There’s a new SimCity game out, and a lot of people aren’t impressed. I’ve been a fan of SimCity since the original (which I played way back on the Super Nintendo, of all things), and was a little skeptical of Societies at first. To be honest, I wasn’t even all that interested when I first heard about it: the SimCity games have gotten’ increasingly complex, with each new iteration adding layer upon layer of new things to consider until the mess that is SimCity 4 finally drove me away. I like the idea of building a city, but I’m not really concerned about the intricacies of garbage management, class warfare, or department budgeting. SimCity 2000 was a nice balance: it was more complex than the original, but that complexity was balanced well enough that it was still possible for the casual Sim player (like myself) to create a successful city without micromanaging every detail. SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4 made it nearly impossible for the casual gamer to pick up and play the games. The best I could ever manage in 3000 was a modest city with around 200,000 residents, while SimCity 4’s insane “region” system and incredibly high system requirements (not to mention psychotic level of detail and micromanagement) prevented me from ever playing a successful city. Societies abandons the downward spiral of increasing complexity to take a more open and enjoyable approach to city building (for the casual Sim gamer). Purist would no doubt hate the game, and judging by the large number of lousy reviews, that seems to be the case.
Don’t let that fool you: SimCity Societies is a great game, and it’s greatest strength is that it really isn’t anything like the SimCity’s of old. There are passing similarities, but everything has been stripped down and simplified. Cities still need power, for example, but you don’t have to worry about laying power lines and connecting all of your structures together: pick a plant, drop it down, and go. Zoning has been completely removed; instead, you build individual structures from four categories—Homes, Workplaces, Decorations, or Venues. Each has varying effects on your city’s values (Productivity, Prosperity, Creativity, Spirituality, Authority, and Knowledge), which function as another kind of resource besides power and simoleons (money). Certain buildings require some amount of the Authority value, while others might produce a certain amount of Authority. Buildings are classified by theme—Small Town, Cyberpunk, Industrial, Contemplative, etc—but you can mix-and-match, choosing to theme your city based on certain motifs and values or create a unique mixture.
Homes provide housing for your Sims, and each house increases your workforce. Workplaces give your working Sims a place to… uh, work, which generates money for you city. Venus give your Sims a place to relax, increasing their happiness. Decorations have various effects, but mostly serve to both personalize your city and increase certain values (the Wall Mural increases Creativity, for example). All of this information is presented right up front, and it doesn’t take long to grasp the basics. Make sure your city has power, homes, workplaces, and venues of any type and you’re good to go.
To stress the creative, open-ended nature of Societies, the developers even included two modes of play besides Normal: Unlimited Simoleons, which frees you from worrying about city funds and lets you focus strictly on values, and Free Play, which removes all restrictions and let’s you go all out to build the city of your dreams. A lot of reviewers have complained that the game is in fact too easy, leading to a recent patch which added Strategic modes of play.
If there was anything to complain about, it would be system requirements. Societies is the first fully 3D SimCity game, and it’s a beast. The buildings and landscapes are colorful and animated, but the game slows to a crawl even at a modest resolution with low detail settings. My computer is no slouch when it comes to pushing polygons, but Societies easily overpowers it. This might be just as much a problem with optimization as system specs; Societies has also crashed three times since I started playing yesterday.
Overall, SimCity Societies is the most open and creative SimCity game in the series. Those that long for the complex, detail-oriented city construction of old can stick to SimCity 4 (and you can have my copy if you’d like it). The rest of us can enjoy the new, creative possibilities with Societies.
Update: I’ve been trying to take a picture of my city to break up the massive wall of text above, but the game keeps cashing. Whatever it is, it’s definitely a problem with the game. Two patches have already been released since the game came out in November (less than three months ago); here’s hoping they fix whatever’s causing this in a future patch.