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. Orctownorc
    Aug 24, 2013
    5
    EA is a business that seems to want to destroy its own business. Which other games publisherhas such a perfect ability of smelling out what their customers like and then going and doing the EXACT opposite. What other company is as loathed as EA, in an industry where the customers actually want to love them but can't???? Obsessed with their need for Origins to be successful, obsessed aboutEA is a business that seems to want to destroy its own business. Which other games publisherhas such a perfect ability of smelling out what their customers like and then going and doing the EXACT opposite. What other company is as loathed as EA, in an industry where the customers actually want to love them but can't???? Obsessed with their need for Origins to be successful, obsessed about piracy, which is irrelevant in a world where the number of happy paying customers is booming, obsessed about getting as much blood from a stone as they can with DLC and micro-transactions, EA corporate apparently spends zero time thinking about games, the gamer of the gaming experience. EA seems to be rendered insane by its own greed. It has a genius for destroying games and the fun of gaming. And by all appearances there is no one with any power or control in EA who actually CARES about this either. Look at the millions and millions they blow on advertising! Look at the way gameplay and game fun and game design considerations stagnate or go backwards and get worse! What's wrong with this company? Why are the fools crashing the ships into the rocks NOT getting sacked? The answer can only be that the rot is coming from the very top. It's the EA executives who are making this company a joke. These are obviously men with big egos who never actually play games, and feel an innate contempt for gamers, indeed for games. Gamers should seriously boycott the products of this company, because it's evident from the long string of ruined franchises and studios EA has destroyed in the past 2 years that this company represents a DISEASED corporate culture that will obviously continue so long as the corporate machine is making revenue. Until EA starts taking significant financial losses on their horribly skewed 'games' they have no real reason to change what they are doing. This game is a horrible warning sign of how EA hopes to suck gamers into a DLC-addled, micro-transaction infested, pay-to-play, pay to win, charge by the month toll booth on our lives. They have so much contempt for games and gamers that they even try to chain us to their machine with BAD games. Like we are DUMB enough to allow it. The answer is to say NO. Don't buy their games. Score bomb their games. Don't support these people. EVER. Buy from companies with a better philosphy and with more love for the art and fun that represent gaming at its best. Starve the beast. EA is truly, really, deeply SICK. The shareholders need to replace the entire executive of the business with people who actually, know, love, understand and live for making good games. A company with the financial resources to be an industry leader should be an industry leader. Right now they are wasting and losing billions in potential revenue. They are not only losing-out in terms of game design, creativity and popularity, they are missing BILLIONS in revenue. They are a bad publisher and a BAD business model. Dozens of corporate shills in suits with no understanding of games, gaming or gamers need to be permanently retired, starting with ALL their present executives. A Sim City in 2013 should have been a blow-your mind awesome experience not only in the dimensions of cartoon world creation, but also in hyper-real SERIOUS civic engineering. It could have and should have been not only a toy, but a platform that could be used by architects and engineers to mock up real-world projects. Instead of investing in a state of the art engine however, EA blew its budget on hookers and blow again: AS ALWAYS: giving us a sad reboot of a 1997 experience on the back of a vast, wasted advertising budget. Casuals don't care and will get their kicks elsewhere. The hardcore knowingly laugh. Why do these fools make games for 12 year old, and hope to use DLC and micro transactions to get kids to hit their folks with the credit card? Does no-one with authority in EA have the slightest interest in ACTUALLY MAKING GOOD STATE OF THE ART SOFTWARE? If they stopped trying so hard to work angles with DLC and such and just made plain awesome games they would double their profits in 12 months and start to regain some of the good will they have so steadily squandered in the past three years! SACK the present boss and reset your agenda !

