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. sjurhamre
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    WARNING! DRM and Always Online so far, I haven't actually got to playing my game. Servers are a mess, and as many have pointed out what will happen when EA decides that they've had enough of it? Bye bye, money and saved files...
  2. medv4380
    Mar 6, 2013
    3
    If the game had an Offline Option after logging in like SC2 had then it wouldn't be that bad of a game. The basic problem this model has is that in the long term you only provision for 20% of your users being online at any one point in time. However, during launch that's not exactly the case. You can easily have 80% or more logging in all at the same time. Without an offline mode toIf the game had an Offline Option after logging in like SC2 had then it wouldn't be that bad of a game. The basic problem this model has is that in the long term you only provision for 20% of your users being online at any one point in time. However, during launch that's not exactly the case. You can easily have 80% or more logging in all at the same time. Without an offline mode to release the stress of everyone logging in you end up with people taking the day off to play and being justifiably upset that they can't even start-up the game. The tutorial could have and should have been an offline option. It would have made it so that people could have a taste of the game without hammering the servers all at once. This model also requires the servers to be up-to-date. If you were able to get on last night and then later this morning you may have found yourself faced with a forced tutorial button that you weren't last night. This is clearly due to the servers being on a different version of the software. The is the most likely cause of game corruptions this morning. A 60$ franchise title is not the time or place to test out new strategies. You should know this will work long before you launch. Instead we're faced with inexperienced admins who didn't know to keep the servers up to date for launch or to turn them Off if they were on the wrong version. This is stuff you only learn with experience, and Sim City was not the time or place to get that experience. This tells me that they're using an Ad-Hoc methodology, and we should expect more hiccups as long as they insist on an instant roll-out of updates and not have the server go though some burn time to make sure it works first. For Single Player the maps are a bit small. You can work around it a bit, and I can see how this encourages Multi-Player. However, I'm the type of person who plays MMOs Single Player so I personally get very little benefit from this model. The game play from prior versions is vastly improved. If you're willing to wait a Month for server load to die down you probably should wait. You'll be able to get a far superior experience if you do.… Expand
  3. Lightang3l
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    EA.... people who pirate your game WOULD HAVE NOT BOUGHT IT TO BEGIN WITH!
    Thous 15.000 people who would have donwnloaded it would have done so because it was FREE! They are not going to come running to you...they will just play something else!
    Now the people who LOVE Simcity have to go through all your and have no control over the game, no saves, no nothing! I can't play on a train,    EA.... people who pirate your game WOULD HAVE NOT BOUGHT IT TO BEGIN WITH!
    Thous 15.000 people who would have donwnloaded it would have done so because it was FREE! They are not going to come running to you...they will just play something else!
