I love this game! Sim City is the classic urban planning simulation. I started playing this game when I was in elementary school and today I am studying very similar concepts in zoning laws and property theory in law school.
Sim City allows for you to control all aspects of your city. Start by transforming the terrain to build rivers, lakes, islands, or mountains in the area on which your city will sit. Then, build your city by zoning land for residential, commercial, or industrial purposes.
Give your sims utilities by building power plants and water plants, and services by building schools, fire stations, and police stations. Play is challenging, as you must operate on a city budget, which is driven by tax revenues and service expenditures. To be successful, you must listen to your residents and industry partners to ensure that your city grows and flourishes. Also, watch out for natural disasters! Fires, tornados, and monsters can attack your city at any time and they may turn your city on its head.
While this original version of Sim City does not have all of the elaborate details of the later versions by Maxis games, the elegant simplicity of this version of Sim City rings true. The designers of this game incorporated all of the
major facets of city management and most of the later revisions were superfluous anyway. Later versions introduced scenarios, more robust graphics, additional services, neighbouring city options, and more disasters - however, they all stayed true to the same core gameplay, which is embodied by this original version. Thus, the strategy is the same here as you will find in any current game.
All in all, this is a must-have game for Sim City vetrans and rookies alike. Almost everyone has played this game at some point in their lives, and unlike many other games, the gameplay of Sim City is always different depending on the choices that you make in the course of your city's history. The hallmark of a great game to me is one, that can consume hours of your time without you even realizing it. This is certainly that game and is definitely worth a try!