    THE GROT REVIEW CRITERIA: After a long time writing reviews like an anus, think its time to set a few bad habits straight: Stop insulting designers. Show some respect for the design process and getting games in circulation. Hence (1) No Red scores. (2) Game scores as follows: Bad Game 5/10. Poor Game 6/10. Mediocre Game: 7/10. Good Game 8/10. Great game 9/10. Stella Game 10/10. To get 10/10 it must be a game that can be (theoretically) play-able for 1000+ hours. Not only great but near endless fun. Games may be bad or poor but making them should earn respect. Thus even the worst POS will still be a 5/10. 0/10 no longer exists in my vocabulary. Yellow is the new red. For the sake o    … Expand
  2. Aquazi
    Mar 9, 2013
    6
    I will skip the drm part. The game is a limited version of sim city 4, cities are small, gameplay is limited. The cooperation and social part is interesting, but soon this new aspect gets boring and what you have is a very limited game. It is not that bad, but afterall games like Tropico 4 and all dlc's feel way more fun and cost 9 dollars not 60.
  3. yogibbear
    Mar 6, 2013
    5
    Played the game for 3 hrs today. Thought waiting two days would make everything OK. Game crashes after 3 hrs of happily playing an online game with 6 other people... guess what... this is why online saves are terrible and you get metacritic stomped... because the entire save is gone and none of us have any of our 3-4 hrs of progress to continue with. The experience of all building ourPlayed the game for 3 hrs today. Thought waiting two days would make everything OK. Game crashes after 3 hrs of happily playing an online game with 6 other people... guess what... this is why online saves are terrible and you get metacritic stomped... because the entire save is gone and none of us have any of our 3-4 hrs of progress to continue with. The experience of all building our cities to help each other is simply lost in the cloud forever. Well that's a 5/10 or below in anyone's book. Fix this please. It is depressing that even 2 days post launch you still don't have the cloud side save system figured out if you're going to go live with this sort of DRM it better damn well at least save the game.… Expand
  4. rawsl
    Sep 4, 2014
    5
    It's a very beautiful game, but the simulation is lacking depth and the size of cities is just to small. I can only recommend it to people who want to play it as casual game.
  5. Antiqua
    Mar 5, 2013
    5
    Ignoring the DRM the game is at this point still not worth buying. While for the most part this is a good upgrade of the sim city series the one thing that really hampers it is the map size.
    While in theory the addition of curved roads that allow you more freedom in how you design your city should be awesome the reality is that because the maps are so tiny any creativity will be severely    Ignoring the DRM the game is at this point still not worth buying. While for the most part this is a good upgrade of the sim city series the one thing that really hampers it is the map size.
    While in theory the addition of curved roads that allow you more freedom in how you design your city should be awesome the reality is that because the maps are so tiny any creativity will be severely punished since it's not as dense as a grid type city. The game is also kind of bad at fitting in buildings to the area available which also punishes being creative as you will get tons of unused space either because you got too much space between roads or too little.
    After playing the game for even an hour you will start feeling very cramped and you will basically be left with the option to build inwards, that is tearing down and reconstructing existing plots. For me a bare minimum before I would concider actually giving money for this game would be four times the size but I would really prefer nine or more.
    Of course seeing as this is EA they will milk their customers for everything they got. Expect to see building themes, larger map sizes and everything else that this game should have had at release for sale soon.    … Expand
  6. LordLothair
    Mar 5, 2013
    5
    Alright gang, let's get the obligatory complaining out of the way:

    1. Always online DRM 2. Only 2 US servers (5 total) 3. 0 customer service response or presence (255+ minute wait time to speak to an online rep, suddenly removed phone and email support access) The combination of these things has resulted in a horrible release for EA. Can I say I'm surprised: no, not really.    Alright gang, let's get the obligatory complaining out of the way:

    1. Always online DRM
    2. Only 2 US servers (5 total)
    3. 0 customer service response or presence (255+ minute wait time to speak to an online rep, suddenly removed phone and email support access)

    The combination of these things has resulted in a horrible release for EA. Can I say I'm surprised: no, not really. We, as consumers have allowed this behavior, and even excuse it with: It's release day, just wait... Every game has these problems at start... No one can expect the server load... and various other excuse that gets tossed up on a forum complaining about the game. The fact is NOT every game has this problem, because not every game requires online access, not every game requires you to link up with a limited server farm, and not every game is released with almost zero customer service... sigh, now that's out of the way, my review of what (little) I've gotten to play:

    The visuals of the game are wonderful. The city grows very organically, and is pleasing to watch. The detail used to express and track the individual Sims in your city as they go about their daily lives is a great feat and adds so much to the depth of simulation. Musical effects are fitting for the scene and don't draw attention to themselves, while adding just enough ambiance to fill out the effect.

    For those that have played previous SimCity games before, you will find some issues though. First and foremost to me is the limited size you have to build your city in. Due to the "specialization" that you are "encouraged" to use for each city, you are limited to what appears to be about 2 square kilometers for each city. These are not very large spaces, especially compared to some of the huge blocks of space you could use in SimCity 4. Secondly, you will find that things have been streamlined. This is not always a bad thing. Everything runs through streets (power, water, sewage), so you can layout utilities and transport all in one go, however this also feels like "training wheels" to experienced SimCity players. The snap-to guides are handy, but lack any sense of sizing for future development. How big of a zone do I need to have a sky scraper in a few years? I don't know, I guess I'll just put these roads wherever.

