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. jdwolff85
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    I was able to play all of an hour of Sim City tonight. And from what I played? It's a great game.

    What's NOT great is always on DRM and EA's inability to learn simple lessons from this past year *cough* Diablo 3 *cough cough* Got booted out of my region after trying to SWITCH CITIES within the same region I was already in. Apparently the server had become quite fool. And sure, I can    I was able to play all of an hour of Sim City tonight. And from what I played? It's a great game.

    What's NOT great is always on DRM and EA's inability to learn simple lessons from this past year *cough* Diablo 3 *cough cough*

    Got booted out of my region after trying to SWITCH CITIES within the same region I was already in. Apparently the server had become quite fool. And sure, I can switch to another one...but how often am I going to play on Oceania when I'm in NY?    … Expand
  2. PantsOnHead
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    Let's talk about the fact that the game itself is pretty fun. However there are a pile of bugs. I'd like to give it a awesome score and say; hey 'this was amazing. But you know I can't do that BECAUSE I CAN'T LOG INTO THE GAME. If I can't play the game; I can't rate it. I had 2 hours last night after I bought the DELUX edition to play and now I can't even enjoy that. Huzzah 80Let's talk about the fact that the game itself is pretty fun. However there are a pile of bugs. I'd like to give it a awesome score and say; hey 'this was amazing. But you know I can't do that BECAUSE I CAN'T LOG INTO THE GAME. If I can't play the game; I can't rate it. I had 2 hours last night after I bought the DELUX edition to play and now I can't even enjoy that. Huzzah 80 buckeroos for something I can't use.… Expand
  3. hikahi
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    Can't log in to US servers, they're all busy or full.
    Log in to european servers, can't create a city.
    Attempt to replay tutorial: Can't create this city at this time!

    I should know better than to buy games with DRM like this.
  4. Mark0s
    Mar 6, 2013
    3
    Just signed up here especially to give a comment on this epic and ridicules game. Im not giving a comment on the DMR always online mode, its a wrong choice to make EA, but they have made this choice, nothing to do about it anymore. Played the beta and beta 2, immediately gave some valuable gameplay feedback.
    As an urban planner for me personally the map size DOES matter, the tiny size    Just signed up here especially to give a comment on this epic and ridicules game. Im not giving a comment on the DMR always online mode, its a wrong choice to make EA, but they have made this choice, nothing to do about it anymore. Played the beta and beta 2, immediately gave some valuable gameplay feedback.
    As an urban planner for me personally the map size DOES matter, the tiny size does not compete with a realistic or sensible way of how a city works. Creativity is bounded due to this 2 by 2km square area. As well as the empty space between buildings, there is no feature that is able to completely fillup the empty space between the buildings. In the urban world this could be a key element to provide inhabitants more useable space, Simcity terms: “happiness”.

    Please EA, improve...    … Expand
  5. guardian41
    Mar 6, 2013
    3
    My gaming rig is top notch the problem with crashes is at the server. This is a poor choice if you dont' have perfect Internet all the time. The detail is awesome as are the missions, but the overall limitations are annoying. If I could, I'd return this game!
  6. Zolimox
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Always on DRM. Can't play unless its at EA's whims. City sizes 1/10th of prior games. No save games (wtf?). Yah thank you, EA, refund time. I dont know why i broke my "never another EA game" vow but i did. Disgusting.
  7. HateInternet
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    EA lost my business because I only use the internet at work. I do not have Internet access at home. I will never play a strictly online game. I think that to go strictly online is a complete waste of money and time. I will stick with Sim City 4 where I can do what I want and have the big striving metropolitan cities and not online games.
  8. Moodler
    Mar 18, 2013
    3
    Updated review after servers were fixed and I've been playing it a while:

