Fare City Review

Fare City is a line-drawing game—you know, like Flight Control, where you draw lines to determine the paths of airplanes. Except in Fare City, you control a fleet of taxis, not planes, and things are much more complex. It's a well-designed, fun game, and those looking for a more complex take on line-drawing should definitely check it out.

In Fare City, each taxi begins without a passenger. You have to direct the taxis to the waiting, pixelated passengers, and then send them to their destinations by drawing lines. It starts slowly, with only one taxi and a handful of passengers on the map, but as time passes more taxis join the fray, forcing you to juggle paths carefully, lest you have a collision. (Unlike Flight Control, you have multiple chances—your "insurance policies" are lives, and you can earn more by collecting fares.) It's simple to learn, but quite addictive.

Fare City comes with five maps, from the original grid-shaped Downtown to the twisting corridors of The Maze. Some maps feature interruptions like police cars or trains that are wont to cause collisions if you're not careful. If you're looking for more variety, the game provides four modes as well. Classic is normal play; Rookie is an easy mode; Time Trial is a race against the clock; Crazy Cabs chokes your map with a constant influx of passenger-laden cabs.

A few features add to the taxi twist: you can pause taxis; the maps wrap-around for a continuous flow; and realistic traffic patterns (two cars can travel in opposite directions on one road, and U-turns are executed properly).

The game as a whole is very fun, mixing line-drawing and time-management elements, and the different modes and maps keep things interesting. It's too complex and games are too lengthy for it to be a real "pick-up-and-play" title, but Fare City is fun nevertheless. And polish is everywhere, from the statistics menu to the OpenFeint achievements. The graphics are great, and even the music isn't too bad.

If you're looking for a fun taxi twist on the ever-popular Flight Control, be sure to check out Fare City. It's a very comprehensive game, and a lot of fun to boot.