maybethisweight

I've been a SimCity'er since playing the first one on my sister's Apple IIC. I remember SimCity 2000, in its full color glory, and then from generation after generation, I kept losing interest. The charm wore off, and it just felt clunkier, more graphics heavy, and excuses to incorporate The Sims or other aspects that I was never interested in. This is the first SimCity that I've gotten re-addicted to. The game is still not what it used to be, about collecting money, keeping citizens happy, and figuring out how to balance R, C, and I zones. The focus is now on farming commodities, and strategic placement of Police/Fire/Hospitals, or the city will just die. The commodities themselves can be sold or used for other achievements in the game. I think it's fun initially as you are unlocking new resources and a few new challenges (like the shipping dock, the HQ's for buying/selling, etc.)... each "level up" introduces new resources to gather. But after a while I started to dread the level up, which would tend to unlock things that I couldn't afford, add on resources that meant more work, and then also citizens would begin to expect new services, become picker about traffic etc. etc. The game progressed from novel to feeling a bit burdensome. I think if you're willing to play really casually, or you're ready to spend a few bucks to expedite the advanced parts of the game, then this game is awesome. But as a 100% free player who doesn't want to play all day and night to get ahead, it gets too taxing at a certain point. I realize that is probably the goal of the developers anyhow - make it tempting to spend money, or just quit, ya know?

A lot of depth, with many characters to see and try. I love the special skills of each character and trying to weight them out in battle. It's much more than just a leveling-up game, there's benefit in being "strategic" during game play. But on the same topic, my only beef is that it takes an awful lot to level your characters (let alone finding some of the really cool characters), with some items being really hard to find. It starts getting a little repetitive to keep fighting and turning up with nothing useful. To combat the repetitiveness, there are many ways to battle and collect, whether it's going through the story, or the various "dungeon" levels, or going for PvP (either real or AI). I almost gave up on the game a couple times, but then earning that new character or gaining the much needed evolution piece kept me hooked. The community is huge, but with any huge community, there's some amount of spammage in both the chatrooms and character reviews. It's a little annoying, but at the same time reminds you that there are real people out there, whether you like them or not. The tutorial is extremely well done, guiding you with tips throughout your entire game play lifespan, never getting terribly annoying. So you don't need to be afraid of just getting tossed into the deep end of the pool on day 1. All in all, I've had it for a couple weeks now, playing at least 30 min a day (sometimes longer, but I'm multi-tasking at those times). Addictive, but rewarding to play. Word to your mother.