    1) Cities are too small. No bigger than my real-life suburb!
    2) Sims are not very smart.
    3) Still can't play offline because of stupid DRM.
  9. temo
    Mar 11, 2013
    3
    Server, DRM and Region issues aside, the GlassBox engine simply isn't very good right and can't keep up with extended game play. Casinos, mass transit, garbage/recycling are broken and the path-finding is appallingly bad. If someone with DLC abandons a city then you can't claim it because you haven't paid the extra $20 to use it. This is brutal because now there's a dead city and nothingServer, DRM and Region issues aside, the GlassBox engine simply isn't very good right and can't keep up with extended game play. Casinos, mass transit, garbage/recycling are broken and the path-finding is appallingly bad. If someone with DLC abandons a city then you can't claim it because you haven't paid the extra $20 to use it. This is brutal because now there's a dead city and nothing you can do to fix it (good luck building a great work or commuting). There's so many other little problems with the inherent game play that it's obvious they shipped it before it was ready. Let me repeat these are core game problems and not just flaky servers.

    Now don't even get me started on the servers, drm and regions...What a mess...    … Expand
  10. bogbog
    Mar 12, 2013
    0
    Even if this were the greatest game in the history of creation (which it's not), it still wouldn't make sense to cripple the user experience by forcing them to always be online to play. That's pure garbage. Buy this game and you support publishers letting you play the game YOU purchased at THEIR discretion. Don't buy this game.
  11. Kagd
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    NEVER SUPPORT ONLINE DRM FOR SINGLE PLAYER GAMES. Period.
    I cant enjoy this single player game because it forces me to be online. Worse then that EA's servers are broken.

    As for gameplay; the city limits are a complete disgrace. You end up with patches of heavy developed squares surrounded by empty grass. Just trash.
  12. Ekras
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    What a waste of money. First off the cities are tiny (making you constantly have to re-start and build over from scratch), the AI it horrible, and the interface is lackluster at best. Than you have the perma-DRM which totally wrecks the game- if your connection hiccups you can't save so you have to restart from the last save when you had internet access. The game crashes frequently tooWhat a waste of money. First off the cities are tiny (making you constantly have to re-start and build over from scratch), the AI it horrible, and the interface is lackluster at best. Than you have the perma-DRM which totally wrecks the game- if your connection hiccups you can't save so you have to restart from the last save when you had internet access. The game crashes frequently too which makes this even more frustrating. I'm giving this a "1" just for the Sim City name outside of the little bit of nostalgia this brings back to Maxis' pre-EA classic there is nothing of value in this game.… Expand
  13. MikeDubC
    Mar 5, 2013
    1
    I did not want to do a review based on DRM.....but I was left no choice. I love the game, I would give it a 9 out of 10, if the DRM was better. Even when I do get into servers, sometimes the server will crash, and I will lose an hour of progress. This really makes the game unplayable. I would prefer no online play rather than this.

    Its really a shame EA has done this, probably my last    I did not want to do a review based on DRM.....but I was left no choice. I love the game, I would give it a 9 out of 10, if the DRM was better. Even when I do get into servers, sometimes the server will crash, and I will lose an hour of progress. This really makes the game unplayable. I would prefer no online play rather than this.

    Its really a shame EA has done this, probably my last purchase from them.    … Expand
  14. DSPxx
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    Always ON internet connection No buy

    BEWARE: Forced online DRM, will you be playing this 10 years down the track like previous Sim Cities? No, you wont. Played this game for 6 hours. DO NOT BUY IT. I got disconnected from the server 3 times...you cannot save your own game! So there is no more let me test and reload if it doesn't work. I started over at least 10 times while getting used    Always ON internet connection No buy

    BEWARE: Forced online DRM, will you be playing this 10 years down the track like previous Sim Cities? No, you wont. Played this game for 6 hours. DO NOT BUY IT. I got disconnected from the server 3 times...you cannot save your own game! So there is no more let me test and reload if it doesn't work. I started over at least 10 times while getting used to some of the features.    … Expand
  15. copper7op
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    I literally signed up just to write a review. The game honestly looks excellent. But I wouldn't know, because I can't play it. 24 hours after purchasing the game (in store) I have yet to be able to login to these servers. And while a DRM-Free version of the game would probably get a 9/10 from me there are legitimate game issues, like small maps) I can't give a positive review to a game II literally signed up just to write a review. The game honestly looks excellent. But I wouldn't know, because I can't play it. 24 hours after purchasing the game (in store) I have yet to be able to login to these servers. And while a DRM-Free version of the game would probably get a 9/10 from me there are legitimate game issues, like small maps) I can't give a positive review to a game I can't play. They've taken my money, and now told me "wait up to a week for the servers to stabilize".

