SimCity Review Thread - the curse of reboots to strike again?

E

ekim

Member
Here we go:
Polygon - 9.5/10
SimCity is a near-perfect fusion of the classic simulation game with modern social and online play elements. It is in every way the fully realized evolution of the franchise and a much welcome iteration, perfectly engineered to dispense the maximum amount of fun in the most efficient way possible. It is highly addicting, but there are worse things to be addicted to. Just be sure to set an alarm.
Click to expand...

VentureBeat - 90/100
Summary

It’s a joy to see SimCity return in a better form than it has ever been. It is wonderfully complex, but very easy to play. The title is a massive undertaking and it has come together beautifully overall. Hopefully, EA will be able to improve the connected parts of the game, and the experience will become more fun with more players.

By the time you’ve mastered the game, you’ll get an appreciation of how hard it is to run a sustainable city. You can build it around ore deposits, but one day your mine will go dry and you’ll be left with a lot of pollution. The game is as enchanting as it was when it first debuted so many years ago.
Click to expand...

IGN - No Rating (Pre-Review)
I'm going to go ahead and predict that, much like Blizzard found with Diablo 3, Maxis will soon discover that the majority of SimCity players will want to play by themselves most of the time. The good news is that it's a totally valid way to play, and no significant options I've seen are closed off to those of us who play in private regions and single-handedly run all the cities therein. Progress is a little slower because you have to switch between cities, but it's definitely doable. It's very much like playing The Sims 2, which allows you to control multiple households, but in order to switch between them you have to go through a loading screen.
Click to expand...

Ars Technica - No Score
After spending around a dozen hours each playing the game this weekend, Microsoft editor Peter Bright (who considers himself a bit of a SimCity die-hard) and I were pretty disappointed with what we found. What follows is edited excerpts from the various conversations we had over instant messaging this weekend, discussing how we were finding our initial time with the game. We'll have a more detailed review later when we've had a chance to try out the final release, complete with all the globally connected, Internet-enabled features EA has been playing up, but just going by first impressions, maybe EA shouldn't have messed with its successful city building formula quite so much.
Click to expand...
 
I want to see if the game gets criticized for its DRM, arbitrary forced social features, in-game store, and massive amount of DLC at release.
 
Avallon said:
I'm absolutely stunned that they're lifting the embargo before the game releases.
Click to expand...

That is usually a good sign actually.

If a game gets embargoed until release day (or sometimes even till after) it's a red flag that it's dogshit and they don't want people to find out and cancel preorders/day one purchases
 
Lime said:
I want to see if the game gets criticized for its DRM, arbitrary forced social features, in-game store, and massive amount of DLC at release.
Click to expand...

It's not arbitrary or forced at all. They built the game around being pretty much SimCity multiplayer and it actually seems pretty cool.
 
Avallon said:
We can't really say that until we see the rest of the reviews.
Click to expand...

What other reviews might say about this game is irrelevant for pointing out that Polygon (or Russ Pitt in this specific example) uses descriptors like:

near-perfect fusion of the classic simulation game with modern social and online play elements.
Click to expand...

It is in every way the fully realized evolution of the franchise and a much welcome iteration,
Click to expand...

perfectly engineered to dispense the maximum amount of fun in the most efficient way possible.
Click to expand...

It is highly addicting, but there are worse things to be addicted to. Just be sure to set an alarm.
Click to expand...

Fine if he personally thinks the game really is that "perfect", but the guy needs to tone it down a little, calm himself down and be more sensible in his assessment.
 
spandexmonkey said:
Man I can't stand Polygon's layouts.

I'm reluctantly looking forward to this and I'm a little annoyed it's starting to get good reviews. Not because I'm against it, but because I get sucked into these kind of games in a bad way. I can already see my weekend becoming a blur of city management.
Click to expand...

The layout is the one good thing about Polygon.
 
Jintor said:
Is any of that stuff actually up for review copies yet?
Click to expand...

