CityLights – San Francisco (iOS)

NOTE: As is the nature of mobile games, it is possible this game may undergo changes to its gameplay design, monetization model, or it may include limited time events. This is a review of the game’s state as of April 20th, 2018.

Time is an interesting mechanic in puzzle games. In match-three style games, it’s most often the motivator to do things quickly, but its more of a pace-setter than an element of play. Other puzzle games that require more logic and problem-solving often give the player time to contemplate their moves and figure things out in their head before moving into action. CityLights – San Francisco, however, has time as the core component of its puzzles, and the integration of it makes it play a bit differently than those other two breeds of puzzlers.

CityLights – San Francisco’s puzzles are built around navigating small levels to collect three stars and make it to the goal before time runs out. The little backpacking character moves from node to node based on what direction you swipe, but the paths he takes are where CityLights strikes on its most interesting mechanic: the street lights. Each path follows the cycle of stoplights, with green paths being safe to travel but yellow paths warning of an impending change to red. Walk on a red path, and you will immediately fail the level and be made to restart, but thankfully no level is ever long enough to make restarting annoying. The paths will shift between colors at their own pace, one that is different for every single line on screen. It is impossible to immediately know which path you must take to hit all the green or yellow lights to ensure you grab all the stars and still make it to the end, but that brings us to the one interesting aspect of this little puzzle game: experimentation.

To succeed in CityLights, you must fail. You won’t win a stage on your first try unless you get pretty lucky or can glean your path pretty well based on star placement. For the most part, you will enter the level and run out of time, hit a red light, or end up down a path that is unwinnable. The rapid restarts relieve the sting of restarting stages, and it quickly becomes apparent that CityLights is all about feeling out which route to travel through experimentation. Watching the screen to learn how the lights are going to change in the stage and adjusting your route on the next go is pivotal to success, and since the stars are necessary to unlock later levels, the game avoids being just a blind race to the finish, encouraging a deeper consideration of the levels and leading to more complex puzzle solving. Speed is also an incredibly necessary component of the game, your swipes needing to be swift enough to move your character where they need to be before the lights change. The later levels especially come down to moving at just the right time to get across a path before its unsafe, but you can bank a few swipes so that your character will keep moving until its finished reading all your previous inputs. There will of course be times where you’ll know how to beat the level but can’t get the swipe timing down to beat the clock, so a quick finger is required to succeed but not as prohibitive as it could be.

The game isn’t overly complex, most of its levels relying on mixing up the arrangement of stoplights as the core challenge, but it’s got a few extra elements so it’s not too simple either. Some stars will fade after a set amount of time, influencing where your route must go. Teleportation, exploding paths, and things that speed up or slow down play also add small shifts to how levels are designed. These power-up and twists on level layout add a new aspect to plotting your course, a course you’ll keep adjusting until you finally hit all three stars and wrap things up. For the most part, the stages just require a bit of work to finish, and only one out of the whole bunch ever made me think that I was legitimately stuck for any amount of time. If you end up convinced a certain set of actions is necessary you may end up unable to figure out the real path, so I can imagine it getting frustrating for people who don’t like seeing a Game Over screen even if it is short-lived and part of the appeal of the game’s take on puzzle-solving. That constant failure does make it a bit daunting when you see a new stage with a more complex design, knowing that you will have to push against it a few times to finally figure out just what the stage is going for. It does make it a bit exhausting to play in long bursts as well, something the game’s relatively simple components also contribute to. If you measure out your play properly and don’t let hitting red lights get you down, CityLights can keep most of its luster until you’ve made it through San Francisco.

The San Francisco part of the game’s title plays into the set dressing of the experience. Your little backpacker passing through these stoplight mazes is actually taking a tour of San Francisco as he does so, and while the gameplay is always in its own little world, the backgrounds and world map take you through cartoon recreations of the city’s famous sights. I’m certainly not well acquainted enough with The City by the Bay to recognize everything, but major areas I know from movies like Alcatraz Prison, the winding Lombard Street, and of course the Golden Gate Bridge are present. The setting does not provide a substantial addition to the game, but it’s not a bad choice for the visual design.

Of course, as a mobile game, it is always important to consider how monetization effects the product, but surprisingly, at the moment, CityLights – San Francisco is 100% free. I do have word that monetization is being considered for future implementation, but so long as it limits itself to something simple like changing the game’s price to 99 cents or throwing in the occasional ad, CityLights can maintain the soul of its design without sacrificing what makes it appealing. Failure is a necessary step to learning the game’s levels and figuring out the puzzles, and to exploit that or otherwise manipulate it could completely undermine the game’s nifty design approach.

THE VERDICT: Puzzle games live or die on the satisfaction in solving their puzzle styles, and CityLights – San Francisco’s time-based approach is interesting enough to carry the gameplay. A somewhat simple game that plays with its concepts rather than pushing them to their limits, CityLights feels out its territory and delivers on some fairly solid speed-based play that still involves a bit of thought.

And so, I give CityLights – San Francisco for iOS…

A GOOD rating. Experimentation and figuring out your route on the fly make CityLights – San Francisco’s approach to puzzle-solving more interesting than its straightforward mechanics seem at first glance. The general level timer and the shifting of the stoplights require scouting out the current stage and making a mental map and schedule to take you down the optimal path to the finish. CityLights never pushes the concept too far, benefiting by having a well put together game, but it loses the potential heights it could have achieved by exploring more complex mechanics and arrangements. However, the experimentation style of play may prohibit anything too complex inherently. The safe route was the smart route in designing this game, because even as is, repeated failure, even while working towards a satisfying goal, can still put a damper on things. Its fairly interesting method to figuring out puzzles makes CityLights a game best for a patient player who can still manage a good speed.

A pleasant, fast-paced trip through the Golden Gate City, CityLights is itself like a little vacation to a less traveled type of puzzle game.