SimCity

 PC
User Score
2.2

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 4557 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 602 out of 4557
  2. Mixed: 428 out of 4557
  3. Negative: 3,527 out of 4557
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  1. saris1
    Aug 3, 2015
    1
    What were they thinking? So to keep out pirates they screw paying customers. Nice. Guess what? The pirated version actually works properly and doesn't depend on servers that crash your game all of the time.

    So... I paid and got reamed. Pirates did not pay and got a playable game.

    Nice work EA, well done.
  2. ICE_MAN_3rd_ID
    Dec 8, 2013
    3
    I bought the disk version from GameStop without knowing that it was a downloadable always online only game. Had I known that, I would have never bought the game. But, alas, I have spent the money. I like the other SimCity games so I said "I'll give it a try". Bad mistake. The traditionally 1 player game is now based on multiplayer gameplay. Thanks for ruining everything that I love EA.
  3. IceBlood
    Dec 31, 2013
    1
    The game is 9 months old now and the agent system still doesn't work. Vehicles are disappearing and ghost town phenomena still exists. Power and water usage is raising cumulatively even the city plot is cleared completely. Students disappears and vehicles just disappears. The game is broken but Maxis is making new content instead of fixing the game. There is also plenty new bugs likeThe game is 9 months old now and the agent system still doesn't work. Vehicles are disappearing and ghost town phenomena still exists. Power and water usage is raising cumulatively even the city plot is cleared completely. Students disappears and vehicles just disappears. The game is broken but Maxis is making new content instead of fixing the game. There is also plenty new bugs like unremovable street car tunnels.… Expand
  4. baalroo
    Mar 24, 2014
    2
    It's actually quite surprising how truly bland and un-sim-like this game is. Going in I really thought the complaints of "the cities are too small" and "the simulations are too simple" were just the cries of EA haters and non-sim-enthusiasts complaining for the sake of complaining. The truth is, the haters are right. After an hour of playing, you'll feel like you've already seen and doneIt's actually quite surprising how truly bland and un-sim-like this game is. Going in I really thought the complaints of "the cities are too small" and "the simulations are too simple" were just the cries of EA haters and non-sim-enthusiasts complaining for the sake of complaining. The truth is, the haters are right. After an hour of playing, you'll feel like you've already seen and done pretty much everything there is to see, and you're unlikely to ever feel truly engaged. The game is cold and indifferent, moves at a snail's pace, but yet after about an hour you'll have most of the city plot filled up with stuff. There's just very little content, and even less reason to care. This game is a terrible let down.… Expand
  5. SovietUnion38
    Oct 14, 2014
    1
    Минусы-плюсы:

    + Красивая, приятная графика + Интеграция между городами + Большое разнообразие домов и построек А теперь минусы, их куда больше и они существеннее: - Даётся слишком мало места для развития города. Это ужасно. мне не нужна интеграция между 10 городами, мне нужен режим в котором даётся одна большая территория для развития одного большого города, места очень сильно    Минусы-плюсы:

    + Красивая, приятная графика
    + Интеграция между городами
    + Большое разнообразие домов и построек

    А теперь минусы, их куда больше и они существеннее:

    - Даётся слишком мало места для развития города. Это ужасно. мне не нужна интеграция между 10 городами, мне нужен режим в котором даётся одна большая территория для развития одного большого города, места очень сильно не хватает, что б построить от души.

    - Главная проблема игры - пробки. Причём разработчики сами эту проблему и создали - нельзя создавать развязки-развилки дорог в городе (как на автомагистралях), нет дорог с односторонним движением, нет более широких дорог.

    - Даже при настолько малой территории для развития игра очень требовательна к железу.

    - Одной ядерной электростанции с макс количеством энергоблоков бывает недостаточно для очень крупного города (т у п о с т ь)

    - Территория около зданий бывает не "приклеивается" к ближайшей/им дороге/ам. Некрасиво смотрится.

    - Молчу про крупные проекты. Идея интересная, но её вы, разработчики, развили очень плохо.

    - Хреновая интеграция между городами (лень описывать)

    - Раздражает пиздец как ленивое население - при наличии 20 тыс разных вакансий 10 тыс человек так и остаются безработными (при условии ур. вакансии равен уровню жителя)

    - Электричество распространяется очень медленно - чушь, ибо скорость электричества равна 250 тыс/км, а не как в игре.

    - Та же тема с водой и канализацией. Не думаю, что в реальной жизни дела с водой и канализацией обстоят так же.

