I
feel that Spårvagn is a game
that knows it’s frustrating.
Why else would this game of
metropolitan tram traffic control
feature such a soothing ambient
soundtrack? Without it, I might
have thrown a trammy tantrum and
thrown in the towel before
finishing it, but that minimalist
soundtrack – and its beautifully
alive top-down city – combined to
offset the frustration, just long
enough for me to complete its
handful of stages.
In each cityscape, you have to
manage a couple of tram lines long
enough for all the waiting passengers
to be collected. The trams move
automatically, but you can pause
them momentarily by clicking on
them – and if you don’t, a collision
will occur sooner or later. However,
leave them paused too long and they
might be bashed from behind by
another tram running on the same
line. And that makes all sorts of mess.
There are red tracks, featuring red
trams, and blue tracks featuring blue
ones, with the different colours
operating at different speeds.
Multiple trams soon appear on each
criss-crossing track, but you can only
halt one of each colour at a time,
giving you another thing to have to
worry about – it’s a little hectic.
This is a game of chain reactions,
as all your tactical pauses – even the
briefest ones – come back to haunt
you. Make just one tiny catastrophic
collision and you’ll have to replay the
entire stage, which is awfully
frustrating. But how can you stay
mad at such a lively digital train set?
The rub – aside from the frustration- is that Spårvagn feels way too short.
After just a few exciting
levels, it’s all over, and
that’s a shame because I
was enjoying it.
72
COLLISION COURSE
How (not) to run a tram line in SPÅRVAGN
EXPECT TO PAY
FreeDEVELOPER
DustyroomLINK
bit.ly/3jTGdPFNEED TO KNOWExclamation marks alert
you to potential collisions.T
his asks you to imagine the
world on the other side of
that pane of glass. What’s
going on in the lives of your
neighbours? By clicking on four
apartment windows, in any order
you desire, you’ll witness glimpses
of their lives, as they struggle with
relationships and work-life balance.
There’s the middle-aged couple who
snap at each other over a seemingly
inconsequential matter, a man and a
woman coping with breakups, and
the lead of an indie studio wrestling
with coding errors and a fast
approaching deadline.
You’ll drop in on each twice
before witnessing the resolution,
which takes the form of direct
interviews with the cast and
seemingly a few of the (real)
developers of Beyond Your Window.
It’s an unusual ending, and I
enjoyed how it leant against the
fourth wall, coolly smoking a
cigarette, but it didn’t seem to change
based on the few decisions I had
made throughout the stories. You’ll
influence some quite a lot – by
getting a woman back with her ex,
for example – and others only a little,
but you never get any satisfying
closure on any of them, perhaps
appropriately for a game where
you’re only catching fleeting glimpses
of other peoples’ lives.
Overall, I really enjoyed the
glimpses. The comic book-style art is
gritty and beautiful, and there’s a
great sense of atmosphere, as you
view the outside of the building
before diving in to see what’s going
on inside. But there isn’t enough of it
to cohere into a satisfying story, let
alone four: not enough interesting
dialogue, or choices to
make. It’s a sketch of a
game, though it is a
striking one.62
PANE SAILING
Be a nosy neighbour in BEYOND YOUR WINDOW
EXPECT TO PAY
FreeDEVELOPER
Team SolEtudeLINK
bit.ly/35XL5hLNEED TO KNOWThe scenes are full of detail,
like this crazy clown mug.There’s a cheeky nod to the
game in one of the stories.You’ll be seeing this failure screen a lot.FREE GAMES REVIEW