Sim City "5"

When this game was announced a while back, I got excited for the simulation franchise again. The details of this game were blowing me away and it was just astounding. The glassbox engine looked extremely impressive. Not just for its graphics but what it brought to SimCity. The number one thing that impressed me was that every person lived somewhere and worked somewhere and had to travel physically from place to place. This, for a simulation/strategy buff was an exciting and enticing puzzle i couldn't wait to tackle. Managing traffic flow is one of the biggest puzzles you may face in a simulation city game.

 
Then the game came out. I was unable to buy it on day 1, hence why this review is later than most. When I started up the game I got excited and ready to tackle the challenges of managing a sprawling city landscape, but boy was I wrong. The first day I owned it I was only able to play for maybe 10 minutes. Not because i was unhappy, but because I could never get on the servers to play the game. The number one problem with the game is it can only be accessed with an internet connection, even if you're wanting to play the single player side of things.   

When you are finally playing there is another somewhat unsettling feature that let me down: the size of your cities. They are limited to an area within a larger map. Through further playing i have come to the realization that this can be a positive and a negative. The negative side of things is you are very limited on what you can do. The positives are much more grand. The first positive is that you can play with your friends and share resources and trades with them.   

The second positive, is you can create a private world and do the same thing between up to 16 cities that you create. You can have one city focused on tourism while another is focused on resources such as iron, coal, or power, just to name a few. Then you can sell those resources to a city that needs those things, which opens up a much larger and more complex strategy than any previous Sim City had before. Yes I am aware that in previous games you could trade with neighboring cities, but you could not control them for your own benefit. Now you can.

I am running this game on a lower end computer, so I cannot speak to you on behalf of the graphics. I have all my settings turned down to low, but even if I had a high powered computer i wouldn't max out the settings, because this game is not about the visuals it's about the game play.

Final Verdict

With the highly annoying server issues, and the somewhat annoying city size, I still believe that this game is a must play for any strategy enthusiast.  

8.5

+ Multiple Cities
+ Great and Amazing New Features
+ Greater Inner City Control

- City Size Limited
- Server Issues