Technical Information

Developer: Zhang Fan, Shen Jiawei
Publisher: Shen Jiawei
Release Date: September 24, 2019

As the name suggests, Crowd Simulator is a crowd simulator game.

The idea behind this game is really cool. Each stage is a specific mission that you must complete: getting on a crowded train, running to catch the bus, entering an elevator, or chasing sheep thieves…

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

The game’s visual style is quite simplistic, don’t expect anything more than stick figures and monochromatic backgrounds.
Believe it or not, for what it proposes, it works well. Your character is black, while all the others are white, giving you good visibility as a player.

The game does not have a HUD. To view your objective in a stage, simply press the “menu” button on your Xbox One joystick (or “Options” on PlayStation 4).
The menus are quite easy to understand, the only thing that bothered me was the absence of “next” and “back” buttons for level selection. You have to keep pressing “Change Level” until you reach the one you want. If you accidentally pass it, you’ll need to keep pressing the button until the list cycles back around and then find the desired level again.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

The game lacks polish in terms of audio. There is no music at all, only strange sounds. This creates a creepy atmosphere in some stages.
Personally, I didn’t like it. I think they could have added some background music.

Gameplay

The gameplay and physics are quite unstable! 🙁
Your character feels very wonky, and you can’t properly control his actions, which makes the gameplay really difficult. Besides directional movement, you can jump and grab. These commands are very simple, but even so, they somehow managed to make them feel bad! hahaha

In some levels, the physics feel well calibrated (such as the sheep thief stage and the elevator stage), but in others they feel completely off (the bus chase stage was one I couldn’t finish).
I found the game to be very “love it or hate it.”
At first, I hated it, but I persisted for a bit and it stopped seeming so bad. To be honest, I even found some stages really fun.

Despite the game appearing intuitive and relying mostly on control skills, some stages require you to stop and think for a moment in order to achieve your objective.

As a time killer, it works reasonably well, since the game is extremely casual, but I should warn you that you may end up more frustrated than entertained.

Replayability and Game Retention

I would play it again just to pass the time, I don’t think the game is all bad. However, I wouldn’t spend too much time trying to complete every level.
The game has achievements, so it’s not a total waste of time.