    Region interconnectivity is an interesting, but less than stellar additon. The ability to work with friends and assist them to start off by providing Goods or Services is nice, but really rather meaningless if you aren't specializing your city.

    Graphic glitches do exist, but aren't game-breaking (many times my buildings simply dissapear or roads become transparent). The biggest issues are server issues. Any time I have attempted to play I have had to sit and wait for atleast 30 minutes before being able to join a server (yes, I'm sitting for the fifth time today as I write this). This wouldn't be too bad expect for frequent crashes and glitches on cities becoming no responsive that require restarting the game, and sitting the server que... again.

    Another frustraion comes from the division of the servers themselves. The most common response we (people seeking support from EA) have gotten is: "Just join a server that isn't full". That's all fine and good, except the city I just spent three hours on only exists on one server. When you go to a new server, you have to restart with the tutorial (something that you can't skip and is bugged out on some servers), and start all over. Also, you only have access to 10 regions at any one time. You can delete a region to free up space, but this is bugged and currently not releasing the save slot on some servers. The ability to have a private region is nice for those of us that really don't want someone creating a bunch of pollution in our areas, but makes the always online DRM rather oppressive.

    All told, the few hours of play time I have gotten have been enjoyable. It's nice to have a pretty SimCity to poke around with, and I look forward to experimenting with the city specialization and regional superprojects, however, I have spent as much time waiting for tech support and sitting in server lines as I have played in the last 24 hours since release, and that is unacceptable to me.

    Is this a great sequel to SimCity 4... sadly, no. Is it a good game, yes I'd say it is. It is fun, a great time sink, and something that has been lacking in recent games, but as always Buyer Beware when it comes to EA and any other distributors that restricts your access to the game you purchased. My other major concern is future content being distributed as purchased DLC, server instability, or the fact that at any time EA could decide to shut down the SimCity servers and your $60 game is suddenly gone.

    Use your personal scales to decide if you want to play SimCity badly enough to support such bad business practices. If you do, the game itself isn't bad.    … Expand
  7. MayhemMike83
    Mar 5, 2013
    5
    My gf bought it, but wasn't at home the whole day so I had the pleasure to try it out so here are my impressions:

    1. Pricing: It looks like a typical EA cash grab. The game isn't feature complete (subways?) so expect a lot of expensive but low value DLCs coming our way. I wouldn't buy it until they release a discounted "Gold" version including most of the upcoming extras. 2.    My gf bought it, but wasn't at home the whole day so I had the pleasure to try it out so here are my impressions:

    1. Pricing: It looks like a typical EA cash grab. The game isn't feature complete (subways?) so expect a lot of expensive but low value DLCs coming our way. I wouldn't buy it until they release a discounted "Gold" version including most of the upcoming extras. 2. Always-On-DRM: It took ages until I was able to log in. This is just unacceptable and shows the flaws of this kind of DRM. Also keep in mind that EA will shutdown the servers once the game doesn't make enough profit, or when a newer version gets released. 3. Look and Feel: It looks really nice and watching the little sims doing their thing is amazing. It really feels like a living and breathing city.
    4. The building part: The maps are just too small. Takes you around 1-2h to fill up the entire square and then you can either refine the city or move on to another one so don't expect to spend days or even weeks on a single city. If you have several cities in a region then they will work together but it is just not the same.

    Overall some interesting new ideas, a nice look and feel but a lack in its core city-building mechanic.    … Expand
  8. danielkyp
    Mar 7, 2013
    7
    If you bought the game already please head my advice! In origin use the Call Me help option, when an agent calls you, simply ask for a refund. I managed to get a refund very simply even though they say they won't give you one for digital downloads form origin. They didn't ask questions, don't vent, don't complain, just simply state that you would like a refund. I only gave this a 7 soIf you bought the game already please head my advice! In origin use the Call Me help option, when an agent calls you, simply ask for a refund. I managed to get a refund very simply even though they say they won't give you one for digital downloads form origin. They didn't ask questions, don't vent, don't complain, just simply state that you would like a refund. I only gave this a 7 so that the icon would turn green and more people would notice my message.… Expand
  9. Zentriefugal
    Mar 7, 2013
    6
    To be honest, the game itself is nice but Electronic Arts is like a baby that is not interessted in learning from its misstakes. I give this game to lowest scor to continue drop the rating!
  10. 10k_Volts
    Apr 15, 2013
    6
    I've amended my review to reflect SimCity more accurately now that it can actually be played. So setting aside all the DRM crap and EA's crappy servers and other launch woes the rest of the game is alright. It's good but in all honesty the server's aren't the only thing wrong with this game. Traffic problems run rampant despite several patches to help this and it's almost assured that youI've amended my review to reflect SimCity more accurately now that it can actually be played. So setting aside all the DRM crap and EA's crappy servers and other launch woes the rest of the game is alright. It's good but in all honesty the server's aren't the only thing wrong with this game. Traffic problems run rampant despite several patches to help this and it's almost assured that you will have a 4 mile long bank of traffic waiting to get into or leave your city on the only connecting road you're allowed to the region.

