There are also a series of special buildings that are unlocked through the twenty levels of campaign mode. At any time you can choose quick play, but only the buildings unlocked in the campaign will be available in regular play. This allows for some casual time to build a city at random, and is very customizable in terms of difficulty, rate of drops, number of drops, time available, rounds available and the size of the field.

The game is not without its flaws, however. While the tutorial builds some basic concepts, they never explain the pattern to the buildings spawning. It took some time before I realized that it was all random, with different groups having different rates of showing up. Similarly, every time a new map begins the actual mission briefing doesn’t trigger until you drop the first building. While this is no problem later on, new users will be confused and wonder if they’re already on their own, uncertain of whether a small decision will screw them over in the long run. That is, until the building is dropped and the objective loads up. This ought to have been fixed very, very early in development.

In addition to the campaign and quickplay there is a third game mode that removes the sustainability aspects and simply creates a sort of Tetris puzzle game. The shapes are just about the same as in Tetris, only you are allowed some overlap to upgrade buildings and add a score multiplier. It allows for a different sort of distraction when you have some time to kill.

One thing I’d like to mention, even though it’s not quite necessary, is that IM clients will wreak havoc on the game. If someone messages you and the new window appears, then the game will minimize. However, it also pauses automatically. A nifty feature overall that makes disturbances a nuisance, but not a disaster.

While City Rain is one big environmentalist pitch to start caring about the environment, it is also a genuinely fun and well-designed game. It’s simple enough that anyone can play but also complex enough that the hardest of the hardcore can challenge themselves to its puzzles. Not a bad way to kill a droll Saturday afternoon at all.