    Now the people who LOVE Simcity have to go through all your and have no control over the game, no saves, no nothing!
    I can't play on a train, can't play on a long trip, can't play when there is no internet, can't play when your servers go down.. I CAN'T PLAY !
    And what about 5 years down the road...what then EA when your servers close down and I'm left with a plastic disk shaped corpse of a game??? I can play simcity2000 50 years from now...can I play this game then??
    REVIEW: The game is awesome... but EA made it unplayable and not worth the trouble!
    sad...    … Expand
  4. 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
  5. toocheap
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Have been a fan ever since the first SimCity. I can't believe EA and their anti-consumer policies. I'll be getting a refund and will never by another EA game. Terrible, just terrible experience.
  6. Harmor
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    If you buy this game, you just tell EA that cloudsaving is totally okay and you have no problem with not being able to play in case the servers are down. You'll also tell EA that it's perfectly fine to buy a SIM CITY game that in reality should rather be called Sim Village, while you're eagerly waiting for the DLC that gives you HUGE maps like they were in the earlier games of the series.If you buy this game, you just tell EA that cloudsaving is totally okay and you have no problem with not being able to play in case the servers are down. You'll also tell EA that it's perfectly fine to buy a SIM CITY game that in reality should rather be called Sim Village, while you're eagerly waiting for the DLC that gives you HUGE maps like they were in the earlier games of the series. EA, you're nothing short of disgusting! Don't buy this game, because that's our only voice to tell the publishers enough is enough!… Expand
  7. Karnonos
    Mar 6, 2013
    10
    Absolutely the best iteration of the Sim City series. It's nothing short of genius, and insanely addictive. I've not had any problems with servers or DRM.
  8. ibDennis
    Mar 6, 2013
    4
    Ah sim city, we meet again. I have lost so many days/weeks/months of my life to your series. From the original all the way to now. I find that I have a childish giddyness inside me as I login to the game. It seems that the serves are full, well I guess I can wait, if I could give Diablo 3 the patience that its launch needed, then I most certainly can give sim city as much patience. I justAh sim city, we meet again. I have lost so many days/weeks/months of my life to your series. From the original all the way to now. I find that I have a childish giddyness inside me as I login to the game. It seems that the serves are full, well I guess I can wait, if I could give Diablo 3 the patience that its launch needed, then I most certainly can give sim city as much patience. I just hope it's not as much of a let down. Front of the queue at last, I whiled away the wait time with my plans for the grand city of "Our Land", and so begin my first steps back in the land of sim city. While playing I must say that I did enjoy the game. It was beautiful and deep (obligatory that's what she said comment!) My city was beginning to take shape, no longer a village but a town! Then I got dropped:-( You see, I live in an area where I can only get a pretty poor internet connection. 3MB, and it isn't the most reliable either. There are the random drop offs and what not. Now, none of this is EA's fault, however when I reconnected I was back in the queue.... again..... and so I waited..... and unfortunately due to a phonecall I missed my window to get back into the game so I was placed into the queue again.

