Gaming Sunday: SimCity 4

Introduction

This game is dinosaur. Well, in the sense that it is really old. 2003 I think. I actually played this earlier. Two times in fact. Both times I uninstalled the game after failing to balance the city's budget, it was in my honest opinion, really tough do to so. This time around, it was reintroduced to me by my friend with the inclusion of mods. Now, that's what I call good city building sim. Added with famous landmarks and super civil services, SimCity 4 became more manageable, and as a result, quite fun to play.

First off, great apologies for not being able to post up pictures, except the one above. Somehow or rather, my Internet has been quite slow today. The picture up there was uploaded earlier, after which and stop blogging a while to take some pictures of my cities, did some programming exercises, and wah lah, Internet slow.

Story

You play the role of a god, who in the beginning was god, with the ability to shape lands at his whim. After countless erosion, terraforming and planting flora and fauna, he is finally satisfied with his work. He then decides to join the world of men, giving up some of his powers in the process to become the Mayor of an up and coming city. He still has the ability to call upon natural disaster to serve as warning to the people but has given up his ability to terraform. 

Or at least that's how I interpret the story. Either way, your goal is to build the best city in the region. Pamper your citizens with good traffic systems, clean air and water, lots of job opportunities and most important, enough energy and water supply. That's the gist of the story, really. You can make one up as you go along. 

Gameplay

As mentioned early, when first starting a city, you get to transform the terrain. Plant trees, make rivers, create hills, erode the land, flatten it, pretty much everything you want to do with it. After you are satisfied, you click on the Mayor Mode button, which limits you God Mode abilities, but allows you to official start running a city.

As a mayor, you create residential areas and road systems. And create some industrial area or commercial area to provide your citizens with jobs. It is a delicate balance that I find hard to juggle. It is either too much job, or too much citizens. Road systems must be created with care, providing your citizens with a fast way to get to their jobs is essential for them to keep the job. Whether they get fired for being late, or is tired of waking up early to reach their job in time remains a mystery.

After all this is done, you will have to make civil service buildings. Police and fire stations to keep the area safe, hospitals and clinics to ensure your citizens are in prime health and schools and libraries to ensure your citizens are not dumbass uneducated. You may also have to make railroads, subways or bus stations to ensure your streets to not get crowded with traffic. All this requires money, not only to build, but to maintain. Juggling your income and expense is an expertise which I have yet to master, which brings me to mods.

Mods

A special section here, because I felt like it. No, really I think it is kinda important because it was what really attracted me to playing SimCity 4 again. They aren't really mods, more like plugins, or something. Think DLC content, except fan made. 

Money trees, garbage chutes, city wide civil services and water/air purifier are MUST have. They not only help you solve a ton of problems. They actually make the game a whole lot enjoyable. For me at least. Money trees are a MUST MUST MUST have. Garbage chute solves the issue of not having enough land. And the others are there to make live easier. These few aside, landmarks are also a must have. I find big buildings, as in they cover a large area (like Beijing's Bird Nest), and tall buildings are basically what you would want. Since other than this, you would probably not find the building at a glance. It feels wonder watching Burj Al Alam, Burj Khalifah, Shanghai World Financial Center, Petronas Twin Tower, CN Tower and Sears Tower all in one city. Satisfying.

Graphics

Good enough, if you watch from afar. Zoom in, and you'll wish you have not. Think The Sims graphics. Pretty much like that. After all, you can actually make Sims for your city, albeit control over them is limited. And I find them a nuisance. You have enough to deal with with the complains from your advisors, let alone some random Sim on the street.

Conclusion

Although an old game, it was quite an enjoyable experience while it lasted. It might be frustrating for some, but quite a fun experience for others. Juggling jobs, citizens, money, pollution and traffic is not for everyone. But for those that it is for, SimCity 4 will be the game for you.