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. lilkillpappy
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    did not buy, will not buy. Sim City is one of my all time favorite franchises, but I absolutely refuse to buy any game that has forced online DRM, especially for a single player game. Sorry EA has completely screwed up on this one!!
  2. Minatanae
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    Now this is just another horrible instance of how a greedy publisher can destroy a potentially awesome game, from a really good series of games.

    First of all, Maxis, well done. You've created an interesting, fun and absorbing game, like you have done in the past. Secondly, EA Games, go bury yourself. The gameplay itself is nice and fun. But it's impossible to not notice the    Now this is just another horrible instance of how a greedy publisher can destroy a potentially awesome game, from a really good series of games.

    First of all, Maxis, well done. You've created an interesting, fun and absorbing game, like you have done in the past.

    Secondly, EA Games, go bury yourself.

    The gameplay itself is nice and fun. But it's impossible to not notice the obvious parts that are missing, just so they can be added as DLC and sold for more profit later on. Subways for example and other means of transportation that could easily have made the "final product". Also, regarding this whole "always online" way of avoiding piracy, that does'nt work so well does it. First of all, on launch day, the game is still unaccessable. Secondly, if you do create a nice city that you wish to continue playing, you're out of luck if your server is full. Either you're put into a queue, or you will have to start a new city on another server, putting your old favorite in the do-it-later-when-I'm-allowed-to-play-what-I-want pile. Great.

    Also, Sim City is one of those perfect games to play when you just want to chill out and relax a little by yourself. The Sim City series have always been like that. Going away to your cabin for the weekend? Want a single-player game that ain't demanding, that you can just play for fun? Sim City has always delivered, along with other "tycoon" games.

    But now, thanks to the DRM, you always have to be online. So you can kiss those days goodbye as well.

    This could have been a great game worth spending hundreds of hours on. Thanks to the greed of the publisher, it's the complete opposite. Way to go there, ruining many players hopes of finally getting the best Sim City experience yet.

    I can't recommend this as a purchase for anyone. No matter how fond you are of city-sim games.    … Expand
  3. Gallant000
    Mar 5, 2013
    3
    The game is great.

    The servers are however constantly down, rendering the game completely unplayable. Until that issue is rectified, then this is the best I can do. Had they actually taken the time to properly speculate on how much server space they would actually need, this game would be getting an 8 from me right now.
  4. Mike_D
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    I have completed everything that the game allows. Meaning I installed it and started it up. I would give it a 0 but the menu looks nice. There is no way to actually play the game so it is broken and should be avoided at all costs. I want to play BY MY SELF but it will not allow me to do so. Therefore it is broken and not worth buying.
  5. corhen
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    a mix of smaller cities, no pre load, horribly DRM, Horrible origin.

    When i first tried to play it, it didnt unlock... after i mixed that (an hour wasted) i had a 30 minute log in time...

    Skip it, you will thank me.
  6. SneerValiant
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    I don't see any justification for giving this game a score other than zero for the following reasons:

    Always online DRM
    Small city sizes
    Features deleted

    I'm happy for game companies to make money, but to deliver a subpar game to capitalize on its name recognition should not be tolerated by consumers. Don't buy it.
  7. JBUTT
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    I'd love a 3d online simcity, it's a great idea, but "Simcity" is a bunch of good ideas horribly implemented.

    The glass-box engine that tracks every sim sounds good on paper but adds nothing to the gameplay. It's a dumbed down ugly simcity experience with most of the features built up over generations abandoned in favour of tacked-on online play and useless over-detail. The graphics    I'd love a 3d online simcity, it's a great idea, but "Simcity" is a bunch of good ideas horribly implemented.