    Столько возможностей можно было реализовать, а разработчики не оправдали ожиданий, и, позже, выпустили дорогущие DLC.    … Expand
  6. gonzalo123
    Jan 19, 2015
    2
    It's a modern version of the predecessors. I will start with 5 points, and then i will add or take off points.
    Pro's:
    1-The user interface is small and good. (+1 point) 2-The answer time in the servers are good. (+1 point) 3-The game has goals. Achievements. (+1 point) 4-Is addictive. (+2 points) Con's 1-The lag is annoying. (-1 point) 2-The servers are full. (-1 point) 3-You    It's a modern version of the predecessors. I will start with 5 points, and then i will add or take off points.
    Pro's:
    1-The user interface is small and good. (+1 point)
    2-The answer time in the servers are good. (+1 point)
    3-The game has goals. Achievements. (+1 point)
    4-Is addictive. (+2 points)
    Con's
    1-The lag is annoying. (-1 point)
    2-The servers are full. (-1 point)
    3-You can't skip the tutorial. (-1 point)
    4-Too many updates, almost all days, the wait time is annoying. (-2 points)
    5-Painted cardboard graphics. (-1 point)
    6-2 square kilometers to build. (-2 points)

    The game is very bad, not recommended.    … Expand
  7. PedroGamer
    Oct 31, 2014
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The tutorial is the only thing that´s good in the game. However, when the game really begins, I was really mad, cause the only thing that you can build are streets and roads, but if you place it wrong or put too much, you lose money, time and waste of tutorial process. What´s worse, everything is BLOCKED until you place the roads the correct way.… Expand
  8. Exwin0880
    May 14, 2015
    3
    This game is so bad, it destroyed the studio that made it.

    RIP Maxis, another company who's soul has been destroyed by EA for the price of a few box sales.
  9. crishy
    Oct 3, 2014
    2
    Summary and Veredict: Very poor game even after the forced online mode era gone once and for all. It is a case in point that shows graphics are not everything.

    Modding might make this game much better with time (like it did for SC4) but considering EA right now appears to be not as friendly towards it as it was when SC4 was released (so they can release their overpriced DLCs in the    Summary and Veredict: Very poor game even after the forced online mode era gone once and for all. It is a case in point that shows graphics are not everything.

    Modding might make this game much better with time (like it did for SC4) but considering EA right now appears to be not as friendly towards it as it was when SC4 was released (so they can release their overpriced DLCs in the first place), the crippled region play without terraforming and lack of creative control, all these factors but make this game very boring after a couple of hours of play.

    Definitively not worth the 60$+ it cost at launch and still not the 20$ it costs right now unless you are a very casual player just looking to play town mayor with some pretty 3D graphics once in a while. If you want to go anywhere further in the field of city simulator use that money to get either SC4 or Cities XL.

    Pros:

    - Decent full 3D graphics.
    - Roads can now be built curved, elevated, etc.
    - Improved simulation of town's inhabitants. (may or may not be important depending on your style of play). Nice with the bus and ground rail transit options the game offers.
    - Online mode can make for some fun moments with friends though this was already possible in SC4 in a slower and more cumbersome scale.
    - Upgradeable buildings.

    Cons: Pretty much everything else.

    - Ridiculously small town sizes. More like small neighborhoods. In paper "2 x 2" km wide (or about 1.25 mi by 1.25 mi) but considering that roads take much more space than they used to in SC4 or in real life, the maps appear to be much more smaller than that. Using roads as reference, maps are about 0.5 km wide. So yea, the 2 x 2 km SC city has about 1/16th of the area of a medium tile city in SC4 (which is supposed to be 2 x 2 km wide as well) and 1/4th of the smallest cities in SC4 that are 1 km wide. There is a mod that increases their size a bit but with region and lag problems described below, use it at your own risk.
    - The above would be not such a big deal if they were side by side like SC4 had but alas the towns are spread apart and there is nothing in between them but a few roads linking them together. After building your towns - which can be done in less than an hour easily in each town, and in a day or two in all towns inside a region - you are left with a terribly unrealistic looking region with packed squared shaped towns scattered in a region of blank space. You cannot even add extra city connections.
    - Building sizes in contrast appear very small relative to the roads they border. Even SC4 had size scaling problems (roads and buildings) but yea, they go to a whole new level in SC.
    - Cities can achieve populations similar to their counterparts in older games, but that just makes your cities appear even more unrealistic and silly than they are already appear to. For example, a 350k city would have 1.4 mil people per square kilometer in SC, using the size above, in SC4 medium city same population 56k, while the densest cities have about 100k to 20k.
    - No ability to create new maps or even terraform whatsoever. Towns appear in the region locked in place and you cannot even change their location. So if you dislike that big hill or that piece of river bed inside your town or a new region altogether you are pretty much screwed.
    - Curved roads create big spaces of wasted space, a very minor problem on its own but considering you do not have a lot of space to begin with, often you are left wondering why build them in the first place? Speaking of which no freeways or one way roads to begin with. Even gridded layouts have plenty of wasted space.
    - Zone density way too simplified and is based off only on the type of road used to zone them, further stiffling creative control. Since buildings are based off the road they are beside at if you demolish the road you also end up demolishing the buildings... Everything has to be beside roads, even parks.
    - No subways or agriculture. Not that they would fit in in 0.5 km wide towns anyway.
    - Lag problems when your city gets more and more populated. Suddenly, trying to simulate 350k+ people on a game daily basis does not appear to be that enticing...
    - The game was online mode only (for a game that screams single player over and over again) for over a year and had huge server issues in the first month or so after its release. While they bear no weight on how the game is right now after the offline patch it is outrageous that we had to wait a year for that to happen at all. Especially considering that they lied that this was impossible to begin with.
    - Overpriced DLCs that offer very little for your buck. SC4 has plenty of similar mods and plugins that are completely free to begin with.

