What do you get when you combine a tollway, zombies, UFOs, corporate greed, vehicle breakdowns and complete highway chaos? Apparently, you get Tollway Tycoon, which is developed and published by 10ft Games.

This bizarre management simulator had me keen to check it out instantly. There is something about disasters always on the verge of happening, zombies, ghosts and HQ constantly breathing down your neck that sounded like advertising to me. I couldn’t wait to jump in and see whether Tollway Tycoon was a hidden gem or a traffic pile-up I’d rather avoid. Buckle up and let’s see how we go.

If you are chasing a deep, narrative-driven game, then Tollway Tycoon is the complete opposite of that. It places you in charge of a seemingly ordinary tollway that quickly reveals itself to be anything but normal. Your job is simple on paper: keep traffic moving, generate revenue and keep the HQ happy.

But it’s not until reality sets in that you are dealing with potholes, vehicle breakdowns, zombie outbreaks, and UFO sightings, so I guess we can talk about getting served more than you signed up for. Whilst there is no storyline, the quirky setting and constant escalation of chaos give the game enough charm.

At its core, Tollway Tycoon is all about keeping traffic flowing and your business profitable. You’re hired and fired staff, manage incidents and upgrade your tollway to try and keep HQ satisfied while dealing with a constant stream of random disasters.

On paper, there are plenty of moving parts, from assigning workers and maintaining roads to responding to zombie outbreaks, UFO sightings and other bizarre events. However, I found the gameplay loop a little more repetitive than I expected.

Much of your time is spent watching cars move through toll booths and clicking through tasks as they appear, and making sure you’re upgrading along the way to add more roads, toll booths and other ways to make more money, which gives the game a very mobile-game feel. That is not necessarily a bad thing as it’s the sort of game you can easily play while watching a movie or relaxing after a long day.

The more chaotic events do require your attention and can create some entertaining moments, but they never feel overly demanding. While I enjoyed the management aspects and the humour behind the game’s cursed world, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the gameplay lacked the depth needed to keep me fully engaged for long sessions.

When it comes to the controls, there’s honestly not a whole lot to talk about, and that’s perfectly fine. Tollway Tycoon keeps things simple with the basic W, A, S, D camera movements and mouse controls for interacting with menus, staff and upgrades.

Everything was super simple to understand from the moment you jump in, and I never found myself fighting the controls or struggling to figure out what the game wanted me to do. The straightforward control scheme fits the laid-back nature of the gameplay, making it easy to sit back, manage your tollway and react to whatever weird disaster decides to show up next.

Visually, it leans heavily into a colourful, cartoon-style that matches the more light-hearted and chaotic nature. The tollway itself, along with the various disasters and events that unfold throughout the game, is easy to identify at a glance, which is important in a management title where you need to identify elements across the map quickly.

Many of the environments and objects really lack detailed textures, making the world feel overly basic most of the time for a game with not a whole lot going on. I feel like the developers really could have spent some time making something truly beautiful; it might have made it a little more fun.

The audio in Tollway Tycoon is serviceable, but it didn’t leave much of an impression on me. The game features background music alongside the usual sounds of traffic, alerts and various disasters unfolding.

To be completely honest, the soundtrack didn’t really grab me, and before long, I turned off the music and put Spotify on in the background to pass the time. If you like listening to copyright-free music, you are set. The sound effects do enough to let you know something is happening and complement the cartoonish visuals, but overall, the audio feels more functional than memorable.

For what is ultimately a simple management simulator, Tollway Tycoon manages to create genuinely entertaining moments through its bizarre mix of disasters and chaotic events. While I enjoyed the quirky premise and the satisfaction of building a successful tollway, the repetitive gameplay loop, basic visuals and forgettable audio hindered it from becoming something I could sink dozens of hours into.

It’s a solid game to jump into for short sessions, especially if you’re looking for something casual that doesn’t demand your full attention, but it never quite reaches the heights that the hilarious concept suggests it could.

Written by: Hayden Nelson