    The glass-box engine that tracks every sim sounds good on paper but adds nothing to the gameplay. It's a dumbed down ugly simcity experience with most of the features built up over generations abandoned in favour of tacked-on online play and useless over-detail. The graphics are poor, the zoning system is horrific and leaves your city full of ugly holes, and despite there apparently being insane detail under the hood, as a player none of it really effects you or the gameplay. They could have abstracted a the traffic and sims's needs to a much higher degree and be left with the exact same gameplay but much bigger maps. The new casual focus is a failure, the scale is a failure, the online component is a failure, and the new art style is a failure. All good ideas on paper but EA just didn't quite manage to pull it off. The bottom line is that this game does not scratch the itch I have to design a city with the scope, control, or realism I've come to expect.    … Expand
  8. cameronpha
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    Garbage. I have purchased every single simcity on release date, since SimCity 2000. This will be the last SimCity I ever purchase. Among my top concerns: Server issues, no offline mode, tiny towns (Is this called SimCity or SimBlock?) I saw the small towns on the beta, and I thought it was just tiny for the beta.. this is absurd..
  9. MFT
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    This game is a sham. Not only its bland and overly-simplified, just like Dead Space 3 or Crysis 3, it also bugged and flawed at its very core. Cities, even regions can disappear and become permanently unavailable. Trading and sending gifts takes ages because of constant server synchronization issues. AI is disgusting cars always take shorter routes even if there are free roads available.This game is a sham. Not only its bland and overly-simplified, just like Dead Space 3 or Crysis 3, it also bugged and flawed at its very core. Cities, even regions can disappear and become permanently unavailable. Trading and sending gifts takes ages because of constant server synchronization issues. AI is disgusting cars always take shorter routes even if there are free roads available. Police stations, fire stations, hospitals, schools, buses nothing works properly. Nothing can completely cover an entire city even though they suppose to cover entire regions. Cities themselves are very small and impossible to be self-sufficient, effective or even aesthetically pleasing. Its impossible to place symmetric streets. You cant even rotate buildings, you cant even place parks properly they have to be aligned to roads and take a lot of space. I am horrified at critics reaction and scores this game received. Everyone can see just how flawed and bugged this game is. Nobody likes constant online connection or slow server response times and yet they keep giving away 9 out of 10, 90% and A grades to EA. Its unexplainable and despicable how they keep deceiving the gamers and pander to industry giants which keep releasing casual/console oriented, bugged, unpolished, unfinished products.… Expand
  10. darthpoopies
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Overall the game could be great, when playable. Finding a server at night is impossible, forcing you to join another server, which in turn you end up doing the tutorial repeatedly. Then you might get some game progress to be greeted with the game crashing and not being able to rejoin, or the map gets corrupted. If it were non reliant on being connected to an overseas server, it might be aOverall the game could be great, when playable. Finding a server at night is impossible, forcing you to join another server, which in turn you end up doing the tutorial repeatedly. Then you might get some game progress to be greeted with the game crashing and not being able to rejoin, or the map gets corrupted. If it were non reliant on being connected to an overseas server, it might be a good game. the beta was a blast, but much less people on at that times as well. Graphics are good, you can turn them all the way up on a good system and plays well on lower system under the lower settings.… Expand
  11. PL3
    Mar 5, 2013
    3
    critic review is just bullsh*t. DO NOT SPEND 60$ on this. The city is just TOO DAMN SMALL. Server always busy. Feel exaclty like the diablo syndrom. ANd the game just tell you what to do. you do it and that sit. We need more police car!! do it. done. We need more classroom!! do it. done. over and over again.
  12. Geniusgizmo
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Always on DRM, PAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT BUY. Sim city for me anyways is a game I come back to time and time again. I still play the Old sim cities. I am certain I will have problems with this game in future. For this to be an always online game and EA to have problems with Servers on launch is a disgrace
  13. Ceomandala
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    What a waste of $60! 1. Several times my game got disconnected from server. There were issues deleting (abandoning) my failed cities, and I would play for 3 10 minutes and it would crash to desktop (that happened 5 times).
    2. My first three tries at building a city failed miserably. You are ALWAYS behind the curve on 'bad' things that need your attention... a monster came and destroyed    What a waste of $60! 1. Several times my game got disconnected from server. There were issues deleting (abandoning) my failed cities, and I would play for 3 10 minutes and it would crash to desktop (that happened 5 times).
    2. My first three tries at building a city failed miserably. You are ALWAYS behind the curve on 'bad' things that need your attention... a monster came and destroyed my cash generating business (can't shut off disasters)... I ran out of water just when I was starting to get going... pollution and not enough money to remedy. 3. I switched to sandbox mode and still got tons of people complaining at my city center that 'pollution or sewage was too high and they are supposed to be toggled off?
    4.I feel like a fool for pre-ordering such a lousy game I liked the other Simcities this one need lots of work yet!    … Expand
  14. skimmedmilk
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    Terrible game overall, here is why:

    - Obtrusive DRM which requies you to be online AT ALL TIMES to play this even single player - The city size is far far too small, this is more like "sim small town" than "sim city" - Limited compared to previous simcity games, im all for new games but they must improve on what came before, unfortunately this game does not, there isnt even    Terrible game overall, here is why:

    - Obtrusive DRM which requies you to be online AT ALL TIMES to play this even single player

    - The city size is far far too small, this is more like "sim small town" than "sim city"

    - Limited compared to previous simcity games, im all for new games but they must improve on what came before, unfortunately this game does not, there isnt even subways in it!

