SimCity

Name: SimCity
Developer: Will Wright
Platform: PC
Release Year: 1989
Stephen's Rating: 7/10

Basic Plot

There was no plot. You play an eye in the sky who has complete control to develop a city and maintain it.

Gameplay

The game involves creating and managing a city. In essence SimCity is a top down strategy game a little like Civilization in some ways, but less focused on units and politics and entirely based on the infrastructure of your city.

The game included free form city building mode, and also a set of scenarios. Each scenario involved completing a certain objective within a particular time frame. The general gameplay involved:

• Zoning land as either residential, industrial, or commercial.
• Creating buildings.
• Setting a tax rate.
• Creating a power grid.
• Creating public transport options (and many others).

It culminated in a careful balance between attracting more people to your city, but also keeping them happy and keeping the economy flowing.

There are a whole lot of extra mechanics which add flavour to the game including crime rate and natural disasters (including Godzilla).

Positives

This was a deeply satisfying game to play. The sense of interconnectedness was a joy to experience. The freedom you had to customise your own unique city was also a real bonus.

Negatives

Without reading up this is a very hard game to play. You have the freedom to create any city you choose by 9 times out of 10 your people will end up hating you, and Godzilla will end up rampaging through your city destroying everything in his path.

Memorable Moments

None, but this is one of those games which defined a whole genre of simulation games to come.