    Despite trying and trying it's just hard to really get that longevity out of the game. I'm not really sold on the multiplayer side of things. I did it once and thought cool, and after a few hours me and the 3 other players I was playing with had filled up most of the city blocks and were starting on a Great Work. Once that was finished then all we could really do was twiddle our thumbs. Traffic problems were horrendous but there was nothing we could do about that, there was only one road in and out of our cities. Sure we could start another region and do it all again but why? there's 8 maps to choose from, the level of variety is obscenely low. I guess I would like the multiplayer and perhaps just SimCity itself more if it actually kept many of the things that made the series so great to begin with. But instead this game forces many sacrifices of things for these new ideas which honestly detract a lot from those ideas. I constantly dream up the things I could do if my city borders were bigger or if I actually could build my own intercity transport routes but instead I'm stuck with what has been decided for me. SimCity has turned itself into a board game rather than being the sandbox city builder we onced loved.    … Expand
  11. SirGregMac
    Mar 8, 2013
    5
    I've played every Sim City released on PC and this is by far the worst, yet it has the potential to be the best. Besides the server issues happening at the time of this review, 122 hours after North American launch, the game is limited. The size of cities is so much smaller than previous versions, which is weird because with video games I am use to them improving over the course of aI've played every Sim City released on PC and this is by far the worst, yet it has the potential to be the best. Besides the server issues happening at the time of this review, 122 hours after North American launch, the game is limited. The size of cities is so much smaller than previous versions, which is weird because with video games I am use to them improving over the course of a series, not getting worse and removing features. Speaking of removed features, build a road at the edge of your map, nothing happens, in Sim City 4 it prompted if you wanted to connect this to the neighboring city, not allowed here. Heck you can't even connect a subway to anything, cuz they simply don't exist, that's right, the lifeblood of every major city in the world is completely removed for Sim City. Sadly my friends and I believe that this was not included so as to be added as paid DLC at a later date. Similarly the small city size and lack of terraforming, a huge part of previous versions, limits the ability to do anything creative, which is what this series is about, again my friends and I believe these may be changed via paid DLC, which would be a complete disservice to fans and a giant step back for games in general as they get better and improve on previous features of a series, not remove the popular features, like playing a single player without having to be connected to the internet at all times, and change the principals of the series to the point of making the game unplayable, literally. The worst part is that when I have been able to connect to their servers and join a friend's region they start to purchase some of my excess power and then inexplicably my power plant continues to feed my city uninterrupted, yet stops giving him anything, even though I have five times the excess power than he needs, blame this on the servers if you want, but we are playing on the same server at the same time and talking on skype, which brings me to another drawback, how do you not include something other than a basic text chat in a game that requires you to be online. If my friend is having a zombie outbreak and needs police assistance he's not going to stop everything, let the zombies continue to destroy his city, or rather town considering the size limitation, he is going to try to do his best, but if all he had to do was ask us for help using his voice we can send any and all spare resources to assist him, but you can't reasonably expect a $60 online game to include simple communication tools. While they may fix their server issues, EA's what to get back in our "good graces" and still "be friends" is offering me a free Origin game, funny thing is I can't play the one and only Origin game I care to play, so why would I want to use another one of your games? The absolute worst part about this game is how a series that has been played offline for almost 25 years, except for Sim City 2000 Network Edition (a little known spinoff) no requires EA servers, so if I want to play this game in 5, 8, 10 years, as is my case with older Sim City games, I probably won't be able to as EA loves to shut down servers as they release the next game in a series or 2 years in a game's life span, sadly most of those games are still playable in the single player mode, which this simply doesn't offer, at least not without a major patch, that will probably never be released. Which probably accurately describes the venom many people have for EA and Maxis right now, it too will never be released, at least until they change menu system of the game as too many of us are all too familiar with the plane that's stuck in mid-air while we hope to find a working server. I'd love to give this game a 0, but the few moments I have been able to play and not rebuild the last 3 hours of unsaved work the game has been one of the best experiences I've ever had, so for the potential of playing it I'll give it a lowly single solitary one, which is exactly the amount of players it takes to play this game.… Expand
  12. hemmo1986
    Sep 9, 2014
    5
    Simcity holds a special place in my heart. Being able to create your own living and breathing city is always addictive and great fun, and it's no different for this entry to the series.

