TheSimCityfranchise was once the kingpin of the city building genre. It was created by Maxis in 1989, leading to many spin-offs and sequels including the very popular life simulation seriesThe Sims. However, theSimCityseries still stands out for laying the groundwork for what a city builder could be, and the series has even been used to teach students about urban planning.
When EA purchased Maxisin 1997, theSimCityseries was going strong and EA. In 2003, it would be outsourced to other developers as Maxis focused onThe Sims, but then in 2013 it would return to the series with a reboot titledSimCity. Fans were ecstatic, but upon releaseSimCitygarnered much criticism over its always-online requirement and buggy launch. The game only received one DLC pack and most of its post-launch updates were scrapped, leading to the studio closing down. The series has been on hiatus ever since, but that should change.
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SimCitywas received poorly at launch, especially becausepreviously everySimCitytitlecould be played exclusively offline. Server problems prevented players from jumping into the game around launch, and when the server eventually crashed all that progress players had made would be lost. Many also thought the multiplayer aspect was not very deep, and the game locked players to a small plot of land that was not expandable. A year later EA released an offline mode, but city sizes stayed the same.
Even with all its missteps,SimCitydid add interesting mechanics to the series that could be expanded upon. For starters, the game introduced the ability to upgrade and expand civic buildings. Instead of just placing down an upgraded version of said building, players were able to attach new rooms, helipads, even more garages, alongside other components. These additions would improve the efficiency of civic buildings and affected the way they physically looked. It was a new mechanic toSimCity,and one that has not been emulated bycompetitors likeCities: Skylines.
Making the online requirement wasa big issue forSimCity, but online play was still a good idea overall. If it was optional, it likely would have been received better. The game allowed friends to build neighboring cities in the same region, and they could work together to improve the overall region. Thus, if one person loved to build industrial cities while someone else loved throwing parks in their cities, the online play feature would allow those two cities to trade with one another. The green city would have no need to build industry because they could get those goods from somewhere else.
The City Building Genre Has Grown
TheSimCityfranchise pioneered what a city builder should look like, and sinceSimCity2013 released, there have been many new building games.Cities: Skylinesis arguably the biggest, and it appeared just two years afterSimCityperformed poorly to serve as a sort of spiritual successor. There have also been unique city builders likeNorthgard,Frostpunk,andBanished.
Prison Architecthas also inspireda new style of building game. Instead of building a city, players construct a prison with a unique art style. Since its release, there have been countless games emulating its art style:Rimworldbrought the concept to space,Academia: School Simulatorhad players construct a school instead, andAnother Brick in the Mallbrought them to the world of mall building. While none of these are focused on building cities, they do share a similar market withSimCity.
SimCityhas been on ice since the 2013 reboot. The series was once the kingpin of the genre, but it has been overtaken by games likeCities: SkylinesandRimworld. However, it deserves a second chance, and EA should give it one.SimCityfans have been waiting for the return of the fan-favorite series, and now is a good a time as any for it.
