I don't usually review games for the simple reason that I don't play many games. Shoot-em-ups never held any interest for me. We artistic types like games that let you create your own fantasy worlds. Simcity and its successor, Simcity 2000, are old favorites that have stolen away many hours from you, dear readers. I've been awaiting the launch of Simcity 3000 with cautious anticipation, and can now pronounce it worthy.
March 10, 1999
Simcity is less a game than a development environment in which you can build your own simulated cities. Big cities, small cities, port cities, mountain cities, lake cities…you name it. If your city is to grow, you must manage it wisely.
Every Simcity 2000 addict had their own long list of what they wanted included in the new version. In fact Maxis had a huge discussion group on their Web site where people posted their suggestions, and presumably they listened to a few of them. Anxiety was intense as the launch date approached. What new goodies would be included?
First of all, the play area is 4 times larger than before, and that alone is well worth the price of admission. In SC2000, you could create a halfway-realistic small town, or a small section of a large city, but now you can actually have a decent-size city with a center, suburbs, outskirts and so on. Of course, I still want more. Hopefully the next version will give us 16 times the current area. Or even 256!
The graphics are vastly improved, and add a lot more fun to the game play. There are now 5 levels of zoom, and at the lower levels, you can see individual Sims walking and driving around. There are now hundreds of different buildings, and just going around your city looking at them can be quite entertaining.
Predictably, there are a lot more structures and goodies that you can build. Stadiums and zoos have been joined by a performing arts center, a theme park, a country club, and other amenities. There are also "landmarks" that you can build, including things like Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, etc. Unfortunately, the landmarks seem to be just dead space, with no effect on the simulation. That is, you can build Grand Central Station, but it doesn't function as a train station, and you can build the World Trade Center, but it doesn't provide any commercial space to your city.
One thing I was hoping for was a better way to name things in your city. SC2000 had lame little signs that you could put up, but even these have been eliminated. Simcities are anonymous cities, whose neighborhoods, streets and rivers have no names, alas.
The biggest disappointment of all is that they really didn't change any of the transportation elements. The streets and train tracks look better than before, but they work exactly as they always did. Bridges can exist only over bodies of water, and only at sea level. In real cities, roads, train tracks or whatever need to be able to cross each other in any combination, at any level and any angle. Roads and rails can still only be built at either 90-degree or 45-degree angles, so the whole city has an artificial, grid-like look.
Train buffs like me would have liked to see some more rail options, like narrow-guage lines, street trams, elevated trains, or even futuristic monorails. Roads are also a lot more complex in the real world, and what about walking paths or bicycle lanes?
Another beef with Simcity is that it has no international or historical context. Simcities are 20th-century American cities. This is ironic, as to my mind, the most interesting cities are to be found in Europe. European cities grew up before electricity, and before the automobile, and many have "old cities" centered around a castle or church, and surrounded by city walls. Although Simcity ostensibly starts in 1900, and proceeds through 2000 and beyond, there is no real historical context. The forces that shape real cities have been very different in different ages, and it would be cool if a Simcity could reflect that.
But, one can't have everything, and I must say Simcity 3000 is a great step forward. It seems safe to assume that it will continue to improve, so I'm confident I'll see some of my ideas addressed in a future release. If you've got a lot of work to do, I can't advise buying this game. It is fun and addictive, it's appropriate for kids as well as adults, and in fact I'm going to play right now for just a very little while, before starting on my next article.
