"Now I know what it's like to be the mayor..."

I got my copy of the SimCity game with my first computer with a Packard Bell CD collection back in November of 1996, and one of Maxis' most classic games certainly did impress me. With many new versions like SimCity 2000 and so on, this game is slowly dying out and becoming forgotten, but its simplicity and overall fun was still what made it such a good game. On to the review; read on to find out more.

Gameplay: 10/10

Unrivalled simulation fun in this game right here. What you do is to create as great a city as possible with a specific amount of land you have been given. It can be an island, it could have rivers going through, or you can simply make your own. You design the whole look of the city. You can make residential areas, roads, rail tracks, parks, police stations, fire stations, and even make your own disasters to strike if you get bored and wish to have a bit of fun! Not only that, but there's also a feature in which you can choose different terrains. You can have a Western theme, a classic SimCity theme, or even have your city placed on the moon! The variety of places to choose is great and makes the game very fun and addictive for a very long while. However, you also have to think just like a town mayor would. In order to keep crime down, you need police stations located to have cop coverage around. In case there's a fire, you'll need some fire stations. To give the town electric, you need to have a plant and electric cables, linking every building together. You must also provide entertainment to people with a park or a stadium, or commercial places for broadcasting programmes on telly and stuff. Should the town need transport, you can make roads, railways, airports and seaports, it's all up to you. You can build a variety of cities and have whatever you want in them. The better you do, the greater the status of your city becomes. It starts off as a village, but as the population grows, it becomes a town, a city, a capital, and if you really do well, eventually a metropolis. You can make profits from taxes to keep your budget high as well.

Story: 6/10

The whole idea of the game is that you play as the mayor of a city you are going to create, and with a make or break budget you are making your city piece by piece. Whether the people like it or not will determine how well you do. There's no simpler way to state how you're playing this game in the first place, but then again, there's kind of like, no other way you'd be building a city, would there?!

Audio/Video: 5/10

Only very small models of things you see around the city represent what is where, or in fact, just squares with the letter 'R' (for 'Residential'), 'C' (for 'Commercial') or 'I' (for 'Industrial') inside them. Ok, I may be being a bit harsh, but I believe the graphics could have been better at this time. It's really not much of a problem though, since you know what's where from this key.

There is not much sound in SimCity at all, truth be told. A few sound effects sound unrealistic, like fire spreading, and a few sound realistic, like planes crashing, so it hangs in the balance. The soundtrack while you make the city is rather quiet, so a tune up and more music would have been somewhat more pleasant.

Replayability: High

You're doing the same thing over and over again throughout the game, which is building a city, but the many different things you can do to customise your cities and the way you make them is absolutely fun. The addiction will last a great while, even compared to the enhanced versions such as SimCity 2000, this game will still keep you interested for a long time, and it's a terrific simulator.

Good Things/Pros

-- Very fun
-- Lasts a long while
-- Lots of things to do
-- Easy to understand
-- Many ways you can customise your cities

Bad Things/Cons

-- Graphics could have been better
-- Not too much in terms of sound
-- Rather difficult to do well

Overall: 8/10

This game spawned great sequels, and itself it is a truly terrific game. It's pure fun to play, and has some great challenge, but it is rather hard. By all means you should buy this game if you can find a copy of the old version, since it won't disappoint you. Overall this is a truly terrific simulator by Maxis and it's one of the best 'Sim -- s' on the PC you can play!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/03/04