Before the pandemic, I think there is one thing we could all agree on and that is no one likes traffic. The sitting and waiting, the additional frustration, and even possible accidents all because of a traffic jam. It’s no fun and it’s one thing I can say since the pandemic and most will agree is the lack of traffic. But as things start to ease up some and more people getting out and driving, the traffic is also starting to form again. But does developer Little Chicken Game Company and Publisher Vertigo Games show us the fun of controlling the flow of the traffic? Let’s find out with Traffic Jams for Steam, Oculus Rift/Rift S, and Oculus Quest/Quest 2.
Traffic Jams is a game about trying to live out the dream of all dreams of a traffic controller as you try to either keep things going try to either avoid or help the chaos that may be thrown into the mix. But before you can live your dream of dreams, you need that training. You need…no the people need to know that their lives will be ok in your hands. But like with any good training, there is an instructor that must train you, and that instructor is named Dennis. You see, Dennis, well, he has the moves like Jagger and he has been the top of the top for so long, that he will not take too kindly if you try to outshine him and mess up his way of doing things.
So now that you have your training down and in case you have short-term memory loss when you are actually on the job, you point to the vehicle or pedestrian and hold your hand up if you want them to stop or wave them towards you to make them go. The faster you wave, the faster they will go. But, if you have them stop too long, then road rage and new classes of anger management will be filled by the local residents. But it really is that simple to control everything. You can point at multiple vehicles and people to have them all stop if you want as it’s up to you.
Pedestrians can come in all shapes and sizes from dressing to like pizza to even wearing a VR headset (nice touch) and vehicles can very form different types of vehicles such as cars, busses, and trolly cars for example. Of course, the pedestrians are slower than the vehicles and sometimes it’s a matter of timing to get them to cross the street, not have a car come and run over them all while trying to do the best job in the allotted time possible. As you complete different tasks lie scoring a certain amount of points or make a certain amount of people hurry up, for example, can lead to unlocking the next stage. You can also view the tasks on your watch which is very convenient.
As you progress with the stages, so does the fun. Zombies will start to come out from the sewers and cross the street to try and get to you, but you have a couple of different options in the way to deal with them. You could throw things at them, you could punch them if they get too close (6 feet zombies…this is a pandemic after all), or my favorite, unleash the vehicles and wave them to go quick in hopes of running them over. But, in doing so, you have to watch out for other vehicles and pedestrians so there doesn’t become a mess of traffic jams. Get it…Traffic Jams. But that’s not all, you will also have workers who may be carrying glass across the street, so you can either hold traffic up as they cross or send vehicles crashing into it. But why stop there? Let’s add some weather, a meteorite which you can stop mid crashing as well as Godzilla or not Godzilla depending on who you ask trying to join the party, weather changes, and some other surprises as well.
Now, if you want to throw in some additional fun, there is a multiplayer mode where the VR player will initiate the game, and then you have to have up to 4 others join with their mobile device as they enter a specific code. Once they enter, the non-VR players can then add in their own mix of vehicles and pedestrians to even adding larger things from the game such as the meteorite and is a fun way of including the ones that you may not have seen for a while due to the pandemic.
Let’s look at the graphics and sound. Each of the different cities have a day and night time version as well as having a very nice themed look about them. Going to Japan and here the fun music was a nice touch and even Paris has that Paris feel to it. Playing Traffic Jams is very easy on the eyes and very easy to control to where anyone can play. Hearing the cars go by and then having a crash of the vehicles into the glass sounded like it should have and I tell you, playing in VR and then having the larger events like Godzilla (which may or may not be depending on who you ask) to even hearing and seeing the meteorite come to live really adds to the immersion.
So let’s see, we have the chaos, we have the fun, we have a variety of cities, leaderboards, even some co-op multiplayer with non-VR players, and easy controls. So what else could be added you might be thinking. There really are just a few things. One, throwing objects that you find on the ground at zombies, didn’t always have the accuracy I was going for. This does not even take away from the experience as you don’t need to throw anything but helps with tasks and challenges. I would love to see some more cities added to the mix along with more weather elements to add to the fun such as make it be a blizzard and you have to get the people and vehicles moving before they freeze to death or here comes a bus that skidded due to the ice or even a freak sand storm where throughout the level your visibility would be so limited, it would just be chaotic. Not saying that should be wished upon anyone, but to add it in a fun way as Little Chicken Game Company has done here throughout Traffic Jams.
Traffic Jams gives us a break from our ordinary lives and allows us to have some casual fun while playing with traffic. Sometimes our lives can be as easygoing as an empty street, but sometimes the unexpected happens and if we are not careful in the way that we handle things, can jam up our lives and possibly our dreams.
Traffic Jams is out now for the Oculus Rift/Rift S and Oculus Quest/Quest 2 on the Oculus Store, and on Steam and will also be coming to PlayStation VR. A review code was provided.
To learn more about the game, please visit the site. To learn more about Little Chicken Game Company, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel. To learn more about Vertigo Games, please visit their site and make sure you like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, there are some leaderboards that I need to be on.
