What SimCity Societies Is All About
Before I try to explain what SimCity Societies is, I think it’s important to explain what it isn’t. It isn’t SimCity, in any of the previous incarnations. It’s also not The Sims, although there was some speculation of a tie-in. With that out of the way, we’ll focus on what it’s supposed to be and how it succeeds and fails.
SimCity Societies is a simulation game that allows you to build your own city in whatever style you prefer. There are 6 “societal values” imbued in the buildings and decorations you use to design your city: productivity, prosperity, spirituality, authority, creativity and knowledge. Your design choices allow you to create a society representing just one, or several of those values. If the influence is strong enough, the appearance and sound of your city will alter to reflect the new values.
How to Play SimCity Societies
The basic premise of the game is that you place buildings, parks, statues, roadways, and other elements in your city to allow for a balance of residence, work and entertainment. In addition, each object either adds to or subtracts from one or more of the societal values. For example, in order for you to add a building with a need for 3 creativity points, your city must be producing a surplus of at least 3 creativity points. When I was in elementary school, we’d occasionally have math lessons that involved balancing weights on two sides of a scale. The teacher would put a 5lb weight on one side, and we’d have to come up with combinations of smaller weights on the other. 2lbs + 3lbs? Or maybe 1lb + 4lbs? That is what I kept thinking about as I was playing. If I place this building that requires 16 points of creativity, how many murals (each adding 8 points of creativity) will I need? You get the idea.
The Sims in your city will need three things: a residence, a place to work, and some places to have fun. As long as they have those things in relative proximity, they’re happy. In fact, little else seems to bother them. A city with no cash? No problem. Smog so thick that you can’t see 5 feet in front of your face? Oh, well. They’re incredibly easy to please. For those who dislike micro-managing, this will certainly be appealing.
Let's Start Building a Society
SimCity Societies is simple to play and the game mechanics are easy to understand. The tutorial leads you through the process in a painstakingly slow fashion. Choose a building, make sure you have the needed level of resources and plunk it down. It’s not all that hard to understand and the tutorial doesn’t let you stray from the instructions, so approach it with some patience.
Once building, it does get a bit more interesting. The buildings are fun and diverse, and you can unlock more as your game progresses. With detailed graphics and sound, SimCity Societies is lovely to look at. It allows you to zoom in on individual citizens in your city. You can study the architecture of your favorite buildings and listen to children at play. Although you can view individual Sims and even see what they are carrying at any given time, you have no control over their actions. The ability to drag Sims to a particular entertainment venue or workplace would add some depth to the game play.
The Good and the Bad of SimCity Societies
Unless you delight in the perfect placement of your Ice Cream stands, this is about where the excitement ends. Although there are some trophies and rewards to work towards, there are no scenarios and no real goals. By the time the tutorial had completed, the concept already seemed old. I kept playing (designed two cities) in the hopes that I’d find something to be interested in or excited about, but it just never happened. Perhaps a well-timed disaster (you can trigger your own) might have helped, but the tedious balancing of different societal values made me not want to bother.
To be fair, SimCity Societies has some really strong points. It’s a fresh concept and the premise has a lot of potential for future endeavors. The buildings you choose have an effect on the type of society you build. For example, certain buildings create criminals, while others create news reporters. Each of these characters has an effect on your city. This brings forth some interesting questions about what impact societal values have on the people and environment, and what types of buildings and attractions would enforce the values you’d most like to see. In fact, the streets, buildings and sounds of SimCity Societies change as the values of the city shift in one direction or another.