    Sorry Maxis, EA has ruined your game     … Expand
  16. sburtonhome
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    What a waste of money! I'm was a HUGE fan of the franchise no longer. Glaring flaws like a miniscule 2x2 map, always online play, and no local save games make this unbearable. On top of that and after waiting years for this release, I have to wait 15 minutes in line to play single player!?!
  17. subpop
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    First off, kudos to the developers, I'm sure it's a great game...but you're only getting a 1, and here's why.

    As a consumer, you deserve the above user score. When you announced SimCity, you suspected people wouldn't even notice that you'd have always be online in order to enjoy your game...you lied, and now we, the consumer, are eagerly waiting in digital "lineups" to play the game we    First off, kudos to the developers, I'm sure it's a great game...but you're only getting a 1, and here's why.

    As a consumer, you deserve the above user score. When you announced SimCity, you suspected people wouldn't even notice that you'd have always be online in order to enjoy your game...you lied, and now we, the consumer, are eagerly waiting in digital "lineups" to play the game we purchased, and expected to enjoy on launch day, and now you're getting what you deserve, that terrible user score on the dreaded Metacritic.

    You deserved this, EA. You should have listened, but you didn't. You need to listen closely to the customers suggestions. This game won't do as well as it should have, unfortunately, but that's because of the mistakes you COULD have prevented, again, by listening to US, the consumer.

    Always online DRM doesn't work for a core single player game, so DROP IT.

    I do not plan on purchasing this game at any point, or even plan to recommend it to my friends/online friends, or even the anonymous internet lurker. My involvement with Origin will be non-existant, especially when all of my friends are on Steam. Origin has nothing to offer to me, or my friends. Consider releasing your products on Steam or GreenManGaming, and we might be able to work something out, but for now, you're not getting any of my money.

    Cheers, and enjoy the color red.    … Expand
  18. Lsslave
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Always online, too small of city space, some good ideas ruined by terrible design choices that should never have been approved. Much like Diablo 3 and its terrible design choices, Sim City has proven it is no longer capable of being the number one city management game. Goodbye Sim City, you used to be cool.
  19. Scritty
    Mar 13, 2013
    0
    The main point isn't even the DRM. It's the fact that the logic of the game in so many areas JUST DOESN'T WORK. Simoleons are lost, weird limits placed on buying energy or shipping waste or whatever, shops restocking with no need of industry (and no other players and at ZERO cost to your "mini city" People leaving work from home" A" and returning to a completely different house.. HomeThe main point isn't even the DRM. It's the fact that the logic of the game in so many areas JUST DOESN'T WORK. Simoleons are lost, weird limits placed on buying energy or shipping waste or whatever, shops restocking with no need of industry (and no other players and at ZERO cost to your "mini city" People leaving work from home" A" and returning to a completely different house.. Home "B" and then repeating this randomly every day, pathfinding for traffic terrible. Waste not clearing, cash limits "sticking". The logic of the game is just plain BROKEN all over the place. The list could go on and on and on. For the first 90 minutes you are thinking
    "This is a good game. Looks good, if the servers OK I'm going to enjoy this"... Then WHAM the logic somewhere trips you up and often it's a game ending error. Nothing to do with servers or online logic issues these are pure and simple game logic errors and LOTS OF THEM. As for online multiplay. Sharing a zone is a nightmare without some sort of "mind control" over your fellow players.
    Everyone has to build at the same rate for this to work. and display co-ordination and co-operatiion over the long term consistent communication and really playing "one way" that would need to be pre decided before the game begins. It almost requires separate coms software and tracking to get this to work even then, if a player stops playing, wants to experiment, or comes across a problem and doesn't communicate quickly your own "city" (tiny village) is most likely on a downward spiral to collapse as a result. And this happens...every game.

