SimCity 5
Preview
Gamescom 2012: Back in town
by Marjolein Verheij
previewed on PC
Getting my hands dirty
But bigger cities have bigger problems. People are again gathering at the town hall and their angry faces tell me they did not come over for coffee. Most complain about an unsavory smell in the streets and in their homes. Activating the sewage overlay, the problem becomes immediately apparent: sewage is getting stuck, causing the bad odor. I construct two sewage installations, solving the problem but see my budget dwindle to an all time low, potentially putting my plan for expansion on the backburner.
I opt to spend my remaining cash on a coal mine, creating an new source of income for the town. But before I can build it, another issue pops up: A factory is on fire and the town’s only fire department is located at the other side of town. To save the factory and to prevent the fire from spreading, I build a second fire department near the industrial zone, completely emptying my pockets.
Always something to do
A new addition to the franchise is SimCity World. Here you can find the leaderboards where you can compare your results to that of other players, new goals for your city in the form of challenges, and the global market. The global market keeps track of prices for commodities such as oil, coal and ore. These are determined by global supply and demand and may offer you some guidance on the question what specialization to choose for your city. Changing a specialization takes time, effort and money so it’s not easy to ‘play the market’. When asked how quickly you can retool a city to produce a different commodity, the answer was that you’d probably be better off building a new city.
SimCity’s cute graphics and bouncy animations make the game come alive, making you forget that there is a real world to deal with as well. I was so deeply engaged in playing the game that the meteor shower marking the end of our hands-on session felt like a bucket of water being emptied over my head. “Can I go again?” I wanted to ask. The door to the room opened, revealing a long line of journalists desperate for a chance to play too answered that question for me.
Maxis have done a remarkable job keeping the SimCity concept in tact while propelling the franchise into the modern age at the same time. I fell in love with the game on the spot and I think I wasn’t the only one.
