This weekend I came across a little iPhone game called Fare City. While I don’t know or understand the full story behind Fare City; I guess it was shuffled between a few different developers; It’s back in possession of the original creators, Finkly Interactive (no relation). But asides from all the drama, the game itself is really fantastic, and I couldn’t count the hours I wasted on this thing yesterday. I think my iPod touch officially has a concave shape to it after it practically melted in my fingers.
Fare City is super slick. The presentation being nothing short of gorgeous; the gameplay is super smooth across all devices; and its addictiveness level reaching all time high; it’s officially my new favorite game. It looks and plays fantastic, and for the time being, never seems to get boring.
In Fare City, you manage an ever increasing amount of taxis in one of four cities. Your goal is to pick up as many customers as you can, and drop them off at their locations without running out of insurance. Insurance protects you from collisions; in a city where red lights and stop signs seem to be considerably absent, you’re going to have some accidents, and insurance will only keep you covered for so long; keeping your taxis in check and racking up fares for as a long as possible is your ultimate goal.
As a taxi god, you direct white (empty) taxis to a person. The person hops in, and your taxi changes color so that you can direct it to the proper location. Sometimes you’ll have five or six taxis going at a time, but thankfully the controls are incredibly precise. Dragging a taxi’s path is super easy, and audio cues alert you to possible accidents, near collisions, new customers, drop offs, and additional taxis that may aid you in your quest to fare mania.
The action gets incredibly intense on maps like Harbor, where a cruise ship will occasionally drop off new customers, and you have to direct taxis through two rather congested four way intersections to reach the dock. It’s a game that might just have you cursing when taxis collide, and trust me, it’s a terrible feeling when you have a grandaddy three car collision.
Customers are designated by color and a number. The colors will help you find their destinations once you pick a customer up, but the numbers are basically priorities. While it doesn’t matter if you pick up a 4 customer before a 2, the 4 customer is going to give you more points. Still, you don’t want to leave customers hanging for too long, and they’ll do everything to get your attention before leaving (for which you’ll be penalized).
Overall Fare City is fantastic, and you have the option to integrate with Open Feint if you want to see your place in the world. Finkly Interactive has an extended giveaway that’s going on through the rest of today, so make sure to get on the App Store and download this game for free! I’m not sure how much it is otherwise, but even if you miss out on this great deal, it’s worth every penny.