    Rely on someone to provide your power? Well make sure he or she is playing and expanding at about the same rate and at the same time as you or BAM it goes out of the window. Same with waste same with EVERYTHING. You need almost superhuman co-ordination to get a 15 player map to any decent level using multiplayer. It's darn hard with 3!

    Then you realize why goods appear from no-where at zero cost. Maxis knew the game logic was bust and hid 1/3rd of the issue by making these phantom products for "C" districts to sell. But didn't apply the same "bodge" fixes to "I" or "R" (perhaps becasue that would have let the cat out of the bag too early as far as botched game mechanics go)

    For me the idea of global market multiplayer seems quite atractive. I would go online for that for sure. It WOULD bring a new facet to the game. I would hope it was optional. But that is academic. It doesn't work and it's not just a "little bit" broke go deep enough into any facet of the game and it will unravel into a mess of faulty logic and counter intuitive reactions from your Sims. My two pence worth is Maxis "shoe horned" multiplayer functionality in sometime mid 2012 to justify always online DRM. And botched the logic..BADLY. I'd like to say probably at the request of EA but I have no idea whether that would be true or not.

    The sad thing is all of this worked (and still does) with Sim City 4. A ten year old game that works almost flawlessly to this day and is what I'm playing on my other monitor as I type this.    … Expand
  20. Redfordsto
    Mar 19, 2013
    0
    I promised myself, the only time I would ever give a game a "0" would be if I bought the game, put it in or booted it up, and it didn't play. That's exactly what happened. I was foolish enough to buy the digital download version. This prompted a mass email telling me I would not receive a refund that I had yet to ask for because I was still troubleshooting.
  21. Winkee
    Mar 5, 2013
    0
    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.
  22. StarlessBB
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    The DRM is inexcusable.
    The fact that this is a goddamn $80 game that's next to unplayable is inexcusable.
    The fact that this is an extremely incomplete $80 game with tons of already finished DLC on the way is inexcusable.

    This is the single worst game EA has made since Spore. Spore.
  23. 718bc
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    Do not buy this game, so not support corrupt businesses. EA continues to harm their paying customers in every way possible. Do not let them see a single penny.
  24. JaguarXJ6
    Mar 18, 2013
    0
    When it works, it's hugely entertaining as you would expect from SimCity and Maxis after a decade. However, they really created a disaster of Maxis proportions and like this server-controlled debacle, there is no reloading the launch or a wave of bad design decisions. I expect a game not to blow up in my face after 30 hours of progress. Forget being online or offline for a moment, toWhen it works, it's hugely entertaining as you would expect from SimCity and Maxis after a decade. However, they really created a disaster of Maxis proportions and like this server-controlled debacle, there is no reloading the launch or a wave of bad design decisions. I expect a game not to blow up in my face after 30 hours of progress. Forget being online or offline for a moment, to have your efforts wiped clean because of a server sync issue and no backup save is extremely amateur. The "Unable to load city. Please try again." error that corrupts your whole region, or one city if you are lucky, has not been acknowledged or fixed. One would argue that region functionality is core to the designers vision, that is definitely true. But it's created a frustrating, unstable gaming experience for which a free game is hardly compensation. They need to rethink their refund policy particularly for those who pre-ordered, as I did, and expected a working game regardless of how it synchronized or required online play. I really want to rate this game what it deserves, but even something as basic as saving your progress isn't completely functional and it's deserving of the lowest rating possible. My bank is reversing the charge with one final step in the investigation. If there is a litany of bug fixes and arse kissing, there might be hope of buying it in the coming months.… Expand
  25. moremodestthanu
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Need to cancel out all of the 9&10's. THIS GAME IS A TRAVESTY! Pros: Graphics Cons: EVERYTHING ELSE! Enough yelling, sorry, but I am really disappointing by this game and the ongoing trend of releasing "sequels" with less options and features. Sim City 4 is better in every way other than graphics. Are they serious with how small these "cities" are?

