STATIONflow – Review
Follow Genre: Management Simulator
Developer: DMM GAMES
Publisher: DMM GAMES
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC

STATIONflow – Review

Site Score
7.7
Good: Fun to play, Complete control
Bad: A bit tedious at the start
User Score
8.5
(2 votes)
Click to vote
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Rating: 8.5/10 (2 votes cast)

There are many simulator games; there is one for everything imaginable, from theme parks, to goats, to trains. For a while, the only metro station simulator that would come to mind was Mini Metro, more of a puzzle game than an actual simulator. Now, with the release of STATIONflow, this niche has been filled, allowing players to manage stations to their heart’s content.

Story

STATIONflow’s story is comprised of a single sentence; the player is the new manager of a metro station. This means they have to decide where to place everything, keep the customers satisfied, and manage the funds of the station.

Other than in the tutorial, there is not much text to be found on STATIONflow, it focuses on the gameplay loop, instead of bogging down the gameplay with text.

Graphics

There is not much going for the graphics in STATIONflow; they are not bad, just simplistic. Everything is made out of basic shapes and has no detail, but this is not in detriment of the game, it is mostly a necessity.

As the game progresses, the station becomes larger and larger, sprawling throughout the space, which forces the player to zoom out to see everything. If there were more detail, it would end up becoming visual noise. As the game is, the player can almost instantly recognize everything without trouble, streamlining the gameplay.

Sound

As with graphics, there is little to talk about the game’s sound. The music in the game is the same all the time, working perfectly as background music, the kind you would expect in a station or elevator.

There are some SFX to be found though, these appear for menus and building, mostly to remark when an object has been placed, is being moved, etc. All of these work perfectly, they offer an accent to the player’s actions without being intrusive.

Gameplay

As mentioned in the introduction, STATIONflow is a metro station manager simulator. The gameplay starts calm enough, getting the player used to the mechanics and location of the buildings, but as the game progresses, it becomes more and more frantic.

At the start, the player manages a single line and a few entrances. As they pass the evaluations by maintaining customer satisfaction up, the visitors start to have more needs, requiring the player to add more structures progressively. Besides more needs for visitors in general, there are different types of visitors, with particular requirements such as tourists or elderly people. These have characteristics that make them require certain structures or give them less patience.

Everything in the game has an upkeep cost, digging into the player’s revenue each month. If the player isn’t careful enough, they will run out of money and have to declare bankruptcy, ending the game. Money is also required upfront to build structures, adding extra layers of management.

As far as building goes, everything is usually smooth, only having problems here and there with non-connecting platforms. It is easy to see if a platform is connected or not, since they change color, but sometimes, moving a corner may end up making it no longer connect without the player realizing. Other than this, the gameplay has no issues, besides the layers of complexity that end up piling up.

Building anything in the game takes time, as well as money; the in-game time can be sped up, up till x3, but it doesn’t mean the structures will be built faster for the visitors, just for the player. If done without planning, the player may end up with structures taking long periods of time, making that part of the station possibly unusable.

It should be noted that there is a save function in the game, allowing players to save their progress in case they may need to reset or leave for a while. An autosave feature also exists, preventing progress loss in case of a crash, power outage, etc.

A single playthrough may take up to more than an hour, depending on how far the player manages to progress. There are also several types of station presets the player can choose from, both to play or edit, allowing them to make their own playable maps. The difficulty can also be altered by changing the different parameters such as upkeep, visitors, etc of a map.

Conclusion

STATIONflow is a fun game, not being particularly difficult, just requiring some attention and getting used to it. This is a game that can be played just to relax while doing other stuff on the side. Overall, STATIONflow is an entertaining game with something for every type of player, as long as they enjoy this type of game.

Personal Opinion

“I had fun playing STATIONflow. My first run took me to station level 15 or so, having a huge station to manage. After that, I tried the other maps, which were harder than the basic one but still fun. Several times I booted up the game while watching videos or streams, since it’s more than possible to play the game while doing other things. I also booted it a pair of times just to kill time, being a pretty relaxing game once you get down the flow. I would personally recommend it for anyone who enjoys a management simulator.”

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Rating: 8.5/10 (2 votes cast)
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Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)
STATIONflow - Review, 8.5 out of 10 based on 2 ratings
Noparg


No longer writing for the site, pursuing other things.

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