Please Fix The Road Review

I’m a big fan of minimalistic puzzle titles with a stress-free atmosphere. Enter Please Fix The Road, a game that attempts to be as relaxed as possible whilst still providing a decent challenge for puzzle fans. But, has developer ARIELEK created a fun title to unwind with, or is it more frustrating than being stuck in traffic?

Please Fix The Road has a simple premise: fix the road! To do so, you’ll need to adjust jumbled up tile pieces on a small grid map so that a complete, unobstructed path is made for any vehicles or creatures trying to get from point A to point B. Sounds simple, right? That’s because it is! Each level gives you a limited number of turns and ways to move the environment, with the ability to undo or redo any mistakes. The first few levels — acting as tutorials — give you the basics of the controls, which are simple and easy to understand, with one button used for manipulating tiles and one for cancelling the currently selected pieces.

You’ll come across a variety of different moves in which to solve puzzles, with actions like picking up and moving a tile, rotating a 4x4 square, or even blowing up a line of three pieces. What makes Please Fix The Road interesting is that any action can be in any level, with the amount of turns available being different each time. One puzzle may see you having to rotate a line of any three pieces five times before swapping to the tile duplicating move. Another may simply only give you the option to push tile pieces (the levels that stumped me the most) in the correct order to create the right path.

Tiles can vary, from straight pieces, to raised bridge sections, and bends. Then you have different types of vehicles which will travel across different surfaces. Boats will — unsurprisingly — only be able to reach their destination by water, whilst animals will use forest paths and road crossings. There is a hint system if you get well and truly stuck, which automatically solves the next move for you. Whilst it won't fully solve each level for you, it does help in giving a sense of which tiles need moving and how the rest of the puzzle should be solved.

Graphically, Please Fix The Road is a lovely-looking game. The minimalistic, blocky-looking approach works really well for the type of game it is. Perhaps most surprising is just how great the lighting looks! The developer really didn’t need to put this much effort into beautifully lit nighttime scenes, but it certainly makes it that much more appealing to look at. From winter forests to the sun setting across farmlands, it’s a wonderfully colourful game that really captured my attention.

Combine this with the chilled, if slightly repetitive, music, and it definitely has the right to call itself a “laid-back, casual puzzler”. No matter how many times I couldn’t figure out a solution (which was quite often, I’m really not that intelligent) I never stressed or rage-quit due to my stupidity. Instead, the tranquil nature of the game kept me level-headed until I finally stumbled over the solution.

With 160 levels, there’s a decent chunk of gameplay here. I found myself jumping back on to complete a couple at a time between other games, but this then turned into longer stretches of time due to just how enjoyable it was to play. With a relatively simple trophy list, although some trophies included require some real thought, Please Fix The Road may be seen by some as a cheap and easy Platinum, but I’d argue strongly against picking it up just for that alone.

With no time limits, game overs, or pressure of any kind, Please Fix The Road may be a bit of a head-scratcher at points, but it’s certainly not a frustrating one. The Steam page even touts that “Your mom will like this game too!”, and whilst I can’t confirm this to be true for my own mother, it definitely wouldn’t surprise me to see more casual gamers enjoying such a fun, challenging puzzler.