    - Possible the absolute worst most damning thing... there is a good game in there somewhere but it is utterly handicapped by the previous points this is IMO the worst thing. I wouldn't mind so much if it were complete garbage but it could have been so much better than what it is.    … Expand
  15. stevegroundhog
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The map is incredibly small, the fact that I can't build my own metropolis having to piggy back off others is ridiculous. EA online garbage.... for not the first but second time you ruined a once fun game. Oh yeah and a leader board? What crap is that??? I don't care whose doing better or worse than me I want to play the game the way I want to play. If you idiots can fix the Mass Effect 3 ending by having us pressure Bioware then you can fix this crap filled game. Do not game developers play games? Why do they bring the same stuff they hate into our lives?… Expand
  16. 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.
  17. Kimril
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    Compared to the SimCity games before this is a joke, always online DRM, you don't own your savefiles, if you have a disconnect you are kicked from the game within minutes. The game feels dumbed down, with maps a lot smaller, barely any content. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!
  18. glper
    Mar 5, 2013
    3
    I cannot emphasis how maddeningly bad this game is, and how boring it is.

    Yes, EA's "online only" requirement is incredibly annoying, but I also have Battlefield 3, so I'm used to it. I'm not even going to comment on this aspect of the game any further, as it's been discussed here ad infinitum. What is at issue is the actual game itself. It's bad. It's boring. It's restrictive. It's    I cannot emphasis how maddeningly bad this game is, and how boring it is.

    Yes, EA's "online only" requirement is incredibly annoying, but I also have Battlefield 3, so I'm used to it. I'm not even going to comment on this aspect of the game any further, as it's been discussed here ad infinitum.

    What is at issue is the actual game itself. It's bad. It's boring. It's restrictive. It's maddening. You are only allowed to build your "village" within a very small, confined space, a square, with a dotted line around it. That's it. That's it! That, in and of itself, is enough to ruin the game for me. After an hour, you've built a small village, and you're... done. You are done. You can tweak what you have, bulldoze some stuff, and... yeah. You're done. Now why did EA/Maxis do this? I can only speculate they are either really stupid, or really greedy. I expect in a few months they will start rolling out new content that you will have to pay for, e.g. $14.99 for "medium" sized maps (which will still be too small). The game really is a joke. The graphics are nice, but so are the graphics in Cities XL. I also wouldn't say they are that revolutionary. You might have seen the same product in 2009.    … Expand
  19. Daverid
    Mar 5, 2013
    3
    All the 10 positive reviewers are complete morons. Spouting rubbish to try and defend this game. My favourite so far was, "There's a reason why it's sitting at 91% from the critics right now" Jaylenko Do I need to point you in the direction of; MASS EFFECT 3, DIABLO 3, COD:MW2&3, COD:BOPS1&2 ETC ETC to make you realise just how stupid that kind of statement is? These are all primeAll the 10 positive reviewers are complete morons. Spouting rubbish to try and defend this game. My favourite so far was, "There's a reason why it's sitting at 91% from the critics right now" Jaylenko Do I need to point you in the direction of; MASS EFFECT 3, DIABLO 3, COD:MW2&3, COD:BOPS1&2 ETC ETC to make you realise just how stupid that kind of statement is? These are all prime examples of games that were complete and utter blunders, had next to no innovation in just about any aspect of their game and yet reviewers gave them all extremely favourable reviews. It would almost lead someone to believe that EA/Activision are blackmailing Reviewers, or Buying them out, telling them they won't give them games pre-release or bribing them so they get a good review. Honestly if anyone ACTUALLY believes any kind of Big Gaming review websites these days, they're a complete moron. Now onto these same people trying to defend Always Online DRM, you can't defend it, PERIOD. It's a cheap and dirty practice that holds no place in the gaming world. What happens when you grab your Laptop and go somewhere that doesn't have internet access? What happens to the people with bad connections? What happens to your game when the servers crash? What happens when they do maintenance and you can't play for hours? What happens when the Cloud Saves glitch and you have to roll back your town (Which btw has already happened to people)? Honestly the problems with always online DRM is endless and serves no place in Gaming. Have a Singleplayer version of the game which can be accessed without Origin or can be accessed from a "Origin Offline Mode (Where you don't need to log in Like you can do in Steam)" and then have a Multiplayer version, then people get to choose which they prefer and you can do make changes to the different versions of the game without effecting the other. It's a disgusting practice by EA (And Blizzard for that matter with D3) and if you are enabling this kind of crap by buying these companies games then you are part of the Cancer that is slowly destroying gaming. I suppose I should talk about the game, well it doesn't come out till the 7th in Australia and I wasn't going to buy it anyway, I've boycotted all EA Products. But there's streams going on and Videos all over the net showcasing the gameplay (In great detail mind you since Press had the game for a solid week or so pre-release and made tons and tons of cities). And they all agree it's good, but not great. I only gave the game a 2 because morons are giving this 10 to try and counter-balance the 0's, and whilst I think the 0's are taking things a little to far, low scores have to be given to balance. Frankly with none of this always online rubbish, bigger build plots and less focus on Multiplayer, I'd say this game could definitely be a Solid 7-8/10. In it's current state, but without Always Online DRM probably a 5/10 is an honest Score. But sadly with the Always online BS in place, I think the 3-4/10 mark is spot on where this game deserves to be.… Expand
  20. gemanner
    Mar 5, 2013
    3
    BEWARE: Forced online DRM, will you be playing this 10 years down the track like previous Sim Cities? No, you wont. And they want this, so you buy the next one. Servers go down? Well screw you, EA already has your money. DLC available from release, server side save-games. I repeat, FORCED ONLINE DRM Also, server queues at launch. Thanks for destroying video gaming and my most treasured franchise.
  21. djodars
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    The usual "EA corporation" destroying awesome companies like Maxis. DO NOT BUY SIM CITY! Not only you need to be online at all times to play, but in a few years from now, the game will NOT be playable anymore (when they take the servers down). Do NOT encourage this practice. This is bad for everyone who likes video games if only a little.
  22. Antipika
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    >Small cities (smaller than the SNES version lol...)
    >Always online DRM
    >Forced to use Origin
    >DLCs to have access to bigger cities
    >MSRP above £40 in the UK (£45), which is a complete rip off as 98% of new game release, including AAA games such CoD are released for £39.99 or less.