    However while it still remains fun to manage and build your own cities the game is let down by some annoying and questionable design choices. One of these critical choices is the map sizes.In previous    Simcity holds a special place in my heart. Being able to create your own living and breathing city is always addictive and great fun, and it's no different for this entry to the series.

    However while it still remains fun to manage and build your own cities the game is let down by some annoying and questionable design choices.

    One of these critical choices is the map sizes.In previous games you could build massive cities and it would take days to fill the map, however with this new edition within a few hours you will have completely used all of your space to build your city and will be forced to start a new city on a different map.

    The other critical issue is the choice of always online and a big emphasis on multiplayer, which puts a huge damper on the game.

    What could have been an amazing game is unfortunately ruined by a few bad design choices.    … Expand
  13. Troublewalking
    Feb 21, 2014
    5
    I rate this game a 5. As it is a SimCity game and it featured most of the things you would of expected from a SimCity game. It even had some nice features like you could play online with others. It had a nice feature where you could play multiple cities in a region at the same time. Specializing each city. Therefore one could be the commercial area. Another the residential. Another theI rate this game a 5. As it is a SimCity game and it featured most of the things you would of expected from a SimCity game. It even had some nice features like you could play online with others. It had a nice feature where you could play multiple cities in a region at the same time. Specializing each city. Therefore one could be the commercial area. Another the residential. Another the industrial. So in theory and what you got when you bought it, it was probably a 10.

    However what destroyed the game was EA's greed. They forced you to join Origin. They forced you to play the game online. But then they didn't have the capacity on the Origin servers to handle the masses of SimCity fans who were trying to build their cities. Remember everyone was forced to play online. This caused lag. Which in a city sim, that was happening in live time causes massive problems. From the cars, to crime, to pollution. This could cause whole sections of your city to just fall apart with no apparent way to fix it. It also caused the game to behave illogically and not be able to handle multiple specialized cities very well. For instance when I built a commercial area that was near a residential city, that was also sending electricity, water and other resources to build up the commercial city. The game was sure there weren't enough people to support it. Even though the residential city needed tons and tons of jobs and places to shop. Same with the industrial. You could start up a regular city and then rebuild it. But it's illogical multiplayer flaws coupled with lag could just ruin your gaming experience. This was especially a problem for those serious builders. As EA was trying to promote building competitions. The lag made things ugly really fast.

    When you couple this lag with bugs, bad pathing, and illogical flaws in the new ai the game was all but doomed. It's sad really as most of these flaws would of eventually been patched and everyone who purchased this game would of been happy rating it 8 or better easily. And most of the flaws were probably caused by the lag of the server you were forced to play on.

    I played solo, or private games where I invited friends. I have highs speed internet, but being forced to play on the Origin server which was lagged out of it's mind, just ruined the game for everyone. It is so sad because if we could of played this game solo, or on our own servers this game would probably have been a classic. Which all of us would be replaying for years to come.

    But instead EA decided they would stop game hackers by forcing them to play on their servers. Sadly those who cracked the games are probably the only ones who can enjoy the game in the state I last saw it. And this policy for what was traditionally an offline game, ruined it. Without stopping the hackers. In fact it was a PR problem for EA as they said you couldn't play the game offline. But people were quickly finding evidence that the game could probably be patched to be able to play offline.

    If EA just put out a patch that allowed us to play the game on our own computers or our own servers this game would be saved. Which would save the game for those who want to use the game on Origin, because Origin wouldn't have it's servers lagged. And it might help restore EA's reputation.

    Sadly EA already stole the money from all who bought this game. And sadly it seems EA is not concerned with keeping SimCity as customers.

