if you find it cumbersome and annoying.
I can say I played while truly immersed. Once the Tutorial ends, though, I hesitate a little if I think of starting over from the beginning again. Even so, I think that if there is a reason to play again, since it is a very light game, I will be able to play truly immersed.
If I play next time, I plan to play on the largest map, with the difficulty set low and the bonus added as well, so I can play with a more comfortable mind. You could say I played once more this time in order to gather image material.
Another thing that surprised me while playing further was that the game has an ending. When I completed every related task on the temperate climate Tutorial map, a clear screen came up, along with a question asking whether I would keep playing.
Since the clear had gone through, I played the desert climate next. The desert climate presents construction elements and tasks different from the temperate climate that was there before, so each climate’s settings should allow a slightly different experience.
I will let you know that experiencing every element can take twice the time I spent. To that extent, if you want to enjoy it deeply, it is a game you can enjoy more deeply as well.
I expect that you can play immersed while you play. On the addiction side, the game time is light, but actually starting does not feel light, so I think it was a work with somewhat low addictiveness for me. Toward the later part it feels a bit cumbersome and repetitive, and there is a feeling of getting a little tired of it.
3. ‘Urbek City Builder’ Closing
‘Urbek City Builder’ is a really decent game. Honestly, it was a game I was a little reluctant to start because of the graphics. Even so, at the first start I felt it was too simple, and I had thought I would finish it quickly and play another game.
Even so, you can play it fairly lightly, and while going through the Tutorial at the start and building, I thought the stages would not be that large, but there was more than I expected, and the tasks existed in a suitable amount.
The feeling was what I described earlier, ‘[PC Game Review] Banished‘, ‘[PC Game Review] Settlement Survival‘. Because I thought of them, compared with those the content elements felt more varied and more convenient.
The cumbersome part of a typical city-building game is the layout of the roads and the matters related to transport, and I really liked that this is a game where that worry is unnecessary. Compared with a typical construction game, you can say it is really easy.
If traffic jams in construction and management games have always left your head spinning, ‘Urbek City Builder’ is a game where you do not need that worry. I do recommend it as a game worth enjoying lightly, but even so it is better not to expect too much in terms of quality. Even so, I can say the surprises were better than I thought.
That is all. I hope good fortune is with you on the road ahead.