Whether the player chooses to accept it or not, SimCity is built with resource sharing in mind.
But more than mere digital rights management, the entire structure of the game is angled heavily towards co-operative online play. SimCity is an online-only game – that is, it cannot be played without an Internet connection and Electronic Arts’ Origin service. It’s here that the first of several major problems becomes apparent. Should players prefer a solitary match, then the ability to create a private game exists, and a sandbox mode with all building options unlocked is available right from the start too – albeit without any access to leaderboards. When starting the game proper, players can choose between scooping up their own little corner of an entirely new region, or searching online for a currently occupied region and staking a claim in someone else’s game.
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A continuing trend towards simplicity at the UI level is something that Maxis seems to lean heavily on, and nowhere is it more welcome than when staring at a blank patch of land in the middle of nowhere with a stack of cash and an entire weekend free. It’s managed ably, and even ham-fisted newcomers won’t feel overly intimidated with the extensive choice at hand. Only announced and demonstrated for the first time in 2012, this latest SimCity is somewhat of a surprise, but as with many projects Maxis embark on, it’s a welcome one.Īn unskippable tutorial carefully lays out the basics, enabling players to build roads and zone areas between residential, commercial and industrial, as well as introducing loftier concepts such as power allocation, sewage works, garbage collection and emergency services. It’s been ten years however since the last full-sized helping of SimCity time which Maxis has spent wisely concentrating on cash-cow permutations of The Sims, as well as the rather less successful Spore. Coupled with a user interface that continues grow smarter with each release – as well as no small measure of visual improvement – and it’s not hard to see why SimCity continues to largely sell itself. To that end, larger cities, more expansive build options and the ability to grow regionally has pretty much been the ticket. Release a game that simply involved the ability to create a city, and players would fill in the blanks, providing their own entertainment along the way.Īll that has really been required of Maxis over the years is to gradually expand this formula in an effort to keep up with PC technology. That it wasn’t always necessary to have an ending, a high score table or any real plot. First released in 1989, it showed to an experimental industry that gaming victory wasn’t all about beating up a heavily tattooed villain. SimCity, after all, is a legendary series.