SimCity is a city-building game first developed by Maxis in 1989. Now the developer is part of Electronic Arts, and the license is still alive. EA offers here a modern version of the earlier game, created in 2013 and still available for Windows and macOS gamers.
The game allows you to construct a city brick by brick and then see how well you can fix it when things start falling apart. You start with a blank piece of land, and soon you’re laying roads, zoning areas for houses, shops, and factories, then watching as your Sims move in and bring the city to life. It is serene in the beginning, and then you begin to see a lack of power, vehicle shortages, traffic halts, and natural as well as artificial disasters start to surround you everywhere.
It’s not just about placing buildings, it’s about managing an entire system. Everything is important: power, water, waste, traffic, schools, hospitals, etc. And each choice has effects. Increase the tax so much, and people depart. Neglect fire stations, and your city might burn halfway down. It’s rewarding, occasionally frustrating, and definitely addictive. There is no single way of developing a city that is considered to be right. You can make a green investment, you can be industrial-heavy, you can have a densely populated central city, or you can remain suburb-like. The city responds to your actions.
SimCity leaves you in control, and also constantly reminds you how fragile control really is. Occasionally, things go wrong, traffic behaves unpredictably, or experiences don’t play out the way we’d expect. Yet even though things can be wrong, it still pulls you back. It always has something that can be tweaked, a couple of notches up, or very much broken down and tried a bit differently.
Why Should I Download SimCity?
SimCity scratches that part of your brain that loves solving complex problems. Making a nice park or a high building is not the issue, but making something that functions, something that does not have to be wider or longer or more ornamental. Each session is like a puzzle, and each city you create somehow comes out looking the way you would do it, even if you didn’t plan it that way. Others go all-in on maximizing efficiency and cost-effectiveness. And other people attempt to do something that would be beautiful and organic, but less practical. There is nothing wrong with either method. That is the beauty of it.
It is also fun to see things fail. Possibly you did not put in enough water towers. Perhaps people just should not drive on your roads because they are so bad that the traffic becomes impossible. You feel frustrated in a good sense. Then you want to fix it. You start figuring out how to improve it. That cycle of constructing, falling down, adapting, and building up continuously is what makes you addicted.
It makes you learn without being preachy, also. You get the beginning of an appreciation of how planning is important to growth, how having bad infrastructure can deny people happiness, how pollution moves, and how just one wrong choice in the early years will lead to so many wrongs later. And although it is not exactly a facsimile of the real world, it makes you experience what goes into managing and shaping a city, and how everything is connected.
SimCity doesn’t lock you into one play style. There are editions of SimCity where you can collaborate with other cities in the same region. Some give more consideration to solo play. You are free to experiment with crazy ideas, or you might work with practical plans. Think of creating a green paradise. Give it a go. What happens if you power everything with coal and ignore education? You may give that a try.
You start to think about traffic patterns, will an extra park affect crime, or you even find yourself thinking about it when you’re not playing. And that is the hallmark of a game that cannot be forgotten. And when you just need to tune out and ride along as your small Sims go through their day, it gives you that, too. It is by no means perfect, but it is one of those games that once you install it, you keep reinstalling it even years later.
Is SimCity Free?
SimCity is not free. It is a paid game. Once you buy it, there are no in-app transactions of nay sort, the game is yours to play.
What Operating Systems Are Compatible with SimCity?
The 2013 version of SimCity presented here is available for Windows and macOS. You can access it through EA’s Origin platform. Searching for a mobile version of SimCity ? Try SimCity BuildIt...
What Are the Alternatives to SimCity?
Cities: Skylines has become the go-to choice for gamers who are fond of what SimCity tried to accomplish but are seeking more. It is the expansion of the principles established in SimCity and further expanded with a more advanced traffic system, the possibility to zone areas, make public transport systems, and mod support, which provides it with nearly endless variety. It is somewhat more performance-intensive, yet in case one seeks to do more than they could do in SimCity, this is where the largest number of players end up.
Anno 1800 brings a different flavor, yet with a similar itch. It is all about the industrial era instead of contemporary cities. You are constructing villages, organizing distribution chains, trading products, and weighing the demands of your citizens in an environment full of ships, factories, and rich historical flair. It combines the elements of both the city building and management of strategy and economy. The satisfaction of seeing your creation develop and react to your choices is quite similar, although the subject matter is different.
Prison Architect goes the opposite genre route of making you focus on building and managing a prison instead of a city. However, do not be deceived again—it is still a matter of managing systems and dealing with the consequences, and attempting to build something functional. Every prisoner has needs, and if your design fails or you overlook something, they can riot. It is meaner and more intense, yet, in case you like system-based development, it is a powerful choice.
If you want a mobile game, EA offers SimCity BuildIt, available on Android and iOS. The mobile version is more simplistic, yet it still has the main idea. Be sure to check system requirements if you're using an older machine.
