"One Giant Leap for Sim-kind"

SimCity 4 is undoubtedly the best SimCity game to date. It doesn't abandon any of the good parts of the old games, but there are certainly enough new features to make any fan happy all the way to SimCity 5.

Gameplay- 9 No simulation game since The Sims has held a stick to the fun-factor of SC4. A good system of rewards and eye-candy keep the very few chore-like tasks of the game from making anything boring. In addition, this is as close to ''making the city of your dreams'' as you can get. With the ability to develop just the kind of city you want to, you no longer play just for the metropolis that you did in 3K (but you can do that too).
Basically, there's something in the gameplay for everyone. Developing everything, playing with ''My Sims'' (citizens that live in your city and tell you how they're doing), and, of course, throwing in a few disasters to destroy your creation are just a few things you can do for fun.
The only thing that may make it difficult is that most cities must start almost exactly the same way to have maximum success and there's really no learning slope. If you don't have a strategy guide, be prepared to test out quite a few things before you can get it right.

Graphics- 10 The graphics are beyond impressive in SimCity 4. Residential, Industrial, and Commercial zones have a seemingly endless number of buildings that can pop up, and even though they're commonly repeated, they always look fantastic. You'd think repetition would be a bad thing, but they've done something to fix that. The same kind of building develops in the same area, based on a number of factors. This makes everything look very realistic, because you can commonly find row houses squeezed tightly together, tiny houses having equally tiny neighbors, and the slums staying a good distance away from the more ritzy areas. Also, a system of ''props'' makes every building unique. Props come randomly in many forms, from cars in driveways and pools in the back yard to trampolines and patios, to loading trucks and dumpsters. You can spend quite a while just rolling your mouse over people's houses to see what they own.
The traffic is also one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. With as many cars as there are props, the roads, rails, streets, highways, and subways all have a lot of personality. They move smoothly, and for the most part, realistically (other than a few overlaps, but they aren't noticeable unless you're looking for them).
Animations are also quite lovely. Buildings construct themselves with a full miniature construction team, but destruction is even more fun. In incredibly satisfying explosions, most buildings will crumble to the ground when destroyed, rather than just vanish. Little details like seagulls over your beaches and landfills, lights blinking on landing strips and helipads, and fountains splashing water about are just one more thing that add more fun to the world's biggest sandbox.
There's only one problem with the graphics, and that's how good they are. Even on a mid-power system, the game can be pretty jumpy at times. Luckily, you can turn the graphics down to a bare minimum, but the game isn't anywhere near as impressive.

Sound- 7 The world's most fantastic elevator music has struck again! The game's music fades into the background quite nicely, but gives a very catchy tune to enjoy when you listen to it. And if you don't find it catchy, you can shut off any songs on the tracklist. In addition to this, Maxis, the king of customizable games, lets you hear the best music in the world- your own! It's not a really complex system, but the game will randomly mix your MP3s with any of the other songs you chose from their playlist (if any).
The sound effects aren't quite as impressive, but they are rarely important. In the uncommon places they're used (usually in interface reactions), they do fit quite well. The small number just doesn't make them a key part of the game.

Replay Value- 9.5 Two words- region play. Taking a page out of the book of The Sims, all the cities you make are now placed on one of many large and customizable maps. With the powerful new terraforming tools, you can make more than a SimCity, you can make a SimWorld. No longer do you have to deal with random computer-run neighboring cities. Everything is controlled by you and you alone. Because of this, the game practically dares you to create city after city after city after city. Plus, hard to reach rewards and advanced structures just make each city take that much longer, making each game a multiple-day project in itself. Multiply that by hundreds to fill all your regions and you could play this game from now until SimCity 5 comes out and you still wouldn't see everything.

The Bad- Unfortunately, Maxis isn't known for it's bug-squashing abilities, with a seemingly invisible view on beta testing. SimCity 4 is no exception. There are plenty of bugs that need patching and if you're reading this review, I'm sure you've heard plenty of people complaining about them. Do they ruin the game entirely? I'd say no, not unless they cause the game to crash on your system. But they certainly need to be taken care of.

The Future- This game looks a lot like The Sims did when it first came out, just begging for people to go creation-crazy and add everything they can to the game. There's also a pretty promising city and region exchange program in the works as I write this and if you know anything about what Maxis can do right, you know about their history with exchange programs. In my opinion, the game will hinge on it's future popularity. If it gets crushed in a sea of Sims Online players, there won't be much more than there is now, but if enough people realize how fun the game is, then I can only hope for a following worthy of the name ''Sim''.

Happy Mayoring!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/30/03, Updated 01/30/03