    In the end the game launched so badly that EA had Origin give players a free game. Which is okay, if you actually enjoy having to log into someone else's server just to play a game. But it's quite annoying when it destroys a classic franchise. And a game that should be able to be enjoyed offline.    … Expand
  14. Elscorpeo
    Feb 28, 2014
    6
    I found the game to be somewhat fun and irritating it seems to me that EA failed to to give and deliver there promise to make the game fun instead the game is just sad yet amusing now that simcity has "multiplayer" make's it worse and that online DRM isn't helping ether and there isn't even a single player or an offline mode. simcity 5 i should say this game make's all the other simcityI found the game to be somewhat fun and irritating it seems to me that EA failed to to give and deliver there promise to make the game fun instead the game is just sad yet amusing now that simcity has "multiplayer" make's it worse and that online DRM isn't helping ether and there isn't even a single player or an offline mode. simcity 5 i should say this game make's all the other simcity game's look like gold. i feel sad for Maxis for partnering up with EA and destroying one of my favorite game's.… Expand
  15. winter33
    Apr 27, 2013
    6
    I have spent quite a bit of time playing Sim City. For a AAA title the game is not bad but some serious bugs with gameplay. E.G. recycling bug, fire trucks etc. The graphics are nice and it runs pretty smooth. Currently Sim City is average at best.
  16. MaxGayLord
    May 16, 2013
    5
    Look, I'm not saying it's a bad game, but it's a bad game. SimCity had potential to be a great game, but Maxis and EA flubbed up with the DRM and the many under the hood mechanics.
  17. Jakovas
    Jun 3, 2013
    6
    I love SimCity, this is a great game and really sates my desire for well polished sandbox city simulation, however it is a great game with some serious flaws.

    Online: A bit of a pain however I enjoy plenty of games with an always online requirement, my key gripes are; server fragmentation (you cant invite or join friends unless you are on the same server); Cities roll back sometimes    I love SimCity, this is a great game and really sates my desire for well polished sandbox city simulation, however it is a great game with some serious flaws.

    Online: A bit of a pain however I enjoy plenty of games with an always online requirement, my key gripes are; server fragmentation (you cant invite or join friends unless you are on the same server); Cities roll back sometimes costing you much time; cities corrupt still (as of 03/06/2013); and there is no support in place to manage these City Load issues.

    Game Objectives: SimCity is a playground, it is a bit small though and the simulation between Residential, Industrial and Commercial is a little nonsensical, however many a patch has come and gone an Maxis/EA are definitely on the right track. I'd like to see more options without investing in specialization, or at least some changes to help tie the profits and losses from both City management and business management together.

    Creativity: SimCity has rules, which makes sense as it is a game after all, however with the tiny plot sizes and bugs/design decisions around how cities interact and support one another, you will never truly be able to create a Solo region as all cities must be played to supply resources such as power, water etc. due to asynchronous design.

    For those on the fence, I'd say hold off and see what they do to address these issues, you may find they just throw content at the game and nothing really changes regarding the core issues, however if they change some mechanics and give players more options to create the City they want to build, it could be a late success story in terms of a quality.    … Expand
  18. cn2305
    Jun 12, 2013
    6
    Game appears to be good, but there are a moderate amount of issues with the game. The always-on DRM stops players from getting into the game, even in single player. Secondly there are a number of bugs in the game but there appears to be no way of fixing them, so this game has ton of problems.
  19. Triasadi
    May 19, 2015
    7
    I've done much research on the game before I purchased it because it was on sale, It's quite a good game. Most of the reviews here are irrelevant since Maxis had fixed the server problems and added a single player mode for SimCity. The game is very fun but every city I made usually last for only about a day or two because most people in the region has either stopped playing or abandonI've done much research on the game before I purchased it because it was on sale, It's quite a good game. Most of the reviews here are irrelevant since Maxis had fixed the server problems and added a single player mode for SimCity. The game is very fun but every city I made usually last for only about a day or two because most people in the region has either stopped playing or abandon their city. A better communication system should be added. And the biggest weakness in the game is the city sizes. The size of a city in SimCity is very small and square. It doesn't let me have much space for me to expand my city. The concept for a multiplayer city builder sounds great, but in reality, not everyone is a top-notch city planner. So playing with other people maybe enjoyable. So far I've been playing for about 20-30hrs, and I really enjoyed the game. I recommend buying it when it's on sale.… Expand
  20. ye73812
    Apr 28, 2014
    7
    Having read the very mixed reviews for the game, I figured the only way I'd find out if it was any good was to buy it and try it for myself. Downloading from Origin was fairly straightforward and the game was up and running within an hour of purchase.

