SimCity 2000

"Cuttin taxes, taking off welfare"

You know, don't you, that everyone wants to rule the world? Don't you remember the song? Anyway, what would you do, exactly, if given the chance to rule the world? Well, maybe you should start with just one city, to get your ideas sorted out a little bit. This is the principle behind Maxis' SimCity 2000. Simply put, you are the mayor of your own city--a mayor with absolute power and the occasion to use it. From the first roads and structures to the finishing touches of a burgeoning metropolis, you dictate every aspect of the citizens' lives by building their homes, running their industries and factories, and getting them in and out of the shopping mall.

Of course, controlling all this one building at a time would be as tedious as laying the foundation of a skyscraper brick by brick. The method used by this game to avoid the most tedious parts of micromanagement is that of ''zoning.'' Instead of saying, ''Build a factory here'' and ''Build an apartment here,'' you paint swaths on the map in one of six zoning colors. There are three basic types of zoning: Residential, Industrial, and Commercial. Each then comes in two varieties, Heavy and Light. So Light Residential is suburban homes, Heavy Residential is apartments, Heavy Industrial is big, smog-producing factories, and so on. All these zones are aside from the basic structures of your city: police stations, libraries, firehouses, City Hall, and so on.

Now you can't just put these things haphazardly anywhere you want. You need to be thoughtful and purposeful as you set up your city, because it just will not function if you do not meet certain conditions. All your zones need to be connected by roads, and if a residential zone is too far from the nearest workplaces and retail outlets, nobody will move there and it will remain empty. A balance of light and heavy is also essential, because light and heavy types of zoning contribute significantly different things to your city. Finally, even once you have your town arranged perfectly, you still need to take care of some things--providing water and power to all your buildings. Power lines are superimposed right on the main map, while water mains and pipes, as well as your subway system, are based on a different ''underground'' map. It can be confusing at times to tell where a point on one map corresponds to on the other, but independently they are very easy to operate.

Finally, beyond designing your city you also fulfill the normal occupation of the mayor, running the city's government and making policy changes that affect the lives of your many citizens. First, making buildings and creating zoning all cost you money, so it is essential that you collect enough taxes both to expand and to pay for all your police officers, firemen, and so on. There are tons of factors you can adjust in the effort to keep people happy, productive, and wealthy. There are also a number of entertaining tidbits related to this. When you click on a building, not only does it give you the zoning information and so on, it also tells you the land value, so you can tell the best neighborhoods of your city. Color coded maps on many factors--population density, police presence, school coverage--allow you to tell at a glance how you're doing and help you determine what and where you need to build next. Negative factors, such as crime, pollution, and traffic, must be monitored and controlled, and positive factors like education and property value should rise and rise.

Your progress in the game is marked by new inventions, such as new power sources, as time passes. Those rewards are a given once you reach a certain year, but other bonus buildings are attainable only as your city reaches certain plateau's of excellence and size, ranging from City Hall to the Mayor's House to the ultimate bonus structure, the Llama Dome. These structures don't serve any particular purpose, except to prove to your marveling subjects the excellence of your creation.

The problems for SimCity 2000 come once your city has filled the allotted space and you do not have any more expansion to achieve. Then it is just a matter of fiddling with the tax rate and so on, which quickly becomes tedious. The game's designers, obviously aware of this, threw out two things to keep you busy. First, you can build great structures called ''Arcs,'' like Noah's Ark. About as big as a regular building, they nevertheless require huge amounts of money to build and in return provide living space for vast numbers of people. It is a nice way to boost your population, but after the rush of getting each Arc for the first time (there are 4 varieties) this system is no less tedious than what it seeks to replace. On the other hand, we have ''Disasters,'' catastrophic events in your city for which you must be well prepared and to which you must respond quickly and effectively. There are a number of disasters and each has different effects, but the basic response tools are firemen and police. But disasters do not seem to serve their purpose very well; they do add an element of challenge, but if you are prepared, you just contain the disaster and then rebuild. If you are not, say goodbye to your city. It just doesn't seem that there is a way to maintain an engrossing game on a full city grid; the fun part of this game is expanding, earning cash, and then expanding some more.

Disasters really come into their own in the scenario mode. There are many different scenarios, but they are all basically of this form: ''City X (a real world city modeled with SimCity elements) has suffered X Disaster (hurricane, earthquake, nuclear meltdown, etc.)! Help it recover in X years.'' The challenge is twofold and these scenarios are quite difficult. First, you must contain the spread of the damage that has been done to the city, and then you must guide the city to meet the X-year criterion, usually a certain level of population. Not only do these scenarios provide variety and a means of testing yourself, they also allow you to play on extremely cool real-life maps. For instance, the map for ''Fire in Barcelona'' features not only the big landmarks one would expect in that city, but also matches the terrain perfectly.

Finally, the game achieves some extra replay value with the inclusion of a map editor that lets you create interesting terrains to play across. The terrain can be raised or lowered into any conceivable contour, and water and forest can be placed on the map. The terrain editor allows you to create a city of canals, or a hillside city, or a tiny town in the middle of a woodland resort. Whatever your heart desires can be made here, and you will find yourself often coming back to the map editor when you are struck with a good idea for a SimCity map, even years after buying the game.

The box art for SimCity trumpets, ''If this game were any more realistic, it'd be illegal to turn it off.'' (No, the box doesn't actually play the trumpet, silly.) Within the limitations of the game, this is true. The city you create is a living one, and the decisions you make will affect people's lives in quantifiable ways. You will enjoy building magnificent cities and expanding to the corners of your territory, filling the land with your subjects. And nobody will be offended if you occasionally use your power to set a city of 30 million people rioting, burning, and flooding all at the same time. After all, that's what ruling the world is all about.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/02, Updated 04/10/03