    Now I admit, I should have been prepared for the always on, but due to my current experience's with their queue and their DRM I have found myself unable to play the single player game I wanted to play. This has left a bitter taste in my mouth and has seriously got me contemplating a pirated copy: I don't pirate "arrrrrr" as I have a job, so I purchase all my games. But this experience made me feel that pirating could be the way to go. Which is a shame, as there is a shining jewel of a game beneath this stool water that is the always on DRM.    … Expand
  9. 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
  10. dubesor
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    I paid 80 EUR (that's $104) for a game I can't play. The DRM is simply BS. I had to wait 30 minutes in a queue just to get told once that time was over that servers are busy and the client was closed. This is unacceptable.
  11. MacNamedDre
    Mar 6, 2013
    2
    There isn't anything more offensive than cloud computing errors causing game to me nonexistent. Moreover, spending nearly $60-$80 on a title so HIGHLY exclaimed as the GOY, and yet comes off as a huge failure. When the game is playing, it's fun, social, and is a refreshing update to the simcity franchise. What ruins the game for me is as follows: No single player, No save option outsideThere isn't anything more offensive than cloud computing errors causing game to me nonexistent. Moreover, spending nearly $60-$80 on a title so HIGHLY exclaimed as the GOY, and yet comes off as a huge failure. When the game is playing, it's fun, social, and is a refreshing update to the simcity franchise. What ruins the game for me is as follows: No single player, No save option outside of forced incontinent cloud storage), server errors (you think they would have gotten this ready for the launch), inaccurate protesting (crime levels down to zero, yet protests for high crime change power source for town when paused and after relaunching game town protests lost of power), force closing (it's the only game in the last 3 years I've played with massive force closures on a regular basis) EA support (no upgrades after launch day errors, and seemingly weak support), ORIGIN ran.… Expand
  12. nitehawk
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    EA ruins a great franchise. Always on DRM means this game will not endure into the future and that paying customers cannot play a game they paid for. EA's policy of Nickel-and-Dime downloadable content policy makes you pay a ton for the right to pay a ton for the game. Tiny cities go against the classic gameplay.
  13. kafkaten
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    The level of disdain that this company must have for its customers is unreal. To force paying customers into an "always-on-line" system for an ostensibly single-player game is already a dangerous, anti-consumer road for the industry to go down. But then to have that system be a miserable failure at launch? And this after a extensive Beta? Wow. I sincerely hope their sales take a hit,The level of disdain that this company must have for its customers is unreal. To force paying customers into an "always-on-line" system for an ostensibly single-player game is already a dangerous, anti-consumer road for the industry to go down. But then to have that system be a miserable failure at launch? And this after a extensive Beta? Wow. I sincerely hope their sales take a hit, because I'd hate to think that EA could get away with this kind of business practice and still make a massive profit.… Expand
  14. MikeF
    Mar 6, 2013
    1
    Garbage DRM, Windows only. Really? In this day and age, Windows is old news; cross-platform is the future. Get with the times Devs. These big game companies are dying, grasping for air with reboots and old content.
  15. Shrugnick
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Day 0 DLC as a blatant attempt to squeeze more money out of you, always online requirement for a single player game, tiny city sizes forcing you to specialize and take part in a region, and no saves? Yeah... what was I thinking. There is a reason they didn't call this Sim City 5 and just Sim City. Really what they should have called it was Sim City Online. This is not the sequel to SimDay 0 DLC as a blatant attempt to squeeze more money out of you, always online requirement for a single player game, tiny city sizes forcing you to specialize and take part in a region, and no saves? Yeah... what was I thinking. There is a reason they didn't call this Sim City 5 and just Sim City. Really what they should have called it was Sim City Online. This is not the sequel to Sim City 4 that I was looking for.… Expand
  16. Alerothi
    Mar 6, 2013
    8
    The lot sizes are too small, and the online-required sucks but the gameplay is fun and challenging. The initial instability, delays, and connectivity problems will hopefully get ironed out.
  17. 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
  18. Geofferic
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    The game simply does not work. I've been in queue for 40 minutes at a time, get disconnected, have to get back in queue The Day 0 DLC is shockingly insulting. The cities are tiny. Very, very little innovation other than slightly snazzier interface. $80 bucks to get the game as it is intended to be played is ridiculous. This is garbage. Stay away. Ignore the raw lies that are theThe game simply does not work. I've been in queue for 40 minutes at a time, get disconnected, have to get back in queue The Day 0 DLC is shockingly insulting. The cities are tiny. Very, very little innovation other than slightly snazzier interface. $80 bucks to get the game as it is intended to be played is ridiculous. This is garbage. Stay away. Ignore the raw lies that are the 'journalism' reviews.… Expand
  19. Kraazi
    Mar 6, 2013
    8
    Honestly, reading the reviews I expected to be have problems with SimCity at launch, but in fact the experience was quite enjoyable. Took a bit over an hour to download and install, which is lengthy but exceeded my expectations for a release day download. Once installed, the 3 available US servers were predictably full during US prime time, so I figured better to avoid the queue and takeHonestly, reading the reviews I expected to be have problems with SimCity at launch, but in fact the experience was quite enjoyable. Took a bit over an hour to download and install, which is lengthy but exceeded my expectations for a release day download. Once installed, the 3 available US servers were predictably full during US prime time, so I figured better to avoid the queue and take a potential performance hit choosing an EU server with space available until load dies down over time. In fact, there was no performance issue at all. Played about 5 hours with one crash, after which I got right back in. If the EU server with my game on it happens to be full during their off hours later and I can't get back to cities I've started, Ill be less pleased.

