Now, I don’t know about you, but after 100 hours of gameplay and that thought that you are still going, a game like Overcrowd: A Commute ’em Up shows that Square Play Games must be doing something right. Far from being someone who has the time to write extensive strategy guides to games and sharing tips to the masses, I probably will as I tell you about the fun I have had with this game.
So, if you have not read my earlier review on the game, it is currently in Early Access on Steam and I was lucky enough to get a chance to play the game in Beta before the first builds hit the open steam store. I am grateful to Al and Sarah for the key and I have had great fun with this strategy puzzler.
Much of my gameplay is actually available to watch and you will find it both on Twitch and YouTube where, let’s be honest, I always say that you can find better streamers. Do you find streamers that only play the game on hard mode though, because this is exactly how this Slow Psycho rolls. In fact, it was great to have the developer visit my Overcrowd stream on Twitch not long ago and offer some hints and tips as to what is not quite working right in the bugs queue!
Overcrowd 101
So I have found the puzzle element of this game to be my downfall. that is not to say that I do not love it at the same time.
The idea is, as you can see in the picture, to build yourself a tube station, which if you are playing in Campaign mode or Commute of the Day gets more and more complex and you needing to build increasingly intricate designs to get your commuters into, and out of Lubdon Town. You start of with the most basic of tools, even lighting is not available until you successfully move one passenger on their commute, and you have to quell the most basic flaws in the general public.
Yes, this game is entirely like running a Central London Underground station.
Commuters come with a number of problems that you have to solve, from finding the station too gloomy to needing to phone their lover. Your job is to create a station that caters for their every whim; a bit like going to the Berkley Hotel and expecting monogrammed pillows. Some needs are more complex than others, whether you need to use earned procurement bonds to purchase the right to purchase specific items, or whether you just need to stop them going down that inherently gloomy corridor to the staff room.
Making the Hard – Harder
I am currently stuck, certainly on the streaming build using the campaign seed slowpsycho to Zone 2. Just like your traditional metro station in the city similar to the game location of Lubdon Town, you start on the outskirts of the city in zone 5 where you can build a cute little one platform station and work your way to the giddy heights of Zone 1.
The problem is, with any slowly psychotic gamer, I went straight to the Hard level and, boy…. it is hard.
What I Know as Passengers Commute ‘Em Up
So I have learnt a lot from the 100 hours I have put into Overcrowd and the way that customers work their way around a station. These might work for you, but they definitely work for me and although I can not get past Zone 2 at the moment I will do one day…. if I can get to that illusive fourth platform before my reputation plummets through the floor.
- The Concourse is Cost Neutral – if you are running out of cash and you have a massive ticket hall that you don’t need… sell some of the floor. The purchase and sale of the floor space is cost neutral, although the items that you have placed on it might not be.
- Build shops, build loads of shops – Commuters can be… stupid at times. They might see that you have a great advert for McWrongalds right at the entrance to the station and then make it all the way to the platform before deciding they are hungry. That means you might need some shops on both sides of your ticket turnstiles because guess what…. they can’t use their ticket to pop out and get a coffee!
- Use adverts wisely – There is no point in placing your adverts in the tightest corner of the station. Nobody puts a poster of a baby in the corner and nor should your drinks ads. The more people pass by it the more money it earns you and the more likely they are to then buy from the appropriate shop.
There are many more specific tips that I want to give you, but damn, if I tell you how to play the game are you playing your game or mine?
There are items that give you decent boosts in reputation with the commuters. You need to work them out for yourself. There are a few ways to manage your staff. You need to work that out too.
What I Know to Avoid!
There are some big old bugs that I would definitely want you to avoid. This is because they are being worked on, and by speaking to Al, the coder for Square Play Games, I know that he is working on them and indeed he has fixed some pretty bad ones already. I tell you what though, for an Early Access game, the only thing that has caused me to “nope” out was when every single train broke down before leaving the station. It was odd, because I opted out of the Beta (and went back to the stable build which is at the time of writing Alpha 111) and then opted back in (and went back to the build which at the time of writing is 127) and that fixed it!
Anyway: onto the current Overcrowd: A Commute ’em Up bugs to avoid:
- Do not cut out your night shift. It is fine to let your staff work through the night on the higher speed setting, but once all the commuters have left at 11pm don’t be tempted to hit the button to skip straight to 7am. It’s not quite working yet, so bins don’t get emptied, generators do not get refilled and basically it is 8 hours down the drain!
- Do not save your Commute of the Day to play on later. This is being worked on, but basically even if you save the game, close it down and re-open it, the game will revert that save to a standard Sandbox game.
You Don’t want to Overcrowd Your Station
Reputation is everything, once you get your warning at 20% then you need to worry, once you get your warning at 10% you can kiss that station goodbye as it won’t be long before you are sacked and sent packing back to being the lost property clerk under the arches.
This is your station to manage, don’t let customers drive you to the proverbial drink, for a start many of them can not drive a train. You can sign up to run your own Lubdon Town Metro station with Overcrowd: A Commute ’em Up on Steam Early Access right now!