    ... and then you get to the always on    Need to cancel out all of the 9&10's. THIS GAME IS A TRAVESTY! Pros: Graphics Cons: EVERYTHING ELSE! Enough yelling, sorry, but I am really disappointing by this game and the ongoing trend of releasing "sequels" with less options and features. Sim City 4 is better in every way other than graphics. Are they serious with how small these "cities" are?

    ... and then you get to the always on DRM Day 1 DLC atrocities. You know people are going to want to play the game on day 1, why you suck so much, EA? Aren't you making enough money ruining all of the other franchises? I just want to pull my hair out.    … Expand
  26. MooseQuest
    Mar 5, 2013
    2
    A wonderful game that is ruined by it's implementation. SimCity is a beautiful and unique game to play. You'll find yourself indulged for hours. However, the infrastructure that backs this game is susceptible to high-volumes.
    Digitally the game is setup to play online always. The problem is that, server availability, stability and performance now affect every aspect of the game. So far my    A wonderful game that is ruined by it's implementation. SimCity is a beautiful and unique game to play. You'll find yourself indulged for hours. However, the infrastructure that backs this game is susceptible to high-volumes.
    Digitally the game is setup to play online always. The problem is that, server availability, stability and performance now affect every aspect of the game. So far my experience has gone from good to extremely unhappy. This is a very poor implementation of game, and I feel this release is ruined and not worth playing at all.    … Expand
  27. BarryBudgie
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    I give this game a Zero I stupidly Pre ordered and paid in Advance 24 hours after release I have not been able to log onto to play what used to be a great Single Player Game

    EA Destroying Sim City RIP a worst release than diablo III Congratulations.
  28. d0dger
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    Why zero for a rating you might wonder? Well, you cannot possibly rate a game any higher when it does not even allow you access to play. I would seek a refund but at the moment, it won't even allow me to log into Origin to set that into motion.

    Lesson learnt, EA. Will henceforth avoid games that require an always on DRM component.
  29. Hatchetman
    Mar 14, 2013
    0
    This game is broken in ways we have only begun to comprehend

    To say that EA has not been forthcoming about the limitations of the game would be a gross understatement. I've owned the game for over a week now, but due to the fact that you have to be able to connect to the EA servers to play even a single player game, I have been unable to play the game for at least half the time I have    This game is broken in ways we have only begun to comprehend

    To say that EA has not been forthcoming about the limitations of the game would be a gross understatement. I've owned the game for over a week now, but due to the fact that you have to be able to connect to the EA servers to play even a single player game, I have been unable to play the game for at least half the time I have possessed it. Even on the days that it has been working, I'm often unable to start new cities or save the existing one because I will get disconnected while playing the game. It's also not uncommon to have to sit in a queue for up to two hours to connect to one of the servers. As your cities are not shared between servers, you're stuck if you want to continue a particular city.

    As there is no ability to manually save your city, you are completely at the mercy of the network connection to EA in order to save your game, and you can't control when it saves. It's not uncommon for a city to simply be annihilated by disasters with no real ability to recover.

    You also cannot terraform land as you could in Simcity 4, Simcity 3000, and even Simcity 2000. This means that your stuck with whatever land mass that they give you to work with, and not even a map generator, only premade regions.

    The map size is limited to 2km x 2km which is quite small, likely smaller than Simcity 4's medium size, which is far too small for the scope of this game. The AI is broken such that you cannot get the city much over 200,000 people without the entire city falling apart due to the poor traffic AI that apparently uses Shortest Path First routing which causes total gridlock. The AI's ability to poorly coordinate your emergency services cannot be understated, it's nearly impossible to put out more than one fire at a time for example. It's not even worth building more than one fire department.

    In short, EA appears to have stolen $65 from me, and many thousands of other individuals who are equally displeased with the situation. They have broken one of the most successful game franchises, typically the best examples of the simulation genre, and show no remorse, and no sign that they really have any intention of fixing it.    … Expand
  30. mporada1025
    Mar 7, 2013
    0
    Nothing to say that everyone else didn't say. WASTE OF MONEY! $80 for nothing. DON'T buy this. Even when I do get an occasional hour to play, the space is so unbelievably small that's all it takes to fill it.
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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 »