    The game mechanics so far are great. If you are concerned about city size, you are doing it wrong. The game is designed to have multiple specialized cities in a region working together, not one sprawling metropolis doing it all. It feels like people who complain about this don't understand the mechanic or are stubbornly ignoring to try to play the same style as the previous titles. If you are one of these people, you're gonna have a bad time. In my play time I managed to get an industrial town off the ground and the use its resources to get a casino/residential/commercial town going. The mechanics of sharing resources and services between cities is fun and probably gets pretty challenging to manage in large regions. If you choose a 16 city region, running out of space should be a very distant concern. It can be a bit of an annoyance having to jump to and load another city to tweak some service you are sharing (add more truck bays or what have you), then jump back to the city you are working on. If I got it going on that SSD I've had my eye on, even that modest annoyance would probably become negligible.

    I knocked off a couple of points for the annoying always online DRM, despite the fact that it has yet to cause me any issues. I doubt I will play much, if any, on public regions because, quite frankly, if the people who are writing these reviews are the people playing the game, I don't want to play with any of you!    … Expand
  20. 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
  21. Zman922
    Mar 6, 2013
    4
    I had to sign up to reply to some of these positive reviews. Someone said they recommend buying a $60 game first and than to get the 10 year old game. Why not start with the better 10 year old game since you can play it when where you want. Sim City 4 you can save your own game you can build an actual city. Sim City 4 is not a little square confined by white dotted lines. Sim CityI had to sign up to reply to some of these positive reviews. Someone said they recommend buying a $60 game first and than to get the 10 year old game. Why not start with the better 10 year old game since you can play it when where you want. Sim City 4 you can save your own game you can build an actual city. Sim City 4 is not a little square confined by white dotted lines. Sim City (5) has fun gameplay until you fill up the map in a couple hours. This by far is the most jarring thing to me. 10 years later and the maps get smaller and confined by dotted lines. I hope they fix this without charging more money for DLC that should be standard in a AAA release. DLC is fine if its not removed from the original game to sell later… Expand
  22. AronSora
    Mar 6, 2013
    5
    I like the small maps, the game play mechanic is amazing. Each city is an interesting puzzle and there is no solution as the global market prices for stuff are ever changing. IT's cool having to rebuild who sections of your city. I wish I had 10% more space, I just quiet solve the puzzle, but it's fun. The dam servers however, are crap. I would wait for about a month until they tripleI like the small maps, the game play mechanic is amazing. Each city is an interesting puzzle and there is no solution as the global market prices for stuff are ever changing. IT's cool having to rebuild who sections of your city. I wish I had 10% more space, I just quiet solve the puzzle, but it's fun. The dam servers however, are crap. I would wait for about a month until they triple their server capacity. It also sucks that regions don't transfer between servers.… Expand
  23. Kaminocloners
    Mar 6, 2013
    10
    Absolutely love this game. I haven't had any problems other than being addicted. It is really easy to learn and use. The always online feature really adds to the dynamic of cross city deals and the cooperative nature is great. I sent excess fire trucks and police cars to a neighboring city experiencing a zombie epidemic. I highly recommend this game.
  24. RyanMorgan
    Mar 6, 2013
    2
    Awful game. This is not SimCity. This is SimVillage. You cannot build a city: for starters, a 2 by 2 kilometre map is far from a city. I get real cities are many hundreds of square kilometres, and this would be impossible to simulate, but 8 by 8 km would provide satisfactory room. Honestly, it takes just a few hours to fill up a city. Secondly, the cities are separated by retarded openAwful game. This is not SimCity. This is SimVillage. You cannot build a city: for starters, a 2 by 2 kilometre map is far from a city. I get real cities are many hundreds of square kilometres, and this would be impossible to simulate, but 8 by 8 km would provide satisfactory room. Honestly, it takes just a few hours to fill up a city. Secondly, the cities are separated by retarded open land, and cities are "in a bubble", contradictory to Lucy Bradshaw and others. If city tiles were contiguous, small maps wouldn't be such a problem. but then roads and rail would still be fixed in place another thing that really annoys me. The graphics are fantastic and the gameplay is great, but this doesn't mean much when I play for a few an hour and have fully developed my city. Then, there's Origin. I couldn't play SimCity because of EA's pathetic platform for almost ten hours, unable to download it. Once I did download it, I took me half and hour to eventually connect to a server. Simcity's online-only aspect has bit EA on the backside, proving that, for now, it is not a reliable way to deliver a game. I've played SimCity 3000 and 4, and it looks like I will continue to do so after this train-wreck.

