Here Maxis performs an impressive balancing act between accessibility and breadth. The innumerable statistics and special views found in various menus provide deep insight into the underlying mechanics of the city, when such information is desired.
That's not to say that urban development takes place on its own and experts aren't handed both challenges and extensive opportunities. Speaking of the fire department: Most activities that take place in the city are so vividly presented that you don't really need to look at the intelligently designed (albeit occasionally a little fragmented) menus. Depending on the zoom level we can both hear and see tons of details, like babbling citizens, cars driving around, shootings, protests and fire department operations. The lovely animations, the great sound effects and the relaxing music make it easy to forget the real world.
On the subject of atmosphere, SimCity doesn't need to hear any criticism. The fact that almost every building looks different also displays the effort and love the US studio put into their work. After the house is completed, a moving van comes with the new residents, who walk around the house turning lights on here and there. A house isn't suddenly set down on the land - it's actually built by construction workers. Here we notice the developers' incredible attention to detail. The individual buildings are then built by the game automatically. At lightning speed we lay down residential areas (green), commercial districts (blue) or industrial sites (yellow) on appropriate streets. We especially liked how the developers divided the basics into three simple area categories, which is particularly helpful for beginners. There we learn SimCity's most important basics. After a charming and well-made intro video, the game offers us a short tutorial. Let's start with a few general impressions. Luckily, after dozens of hours and login attempts, we managed to perform all our necessary benchmark tests. Those on the fence as to whether to purchase the game or not will see this as a serious weakness. Every critic who despises permanent internet connections will have a field day with this title: Contrary to its promises, just days after its release the game wasn't functioning properly due to a server overload. For the original German review, see here.īefore we come to the content, we have to sharply rebuke the publishers for forcing gamers to use the internet to play the game.