Still Building

The only memory I have from three years at gymnasium before they kicked me out for having genuinely the worst grades of any student ever is sitting in Latin class absolutely desperate to get home and play SimCity on the Super Nintendo. Which is still the best version of this game. Ever. No question.

So when the new one came out I bought it, despite hearing nonstop complaints about servers crashing, online requirements, and the price being insane. I wanted SimCity. If they’d screwed it up I would’ve lost my mind.

It hasn’t crashed on me once. Well, Windows decided to update itself without asking once, which it does constantly because I hate Microsoft with a purity I reserve for almost nothing else. Their entire philosophy is doing something important? Too bad, rebooting now. Contemptible.

The new game is a watered-down version of the old ones. No water lines or power infrastructure, everything just has to connect to roads or the game won’t build it. The map is way smaller than it used to be, so within an hour or two you run out of space—can’t fit the airport, the casino, your hideous mansion. It’s cramped.

Then you hit moments where you genuinely want to throw the computer out a window. You paint yourself into a corner with zero undo. You try to delete one street and lose an entire neighborhood. You run out of room to expand your hospital or fire station. Just pure frustration.

But it’s still probably the best city-building game out there. You tinker, you watch what happens. Plant a library, set up police, add solar panels. Your citizens protest outside city hall or move away because there are too many bodies. Some criminal becomes your best ally. The aquarium thing is actually cool.

It’s fun, but not seventy-dollars fun. Especially when they keep hitting you with in-game purchases that never stop. If you had fun playing the original or the earlier versions, you’ll have fun with this one. It’s SimCity. You build. You watch. You build some more.