    Pros or Cons depending on your style of play:

    - Increased options for trade of goods and services between towns. Some of them I find them quite unrealistic though. At least it mitigates (minimally) the small town sizes.
    - Water and power built automatically under roads.    … Expand
  10. Odogreviews
    Dec 6, 2014
    4
    Sim City is an OK game. The graphics are beautiful and so is the music. There isn't much too this game. The game is limited in what it can do. The maps are too small for you to build cool interesting big cities. The online DRM is not the reason why it has this rating it is because it has a lack of content. At least the game is playable right?
  11. tsakiym
    May 14, 2015
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I do not have to say anything more. But i need to write one hundred and fifty characters. i think my score can describe it............................… Expand
  12. LordSolidus
    Dec 12, 2015
    1
    Simcity is the worst simcity game ever, NO challenge, easy as hell, small maps (too small), multiplayer is wortless, too many ppl just enter your region and leave after about 1-2 hour's and don't return
    DO NOT BUY
  13. reviewfrom19842
    Aug 31, 2016
    1
    Horrible awfully boring game a shameless way for EA to get more money it might be fun for about 3 minutes but that's it..............................
  14. Broyax
    Jun 30, 2023
    0
    Une version sensiblement modernisée du fameux ‘SimCity’ est sortie en 2013, entièrement en 3D désormais et assez jolie, même maintenant en 2023 ! j’étais tombé en tout cas sur ce SimCity dans un bac à soldes, bien après son lancement… pour un euro et un Mars ou bien c’était juste deux balles, je ne me souviens plus…

    J’avais vu les mauvaises notes, les très mauvaises notes qui faisaient    Une version sensiblement modernisée du fameux ‘SimCity’ est sortie en 2013, entièrement en 3D désormais et assez jolie, même maintenant en 2023 ! j’étais tombé en tout cas sur ce SimCity dans un bac à soldes, bien après son lancement… pour un euro et un Mars ou bien c’était juste deux balles, je ne me souviens plus…

    J’avais vu les mauvaises notes, les très mauvaises notes qui faisaient de ce ‘SimCity’ une immense déception et surtout un gros jeu de merde ! je crois que les gens ralaient surtout (et à juste titre) sur cette daube d’Origin puisque SC était lié à cette daube et ne pouvait évidemment pas marcher sans elle. J’avais donc posé le boîtier sur l’étagère, puis il est resté ainsi… jusqu’à aujourd’hui.

    Parfois, même les jeux de merde peuvent trouver leur rédemption et devenir éventuellement… et simplement médiocres ! (cf Cyberbug woke 2077 par exemple !) au fil d’innombrables patchs… Mais là, le problème demeure : pour jouer en solo, il faut être connecté à internet ! bien que parfois. le jeu semble fonctionner en solo et hors-ligne mais c’est sans compter sur cette méga bouse d’Origin !

    Non, que dis-je, ça a changé -je ne sais pas quand- mais c’est ‘Ea App’ désormais ! les concurrents de Steamprout ont connu des hauts et des bas mais se sont toujours améliorés avec le temps… même le lanceur d’Ubichiottes -malgré ses changements de nom- fonctionne correctement… encore que… justement, ubichiottes con-nect fait une màj, puis un message d’erreur apparaît… GOG pour sa part est devenu bien pratique et reste le seul sans saloperie de DRM ! Quant à Epic truc, il pourrait être… digne de confiance ?! -non, faut pas déconner, c’est la succursale de Tiktok, le renifleur communiste !