    Visually, the game is very very good. It looks like an animated model at extreme zoom levels and it's quite nice to just sit back and    Having read the very mixed reviews for the game, I figured the only way I'd find out if it was any good was to buy it and try it for myself. Downloading from Origin was fairly straightforward and the game was up and running within an hour of purchase.

    Visually, the game is very very good. It looks like an animated model at extreme zoom levels and it's quite nice to just sit back and watch the sims go by while having a coffee. It's like Sim Parisian Cafe! The tutorials are straightforward, the controls straightforward and the user interface is very visually appealing.

    On the downside, some of the building menus are a bit hard to navigate. You'll often be asked to build a church, for example, and then give up because the church is hidden in the City Specialization -> Culture -> Worship menu. The maps are small, although it does make the game more challenging and, dare I say realistic, as you can't just plop a building down and build a few houses for the workers - you really have to think about how to balance competing land use demands in order to make the city work.

    A lot of complaints centre on map size, and it is true, they are much smaller than they were in Sim City 4. However, intelligent region play can overcome the limitations of city size by enabling resource sharing, effectively turning separate cities into a conurbation.

    My main gripe is the DLC. It is absolutely terrible. $10 for a building set that gives you a double decker bus, Big Ben and a couple of British-looking buildings? $5 for a few airships or $10 for an amusement park that appears to promise the kind of creative madness of Roller Coaster Tycoon, but ends up being more like Zoo Tycoon. EA removed the modding freedom that Sim City 4 gave us in order to maximize profits from DLC. I don't mind that so much, they are a business and they have to generate revenue, but don't expect value for money because there really isn't much to be had. Wait for the GOTY edition or some bulk bundles and save your cash, because the current DLC is not worth it.    … Expand
  21. Jack91
    Mar 13, 2013
    5
    Just got the game after most of the original problems seem to be fixed, a few disconnections from the main servers a few times but eventually restored. The worst thing I found is the big price they are charging yet it didn't take me long to complete most of it. The zone you get is simply too small and you have to cram so much into one square it's ridiculous. Fun to play but does not lastJust got the game after most of the original problems seem to be fixed, a few disconnections from the main servers a few times but eventually restored. The worst thing I found is the big price they are charging yet it didn't take me long to complete most of it. The zone you get is simply too small and you have to cram so much into one square it's ridiculous. Fun to play but does not last long and by far not worth the price tag that comes with it.… Expand
  22. Quinzal
    Mar 20, 2013
    7
    EDIT:
    This game is amazing and is the best thing since sliced bread when it finally gets working. When it isnt working, its the best loading simulator ever.
  23. smk123
    Mar 26, 2013
    6
    I'm not going to bother talking about DRM if you don't like DRM, don't buy it, simple as that. The game is very enjoyable for the first couple of hours, things move at a steady pace, it is challenging finding a perfect balance within all the different functions. Hell I even like the region system, I think necessitating trade between cities within a region is a fantastic idea, I know it'sI'm not going to bother talking about DRM if you don't like DRM, don't buy it, simple as that. The game is very enjoyable for the first couple of hours, things move at a steady pace, it is challenging finding a perfect balance within all the different functions. Hell I even like the region system, I think necessitating trade between cities within a region is a fantastic idea, I know it's not meant to replicate real life but logically one city can't be the jack of all trades, and this reliance on trade adds a layer of realism that I admire. The art style is also very easy on the eyes and I much prefer it to the previous simcity games. However my major gripe; the city size. You max out your city size a LOT quicker than would be expected, and until this issue is addressed I can't give the game more than a 6. If city size was expanded to similar levels from previous entries in the series I could easily give this game an 8, it's a lot of fun, but due to the size limitations you'll find yourself making new city after new city as opposed to nurturing one city you can truly be proud of.… Expand
  24. AFCA_FLORIS
    Mar 22, 2013
    5
    The detail and expandability of buildings are really cool in simcity. But, (in addition to the horrible servers,) I think that in the squares you can build your city in, there's nit enough space to build a big city. For example, in all of the cities i've build so far, there was a point where ididn't have enough space to expand my garbage dump, which results in all the citicens beingThe detail and expandability of buildings are really cool in simcity. But, (in addition to the horrible servers,) I think that in the squares you can build your city in, there's nit enough space to build a big city. For example, in all of the cities i've build so far, there was a point where ididn't have enough space to expand my garbage dump, which results in all the citicens being unhappy and complaining.… Expand
  25. damionp
    Mar 6, 2013
    5
    Overall, its not that great. Main points: The bad:
    - The DRM is lame, yes. Its not a deal breaker. After server availability issues a couple hours after launch, I haven't had any problems connecting and playing.
    - The city size is laughable. 2 square kilometers per "city", with the number of "cities" determined by the region you pick to play in. Basically, they designed the game to    Overall, its not that great. Main points: The bad:
    - The DRM is lame, yes. Its not a deal breaker. After server availability issues a couple hours after launch, I haven't had any problems connecting and playing.
    - The city size is laughable. 2 square kilometers per "city", with the number of "cities" determined by the region you pick to play in. Basically, they designed the game to force you to specialize each "city" for a role to support another "city" in your region. No option to just make/play in one large area anymore. Oh, and you may as well section off a huge portion of your already tiny play area to expand your town hall...
    - Loading/switching between the tiny cities on the region view seems to take forever. If you're going to force me to micro-manage resource/utility sharing between "cities", you could at least make it run smoothly. The good:
    - Nice graphics.
    - The changes made to streamline building are nice. I realize there are people out there that like to build every last water pipe and power line, but I thought including all of that built-in to the roads was a good idea. The city specializations are interesting and fun to tinker with.
    - Allowing friends and/or other random people build in your region has potential.

