SimCity 4: Rush Hour

"Hello, and welcome to Leon's Rush Hour review!"

This review will be for those who enjoy playing SimCity games and who love to build empires and wreck them! But if you are just wanting to read up about the game, then feel free to read this.

Graphics-If you are the kind of person who LOVES the looks of a game, then this is the game for you. The graphics in SimCity 4:Rush Hour have drastically changed from the older versions. Clear and crisp graphics make even the level 5 zoom look very impressive. However, Maxis added a level 6 zoom, which unfortunately makes the buildings look a little fuzzy.

Gameplay-To everyone who is going crazy over the U-Drive-It aspect of the game, just slow down. While the idea of driving around in your city is fun, it only lasts for a little while. You can choose to do missions or not and when you do, you have a time limit. However, there is a bright side. There is a HUGE variety of vehicles to control, but only after doing certain missions. Land, air and sea. The new tileset is also a great addition to Rush Hour. Tilesets are the types of buildings that are constructed. There are 4 tileset's in Rush Hour: Chicago 1890, New York 1920, Houston 2000, and the Euro-Contemperary. The game itself is very fun, but a little hard to scroll across a big city. Plus, there is a new level of zoom, zoom 6, which is supposed to be for the U-Drive-It. The day/night cycle is still around AND there are a couples new disasters that are waiting to be used! The new transportation options are great as well, for example the avenue can hold twice as many cars as the road and they go twice as fast.

Sound-The sound and music in Rush Hour have been improved a little. They've added a couple songs here and there for our enjoyment. Like the original SimCity 4, you can add your own mp3's into the game and play them while you build. The sound effects of the game are outstanding as well. Sims honking horns, dog's barking in the backyard, people rushing to the mayor's house,etc..

Is it worth it?-In my opinion it is only worth it if you are going to play the game. It is not something you want to play for a week and then put it on the shelf. And plus, it is only 20 dollars, so it's not really asking for much.

Scores
Graphics - 9
Gameplay - 7
Sound - 9
Worth it? - 9
OVERALL - 8.5

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/13/03