    Mais Origin qui était assez daubé, est remplacé par ‘Ea App’ encore plus daubé ! en mode hors-ligne, tout disparaît de l’interface, hormis les liens des jeux censés fonctionner… hors-ligne ! or, ça ne marche qu’une fois sur deux ou sur trois et de fait, la daube SimCity ne veut fonctionner que quand la daube EA App est con-nectée.

    Donc, va chier EA la worst company et si vous ne supportez plus le windaube 7, vous n’avez qu’a le dire ! pareil pour Ubichiottes qui vient de foutre en l’air son lanceur, devenu une simple nullité. Le PC, l’obsolescence et la soumission programmée par une bande de mange-merdes au service de la corpo Grosoft qui veut fourguer encore plus de windaubes 10/11 ! (ce sont des gros renifleurs eux aussi, d’ailleurs).

    Donc, si vous avez acheté un jeu à un temps ‘T’, eh bien à un certain moment, à savoir plus tard (mais inéluctablement), le jeu ne fonctionnera plus ! pareil pour cet étron no man’s sky par exemple, qui marchait avec 7 mais l’un des patchs l’a transformé en jeu windaube 10 ! et tu peux donc aller chier. Et après, ils vont se plaindre du ‘piratage’… nan mais… sans déconner !    … Expand
  15. Stephenicus
    Jan 29, 2017
    1
    This new SimCity game completely ignores and butchers all standards set by the previous games. Rather than having diverse city-scapes with mixtures of dense, medium and low zoning areas, ranging from farms to suburbs to down down metros, you get a very dense, very congested square. Industry is limited to a single edge of the square, so sims don't get sick, and anything extra you might wantThis new SimCity game completely ignores and butchers all standards set by the previous games. Rather than having diverse city-scapes with mixtures of dense, medium and low zoning areas, ranging from farms to suburbs to down down metros, you get a very dense, very congested square. Industry is limited to a single edge of the square, so sims don't get sick, and anything extra you might want to build, like the Statue of Liberty, or even a hospital, requires the destruction of something else because every space becomes occupies within the first hour of playing a city. Every city is the same size, and building anything outside of the limited squares is off limits, even in the worlds themselves. Other Sim City games let the players edit the worlds. Not this one. This SimCity game is extremely limiting, and I curse EA for destroying yet another awesome franchise.… Expand
  16. Nekellor
    Aug 1, 2018
    3
    Нормальная музыка. Ужасная картонная графика. Неправдоподобное, легко изменяемая система развития города. Забагованность, вылеты. И просто скучно. На один присест.
  17. MazrimTaim14
    Oct 14, 2019
    1
    Tried to played it on release. couldn't play a single player game due to unnecessary multiplayer set up. Had it at 0.

    Played the game finally and got not a city builder game but more on a block builder game. Cant even get the size of Manhattan. Had it still at 0. Played years later and it seems like i can rate it at 2 or 3 but found out the crashing of loss of net connection was a    Tried to played it on release. couldn't play a single player game due to unnecessary multiplayer set up. Had it at 0.

    Played the game finally and got not a city builder game but more on a block builder game. Cant even get the size of Manhattan. Had it still at 0.

    Played years later and it seems like i can rate it at 2 or 3 but found out the crashing of loss of net connection was a deliberate part on the developers and also contrasted this game to Cities Skylines. The game this should have been then we find ourselves at 1.

    I know people complain that every release of NBA2K, Fifa or COD are the same every year but those are released EVERY YEAR. we get city simulators every 4 to 6 years so I cant complain if it is not THAT different from the previous game. Quality of life improvements and feedback from player suggestions can go a long way.    … Expand
  18. SrCre
    Mar 10, 2020
    4
    [ ] Perfect
    [ ] Awesome
    [ ] Good
    [x] Good Bad
    [ ] Fail

    Não vejo necessidade em escrever um longo texto analisando uma arte, a nota é apenas um conselho para saber o quanto ela vale para sua vida.