Personally I think mainstream reviewers should strive to see it from their readership's point of view when it comes to the technical elements of the game. If the consumer ends up getting shafted from an exorbitant amount of anti-consumer practices, mainstream reviewers should call it out, imo, regardless of the dev build they are reviewing.

Darklord said:
It's not arbitrary or forced at all. They built the game around being pretty much SimCity multiplayer and it actually seems pretty cool.
Click to expand...

Do the game experience in itself make it possible to play without an internet connection? I.e. is it one hundred percent necessary to be online for the player to sufficiently play SimCity? If no, the requirement of an internet connection is arbitrary and forced.
 
So 2013, the year of the reboots?

DmC
Lara Croft
Sim City


Are there any more reboots? Preordered Sim City for my girlfriend and will buy it again for myself for multiplayer down the road.
 
tumblr_lvhs0my3vb1r2xjfy.gif
 
Derrick01 said:
So is this game going to be worth a damn at all if you just want to play by yourself?
Click to expand...

The always online will probably ruin some people's single player experience. But yes, you can play alone and have a region all for yourself to build in.
 
Lime said:
Personally I think mainstream reviewers should strive to see it from their readership's point of view when it comes to the technical elements of the game. If the consumer ends up getting shafted from an exorbitant amount of anti-consumer practices, mainstream reviewers should call it out, imo, regardless of the dev build they are reviewing.



Can I play this game without an internet connection? If no, then it's arbitrary and forced.
Click to expand...

Forced? Yes. Arbitrary? No. This game was designed from the ground up to have multiple cities interact with each other in a multiplayer fashion. Of anything, I think they allowed players to control multiple cities after the fact to please those that want a single player esque experience.
 
f0rk said:
The IGN article says it is it's just a bit slower having 1 person manage multiple cities.



Yes because the score is all that matters clearly.
Click to expand...

I didn't want to imply that score is everything that matters but rather that peeps are not done reviewing it yet completely.
 
Sounds like maybe a years worth of DLC and micropayments will mold this into a complete SimCity game.

And then the modders needs time to fix it....
 
Phoenixazure said:
Forced? Yes. Arbitrary? No. This game was designed from the ground up to have multiple cities interact with each other in a multiplayer fashion. Of anything, I think they allowed players to control multiple cities after the fact to please those that want a single player risqué experience.
Click to expand...

It's cool that they add features, but if it possible to play the game system without the requirement of being online then I as a player would like the option to play it offline. That's all I'm saying :)

Dylan said:
Lime, did this game murder your family or something?
Click to expand...

Yes, online DRM killed my mother and pre-release DLC raped my father.
 
Lime said:
I want to see if the game gets criticized for its DRM, arbitrary forced social features, in-game store, and massive amount of DLC at release.
Click to expand...

None of these are mentioned in the Polygon review, apart from a side note on the always online requirement. For a veteran of the Simcity series, the reviewer also didn't seem to notice that his cities were absolutely tiny compared to the older games.
 
like a review thread is going to get us to buy or not to buy this game. As soon as Sim City fans saw the announcement for the game they were sold. Will be picking it up tomorrow most likely.
 
Lime said:
It's cool that they add features, but if it possible to play the game system without the requirement of being online then I as a player would like the option to play it offline. That's all I'm saying :)



Yes.
Click to expand...

I would have loved to play swtor alone by myself but that wasn't the original purpose of the game. I still can technically but I still need an online connection
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Revenge of the Savage Planet | Review Thread
Review 
16
443
Aguero9320 replied
Review Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves | Review Thread
Analysis Review 
20
527
March Climber replied
  • Poll
Doom: The Dark Ages | Review Thread
Analysis Review  7 8 9 10 11
533
3K
Super Lemon Drop replied
Mario Kart World Review thread
Business Analysis Review  2
71
447
playbignbox replied
Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land | Review Thread
Opinion Analysis Review 
16
1K
Mikado replied
Top Bottom