    EA/10
  23. Zorrac555
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    So disappointed that they didn't lean from the D3 debacle and again saddle customers with unwanted DRM in the guise of connectivity-enabled features. Shame on you EA.
  24. Mattlab
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    I am giving this a score of 0 since I can't log in and play. It's a singleplayer game and its saying the servers are full. This is crazy! Did EA not plan for launch at all? It's only going to get worse as this goes worldwide. I will only give this a good review once I can actually play the game.
  25. CorbeauNoir
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    I haven't purchased an EA game since Mass Effect 2. Considering the sort of feedback from the considerable majority of users have given, I want to thank them for helping to keep the streak alive. Is it really too much to ask that a game for once NOT be geared towards the lowest common denominator? It's like if every movie released in the last three years were on the same level as Jack Jill.
  26. MattR69
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    DRM blows. Why do I need to be online to play in single player. Maps waaaaaaaay to small. Perhaps call the game SimVillage. Then there's DLC... oh come on I just paid for the game. EA have done it again. Yet another great series ruined.
  27. Yoolius
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    POS. Another example of why EA is consistently in the running for most hated company in America. I was excited to try Maxis' new Sim City, but their partnership with EA has ruined it.
  28. Steadyriot
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    This game is disgusting. I wasted my money on it and now it is gone. I could deal with the always online drm IF the game was otherwise perfect and they allowed for a offline version to become available when they inevitably shut down the servers. Map size is too small which I have a feeling will be "fixed" by means of in game (paid) download.
  29. ThisAndThat
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    Sigh..... Why? I could be happily enjoying this game, but I am not due to the on line requirement. This has been a single player game in the past. The on line OPTION would have pleased some people, but the REQUIREMENT is just crap.
  30. docdoc
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    People please do not spend your money on any more EA games, they are total BS. The company used to make good games but since 2007 something changed and EA became a greedy cash making machine. This game is so overhyped, it does not even deserve 10% of attention it is getting. Micro-transactions is just the tip of the ice berg. EA I hope you Banckrupt nice and slowly for turning your marketPeople please do not spend your money on any more EA games, they are total BS. The company used to make good games but since 2007 something changed and EA became a greedy cash making machine. This game is so overhyped, it does not even deserve 10% of attention it is getting. Micro-transactions is just the tip of the ice berg. EA I hope you Banckrupt nice and slowly for turning your market towards 8 year old kids, who do nothing except crying out the money out of their parents wallets. SHAME ON YOU EA.… Expand
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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 »