    Overall its pretty "meh". Its more "SimTown" inside of a "SimRegion" than it is "SimCity".    … Expand
  26. Vihazur
    Mar 12, 2013
    5
    I think a huge part of the problem with making it multiplayer is that they didn't make it multiplayer enough, to be worth all the crap players have to put up with, for it. I mean, they could have made a really unique game, where players have all sorts of tools to customize their cities, earn revenue from other players visiting their cities, all sorts of stuff.. but just some resourceI think a huge part of the problem with making it multiplayer is that they didn't make it multiplayer enough, to be worth all the crap players have to put up with, for it. I mean, they could have made a really unique game, where players have all sorts of tools to customize their cities, earn revenue from other players visiting their cities, all sorts of stuff.. but just some resource trading? That alone is supposed to justify the online requirement? (LINE-BREAK) It still feels like a largely single-player experience, so all these issues its having, including the design sacrifices they had to make, like small city sizes, just feel like a needless crippling of what could have been a decent, modernized, but rather stock formula city builder. (LINE-BREAK) They could have done something uniquely ambitious with the multiplayer, they could have made it optional, or they could have just stuck with the tried and true single-player experience but instead, they didn't do either. It's just another city builder, unique for how they've had to gut it, rather than for anything new they've brought to the genre.… Expand
  27. luck
    Mar 12, 2013
    5
    I preordered this game when it was announced last year. I am very disappointed. All they need to do was update and add features to Simcity 4. I will say the somethings. I hate you have to be online to play. This is the type of game i would just open to kill time, because you can quit anytime. The cities are small and limited. I have no interest in multiplayer. So the small citiesI preordered this game when it was announced last year. I am very disappointed. All they need to do was update and add features to Simcity 4. I will say the somethings. I hate you have to be online to play. This is the type of game i would just open to kill time, because you can quit anytime. The cities are small and limited. I have no interest in multiplayer. So the small cities are limited. The concept could work, but let us decide how they are connected and merge into each other.

    I miss terrain editor. I will still get enjoyment out of playing this game, but it makes me want to just turn on Simcity 4.    … Expand
  28. Greatrock
    Mar 9, 2013
    6
    I'm updating my review to reflect some of the patches that Maxis has put into place. The game is really good, but still has some annoying features:
    1. When you lose connectivity with the servers, the game still allows you to play, but timers and quest objectives break.
    2. I had a server crash, and when it came back, all of the gameplay for the day was missing (about 3 hours worth) 3.    I'm updating my review to reflect some of the patches that Maxis has put into place. The game is really good, but still has some annoying features:
    1. When you lose connectivity with the servers, the game still allows you to play, but timers and quest objectives break.
    2. I had a server crash, and when it came back, all of the gameplay for the day was missing (about 3 hours worth)
    3. Filters are still turned off, which means its really hard to find an existing game with an unclaimed city.    … Expand
  29. Subwalrus
    Mar 9, 2013
    5
    The Good: A lot of fun. Great strategy playability amongst the regions.
    The Bad: Small city sizes all gameplay online with your game(s) saved in the cloud...
  30. Gandal13579
    Mar 24, 2013
    6
    I have a big problem with this EA Server for 2 weeks but now I downloaded free crack for Offline Mode so it's working great but other negative item is a small map of the city. If you want crack here it is http://penguinhackz.blogspot.com
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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]
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