    Please, avoid this game, you will be disappointed (unless you're just a casual "gamer")    … Expand
  25. Sneetches
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    TL;DR Here lies the corpse of SimCity, slain by the dishonorable EA.

    Don't even waste your time or your money, let alone give another cent to EA, please just don't do it. You're basically paying for a neutered SimCity that removes many key features in exchange for "Always online" to play a strictly SINGLE PLAYER GAME. Besides the Always Online, DRM, bad graphics, neutered gameplay, full    TL;DR Here lies the corpse of SimCity, slain by the dishonorable EA.

    Don't even waste your time or your money, let alone give another cent to EA, please just don't do it. You're basically paying for a neutered SimCity that removes many key features in exchange for "Always online" to play a strictly SINGLE PLAYER GAME. Besides the Always Online, DRM, bad graphics, neutered gameplay, full servers that don't enable you to even play, and just about everything else that could go wrong, this game could have been released for free and been just as bad. All the critic scores having an average of 91 could make me puke, welcome to the current state of paid reviews.I can go dig out the disk (well you don't need one actually) for SimCity 2000 right now and play it. What are the chances, that in 13 years, that you'll be able to play this pile of garbage? EA will have to cancel the servers or release an offline version, but I wouldn't even bet on those scumbags to do that.    … Expand
  26. parkour86
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Always online DRM, what more do I have to say?
  27. Drago99
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    Small City Map, DRM, Server Problems, they probably plan to sell us add-on that should had already been included the original game at that price. All I can say is that I won't get caught buying a game like this again.
  28. lleti
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    DRM Aside, I would score this at around a 3 or a 4; the fact that EA insist on making me wait in an online queue in order to play an offline game, bounces us straight down to zero; paying $60+ for nothing, is worth a negative score if anything.

    Zoning density is gone missing. Cities are tiny you can barely fit a village into your map space. Terraforming/God mode is gone the way of the    DRM Aside, I would score this at around a 3 or a 4; the fact that EA insist on making me wait in an online queue in order to play an offline game, bounces us straight down to zero; paying $60+ for nothing, is worth a negative score if anything.

    Zoning density is gone missing. Cities are tiny you can barely fit a village into your map space. Terraforming/God mode is gone the way of the Dodo. Games will only save/load if EA's server can accommodate your request; often times it can't, and you lose data. Also adds to the sluggish behavior of the game, as contacting and sending packets to an overseas, overloaded server, is a lot slower than writing to your local disk.

    Looking forward to the teams that will be working on a local server emulator to remove the DRM requirement hopefully the loss in income will send a strong message, as clearly, shouting "screw you" to your customer base is still resulting in sales.    … Expand
  29. dr_mibbles
    Mar 6, 2013
    0
    A great franchise, ruined by EA. People are buying the game in good faith, despite reservations about always-online DRM. They are then finding they cannot log into the server, or constant disconnects, or cities failing to save/being constantly rolled back. The game is unplayable, and getting a refund is very challenging when the only way to contact EA is though live chat support with a 6A great franchise, ruined by EA. People are buying the game in good faith, despite reservations about always-online DRM. They are then finding they cannot log into the server, or constant disconnects, or cities failing to save/being constantly rolled back. The game is unplayable, and getting a refund is very challenging when the only way to contact EA is though live chat support with a 6 hour wait. Yes, six hours.

    When they realise that the (unnecessary) DRM is preventing them from playing a game they paid good money for, or wasting hours of their time by not saving their cities, they are understandably feeling let down. They believe the product is at fault. The reviews on Amazon/Metacritic reflect that sentiment with total and complete accuracy.    … Expand
  30. 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.
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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 »