    I see no need to write a long text analyzing an art, the note is just a piece of advice to know how much it is worth in your life.
  19. neddread
    Nov 16, 2020
    0
    This review is made in 2020, and it is purely based on gameplay.
    So 7 years after launch (which I went through, it was a nightmare) and I reinstalled after a long time away to see if it had improved....it has not.
    The buildings still look really nice, but the snapping build method it uses ends up making the city looking random and ugly with big holes that don't fill in with anything, and    This review is made in 2020, and it is purely based on gameplay.
    So 7 years after launch (which I went through, it was a nightmare) and I reinstalled after a long time away to see if it had improved....it has not.
    The buildings still look really nice, but the snapping build method it uses ends up making the city looking random and ugly with big holes that don't fill in with anything, and the holes are too small to put anything in them. The balance of the game is still very broken and you can be left with a city that goes nowhere. Example: It will inform you that there is a worker shortage but insist you should increase building shops and industries.
    The tiny size of the cities are still an issue and after a few hours you've filled up the space and playing more becomes boring. Sure you can get another city going in the region, but it's not the same as having a massive, bustling city we used to make in the old simcity games.
    And that's why I reinstalled this clusterflip, because I bought Simcity4 from GOG and was blown away at how much better it was in comparison.
    Such a disappointing experience from a title that used to be the best in it's class.
    Buy any other version of this series except this one.    … Expand
  20. BowLL
    Nov 22, 2020
    4
    after playing this game, i regret it a bit.

    this game has great graphics, catchy music, decent game mechanics when you're building a city. but HOLY crap, looking at the other reviews, i'm definitely disappointed with the fact that online playing is broken, and it's created by EA, so you KNOW that EA doesn't give a freaking crap about refund. they just want you to literally keep the    after playing this game, i regret it a bit.

    this game has great graphics, catchy music, decent game mechanics when you're building a city.
    but HOLY crap, looking at the other reviews, i'm definitely disappointed with the fact that online playing is broken, and it's created by EA, so you KNOW that EA doesn't give a freaking crap about refund. they just want you to literally keep the game for what the game price is.    … Expand
  21. DawnOfSili
    Dec 14, 2020
    4
    Terrible game. Total betrayal of the city builder genre. It runs terribly, and the company in charge (EA) completely ruined any chance of this game living longer than 6 months.
  22. Alekol
    Jan 14, 2021
    0
    The game is just awful, not realistic. EA didn't take care of the servers in the online game. A city is just a square, and when it ends, another city will be needed ...
  23. EliRayK
    Feb 27, 2021
    0
    Boring game Not Much To Do The Game Is Too Easy I'll Never Play Simcity Again
  24. Robims
    Apr 5, 2021
    4
    1. The traffic without the Airships DLC is awful.
    2.The city's can be very small. (If you want to have fun with the game for a long time then you're devinitely wrong here.)
    3. The game is bad optimized. (I have a good pc and the game only runs with 40 FPS.)
    4. The graphics are too playful.
    5. The game is to easy.
  25. Mythdon
    Nov 16, 2021
    4
    The only thing about SimCity (2013) that stands out to me is the fact that it's in 3D, but other than that, it's overall lackluster, even for a SimCity. The ControlNet complicates the game so much without adding any fun to it, you're stuck only with only a few premade regions that are so small (and can't add or make your own custom-made regions, like you could in SimCity 4) makes thisThe only thing about SimCity (2013) that stands out to me is the fact that it's in 3D, but other than that, it's overall lackluster, even for a SimCity. The ControlNet complicates the game so much without adding any fun to it, you're stuck only with only a few premade regions that are so small (and can't add or make your own custom-made regions, like you could in SimCity 4) makes this version of SimCity feel so limited. Besides being in 3D, being in Sandbox Mode and adding ControlNet, it's mostly just a rehash of the previous SImCity games while also being a major step-down. It's still a fun game to play but if you're wanting a more serious, more detailed kind of city simulation, I heavily recommend SimCity 4 or Cities: Skylines over this disaster of a not city building simulation.… Expand
  26. Crimson9
    Dec 24, 2022
    0
    Another example of EA greed butchering a franchise. Very depressing. This is a downgrade from simcity 4 in every way.
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Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
21
#21 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 75 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 75
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 75
  3. Negative: 10 out of 75
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Jun 5, 2013
    65
    Given enough patches and DCLs, SimCity might eventually become the game that should have been on its release and justify the ambiguous choices that its developers made. [May 2013]
  2. Games Master UK
    May 9, 2013
    68
    Hints at great things but is limited by small cities and promises it can't deliver on. [June 2013, p.80]
  3. Hyper Magazine
    May 9, 2013
    40
    There's more problems with this game than I have words. Looks great though. [June 2013, p.80]
See all critic reviews »