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[UPDATE: Game Released] Story, Art, Music and Stealth Come Together in City Run London. Coming to Android Soon.

City Quests Media and Sine Wave Entertainment, has pulled out all of the stops, to create a grand production for their first game, City Run London. Though City Quests Media is an independent developer, all of the hard work that has gone into this title, is truly impressive. If you like stealth-based game play, you will be drawn into a story set in London in 1545. The main protagonist is a heroine known only as The Moth. The game arrives in the Play Store next week.

UPDATE: Wednesday, March 23rd – 8:20 AM, PST: The intriguing stealth-based game City Run London, is now available to download in the Google Play Store. In our preview, we talked about all of the work that went into making this game. Now you have an opportunity to play the game too. The game is $.99 to download, and doesn’t have any in-app purchases. If you have an iOS device too, a remastered version of this game, should be available today or tomorrow as well. The link to download the game can be found below.

The development team behind City Run London includes an impressive array of people from different industries, including artists, authors, music and film. The result is a game that is full-featured with an engaging story/game play, dynamic voice-over work, pristine music production and imaginative art direction. The images that you see in the screenshots below, at times look like a mix of art found in graphic novels and water color paintings. The heroine of the story is Willa, but the people that want to capture her, only know her as The Moth.

1545 City of London. Exhausted by demanding wives and civil unrest, the King only listens to his spies and is swift to punish anyone who dares to speak against him. Say the wrong thing and you’ll hang for it! Players guide heroine Willa – known to the authorities only as The Moth – making use of her skills of invisibility and cunning in her quest to rescue the Brother Joseph. She is Joseph’s only hope of escape, so when the curfew bell tolls and the streets empty, it’s up to her to race against the coming dawn and his inevitable execution.City Quests Media

The Android debut for City Run London will occur next week, Monday, March 21st. The game was previously released for iOS. iOS gamers will have an opportunity to download this Remastered version. City Quests Media has taken extra time prior to the Android release to study players’ feedback and suggestions, to make City Run London even more enjoyable to play. 

Willa (The Moth) is cloaked in gray. She hurriedly walks through the different environments. The game designers have chosen to use a tap to move control system for the game. Some players prefer having on-screen touch controls, but in this case, during our brief time of playing the game, we found it is actually helpful using the touch to move game mechanic. As Willa approaches the different areas she must pass without being seen. You are able to see the enemies’ cone of vision, which is critical in helping keep Willa alive. It is shown on the floor as they move about. Using the tap to move mechanic, you can move The Moth to the right place, and wait for the guards to make their sweep. Once you are securely hidden and they pass by you, tap again to get her to move. Some of the levels have quite a few enemies, so timing your movements is essential.

The art direction in the game is striking. The palette of colors chosen for the levels vary from highly contrasted colors to muted tones. The level of detail in the characters and environments, provide just enough realism, that you may find yourself staring at the screen, curious about how the art was created. Many of the environments that Willa encounters are multi-tiered. There are also puzzles that she must solve, to make it to the end of the level. At times, you will be pulling levers to lift an object, so that you can get to another part of the map. In other places in the game, it is about getting The Moth to just the right area, so a scene can be triggered to move the story along.

What really drives this game is a strong narrative, convincing voice-over work and a soundtrack that melds seamlessly into the story. The soundtrack is available on Google Play and CD Baby if you are interested in checking it out. 

City Run London (Remastered) Features:

  • More than 47 locations to explore
  • Original soundtrack fusing voice, choir and instrumental music
  • Fully animated and voiced story-telling
  • 11 hand-drawn cut-scenes (and many more in-game)

City Run London is all about stealth, strategy, patience and implementing your plan. There is a fair amount of exploration that The Moth must undertake, to figure out how to get to the next level. There were some areas that I wandered around for a few moments before I figured out what I needed to do, or how I needed to access the next area. It wasn’t frustrating because you are fully immersed in the game. Good sound effects, snow whirling about or the fascinating way the maps are created and drawn keep you focused on the world that has been created.

When you tap the screen for Willa to move, a white encircled moth is shown on the ground. This indicates where you have directed Willa to go. There is also a symbol of an eye in the upper left hand corner of your screen. This allows you to view the level from a different perspective, an almost bird’s eye view. Seeing the level from this perspective will allow you to better craft your plan for movement. This only lasts for a short amount of time, so you have to take it all in quickly. I found the game easier to play on my tablet, rather than my phone. Even though I do have one of the larger phones on the market today, some of the maps are quite intricate, and larger fingers could make it a bit more challenging to navigate. I also wanted to move the maps around, zoom in or zoom out, but that is not possible. The bird’s eye view helps, but the areas are so intriguing, I wanted more control. Each of the maps is a art piece really, so that limits the amount of control available. The Willa can wander around, but in a limited fashion.

City Run London will release as a premium-priced game at $.99 If you look at some of the behind the scenes video links that we have included below, you will begin to appreciate some of the hard work that went into making this game. $.99 is an amazing price point for this game. All of the components that make up City Run London are important, and it feels that way when you play it. If you enjoy games with a good narrative, stealth game play and well-rendered art, then you should keep City Run London on your list of games to play. When the game releases Monday, we will update this article, to let you know when it has arrived in the Play Store. Until then, check out the trailer and some of the behind the scenes footage below.

Behind The Scenes of City Run London: Video 1 | Video 2

 

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