Here’s my honest URBO review. I was not given a review code for this game.
URBO is a relaxing city building and puzzle game developed by Door 407. This is their first game, released on September 13th, 2023, and after only a couple of weeks, the incoming reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.
URBO is available on Steam both for a simple PC play style or for VR expansion.
Concept
I downloaded URBO as soon as it came out, both because the trailer immediately captured my attention, and because my brain was too fried from work, university and life to actually be able to focus on anything too complicated. I tuned in, started my stream and told my followers: “I’ll play for ten minutes, just to see how it is.”
As you can see from my VOD on YouTube, I ended up playing for more than two hours.
Between the absolutely breathtaking landscapes, the smooth and simple interface, and the most relaxing music one could possibly find, URBO is one of those games that are perfect for a self-care evening of just sitting back and enjoying a low-stress game that has no combat, no conflict and virtually no end goal. Honestly, I am very glad I don’t have it on my phone, or I would be constantly playing it to the detriment of my already-strained university sleep cycle.
URBO was developed with a very simple design and concept in mind. Starting with an empty (or semi-empty at higher levels) grid, the player can choose a landscape and an architecture type for their buildings and start constructing their little town through a very easy puzzle system. The game offers a total of six landscapes, eight building types, and three times of day to choose from.
Players start with only two landscapes and one building type to pick from, unlocking all the others as the game progresses and objectives are met. The game allows you to create an infinite amount of towns, with 25+ combinations of landscapes and buildings. You also don’t have to complete a town at all. I currently have around half a dozen little towns, and only one of them is actually completed.
But what are the objectives, you may ask? Well, if you’ve played 2048 before—a mobile game that was all the rage a few years back—then you will immediately recognize the idea behind URBO. By matching a set of at least three buildings with the same level of floors, you can obtain a single building of a higher level. Merging three one-levels will give you a two-level, matching three two-levels will give you three-levels, and so on. If you are able to match five buildings of the same level, you are able to do so and create more empty space for future homes.
A building is completed once it reaches the glorious 8-level status (by merging, you’ve got it, three 7-level buildings). Each building houses a certain amount of people, and the bigger your constructions get, the more populous your little town becomes.
The interface of the game will always keep you up to date with how many non-visible meeples come to live in your beautiful towns, so that you can watch it grow and flourish with every added building.
While really easy in theory, players are given random buildings to place on the grid, kind of like Tetris giving you randomly shaped blocks, and the challenge lies in being able to organize them so that you don’t run out of space.
However, the game successfully maintains a cozy, stress-free vibe. This is because it’s truly very simple to mix and match your constructions, with the game allowing players to undo their latest action in case of mistakes. Plus, URBO rewards the player with special cards every time that a match of four or more buildings is made.
These cards are a random array of power ups (like Level Up! One Building, or Merge Building with its Surroundings), movement abilities (Move X on an Empty Space, or Swap Two Buildings) and construction (free buildings of different levels!) that a player can use to advance their town.
The beauty of this little game is that not only each biome has its own peculiar look and feel—with my absolute favorite being the Archipelago—but nearly each landscape comes with its own special feature.
Music & Soundscape
I’ve talked a great deal about the smooth lines of the game, the aesthetically pleasing environments and the gorgeous dynamic lighting. But I have not expressed enough just how much I’m in love with the music and soundscapes of this game.
The special effects alone are very simple and very cute, with a soft whooshing sound that accompanies the merging of buildings. But the soundtrack itself is one of the most peaceful I’ve had the pleasure to listen to in a video game.
To give you an idea of what I enjoy listening to when I relax, I’m a big fan of How To Train Your Dragon piano ambiance music and Studio Ghibli soundtracks played on kalimbas. URBO music feels like a love child between the aforementioned styles with even more chill sprinkled on top. It makes playing the game even more relaxing. It’s the type of music I want to put on as I surround myself with candles and hot chocolate and drift off while watching the snowfall outside the window. The kind of sounds I want reverberating in the room while I read a cozy book, wrapped in a warm blanket.
Steam Achievements
If you’ve seen any of my other VODs or ever watched any of my struggle streams, you will know I am a trophy hunter. I’m one of those people who will complete a game at 100% or will die trying. On that note, you will be really happy to know that URBO makes it incredibly easy to collect achievements.
Some of the easiest one come with the natural progression of the game, like the achievements given for building a specific level of tower or for creating the space for a certain number of meeples. Some of the hardest ones—and please read ‘hardest’ the way Elle Woods would find getting accepted into Law School ‘hard’—are about the number of matches a player can make throughout the entirety of their gameplay.
A Few Cons
While being an incredibly easy game, the set up interface leaves the player floundering to figure out the settings themselves.
URBO only explains the very basics of the matching mechanics, but it doesn’t do a great job in detailing the special cards, nor does it tell you that some levels have additional islands that will pop up once you finish one town. But while the description could have used some expansion, the game itself is incredibly intuitive and easy to understand after only a couple minutes of clicking around.
Additionally, some VR players have noted that, while the game works in a lovely way for this playstyle, the UI is not the best. The game uses Unity The interface with its scrolling menus is also not as intuitive as one might wish, but what URBO lacks in settings functionality, it makes up for in aesthetic and gorgeous visuals.
Lastly, I wish I could have way more landscape and building options! I would love to go absolutely insane building all the possible combinations. Maybe this is a possible solution for DLCs or future versions of the game, as well as an even more dynamic lighting that could allow the player to choose exactly which time of day they want for their cozy times.
Summary
URBO is a fun and addictive match-2 X city builder with a relaxing soundtrack, easy achievements, and VR support. It’s a sure-fire choice for fans of drag-and-drop grid puzzles like 2048 or “merge” mobile games (Merge Dragons, Merge Mansion). With such a cheap price tag, I would suggest puzzle-lovers buy it at full price if it sounds interesting to them.
Who URBO is for:
- Fans of “lite” city builders
- Fans of tile/grid puzzle games like 2048 and Merge Mansion
- Players who like non-narrative driven puzzle games
Who is URBO not for:
- Players looking for a narrative component
- Players who are bored by grid/matching puzzle games
- Players expecting a Sim City/City Skylines type builder (URBO is not that)
Meet the Author
Chloe is an Italian-Canadian writer, voice actor and archaeologist-to-be. Currently living in beautiful Calgary, Canada, they spend their time playing Overwatch, Mass Effect and cozy, open world games.
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