So here goes another round of Writer's Block, with Aj Johnson. This time I think I'll write a video game review. I haven't done that before, here or anywhere else for that matter so bare with me. So here goes.
I recently started playing Sim City, the new game released earlier this month by Maxis and EA games. First off, I'd like to put emphasis on the fact that this game is not just a stand alone single player console. It's an MMO! Now, it's not like your typical mmo where you group up, chat, and do what ever with other people but the team work is still there (if you want it to be). The focus of the game is building multiple cities within a region, and making your region the best out of everyone else's. For instance: Cleveland, Parma, Akron, Cincinnati, and Columbus are all a part of the state (or for Sim City, Region) of Ohio. Each city plays a major part in the region's over all economy. Whether you focus one city in the north as being your most industrialized and mining city, or the city across the channel into being your educational University circle type city is completely up to you.
Now the choice is yours. You can opt to join a player populated region. (Some regions allow 2+ cities, other bigger regions allow 16 cities.) With each city able to be ran by a player, and a player can run more than one city. So you can choose to play with a ton of different people, one or two of your friends, or simply by yourself and try to take on the world solo, after all you and only you would know what each city needs to make your region more prosperous right?
You start off your city with a large plot of land and maybe a single road connecting your plot to the other cities around you. From there on you need to build residental zones so people can start moving in, and commercial zones so people can start setting up shop (to build jobs for your city, and to build places for your sims to spend their money.) More money spent = more tax dollars in your pocket. The coolest part about the game's resident society is there are three social classes similar to real life. Low income, Medium, and High. You could actually, if you wanted build a simple low income town, or a thriving nose in air, richy rich neighbor hood. The only problem is getting your city to look nice enough for the wealthy to want to move in by setting up more classy and high maintenance eye candy.
Another cool aspect of the game is the city specializations. You can choose between: Mining, Drilling, Trading, Electronics, Culture or Gambling. Each specialization having it's own pros and cons and completely different way of setting up your city and running it completely different. In a Gambling specialization crime rate is going to be higher than it would be in lets say, a mining city. So you'll want your police forces set to maximum, but in a mining city you may want to have some more man power in your hospitals.
So far I've only played two sessions of the game, for a total of about 10 hours. So I myself still have a lot to learn, but I'm having fun doing it. This game is highly addicting and once you get involved, it's real easy to lose track of time, and Last night I had my first disaster break out, and what better disaster than a Zombie out break?!
Late in the night, Zombies broke free from the city clinic in my Las Vegas/ Cleveland like city and started eating people. The police and fire department rushed to the scene and blocked off the road with their cars and trucks. No one was allowed in or out of the city. The roads were completely shut down and the police were running throughout the neighborhood shooting and killing the zombies keeping them contained. It was actually quite fun to watch. When dawn broke, the zombies died. (I guess they were vampire zombies.) and everything went back to normal, with three deaths.
This is definitely a great game so far, and I highly recommend it to anyone whose ever played any of the older Sim City games, or Sim games before. I give this game 4.5 out of 5.
Rating Break Down:
Audio: The music is pleasant, but sometimes out of place for me, and when you zoom into your city a little bit you hear all sorts of city like sounds. Sirens, gun fire, people yelling/talking. Great social effects 4 out of 5
Graphics: Great compared to older versions. Though when zoomed in the Sims look like characters from Mine Craft. My graphics are all the way up too. :( 4 out of 5
Gameplay: Really easy to get started. Only wish I could figure out (if possible) to rotate items you are trying to plop down into your city. 4.5 out of 5
Fun Factor: So fun 5 out of 5
Co-op: Wish there were an in game chat option and more player communication. But through Origin you can still use their chat, though it's not in game, and it's only with people you friend. 4 out of 5
Edit*
Oh, I almost forgot about the question of the post: What new game is coming out soon that you're excited about? Perhaps I might write another review soon.
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