I remember picking up this game from the bargain bin at 5 and below, yet I was excited to get the game. I loved Simcity 4, but I lost the CD keys to the $60 game. So, I was excited to get back into a game I love for cheap. I loved Simcity 4 for it’s complexity and depth; I was hoping for the same in Simcity Societies.

I didn’t get that, while the game had an interesting Society feature that allowed you the change the culture of your city, it lacked the depth that drew me to Simcity 4. I also missed the region feature founded in Simcity 4.

However, the graphics where amazing. I found myself playing for 12 hours straight, drawn into the detail of the city and watching over my sims. I could zoom in to the street level and follow a single sim, which I thought was amazing. You could do the same thing in Simcity 4, but it was laggy and didn’t load smoothly as the sim walked and drove across the town. But, Simcity Societies did have a problem that caused me to uninstall the game in anger. The game had a building limit, I hadn’t filled my town with half full and I hit the limit. How am I suppose to make a dystopia with a limited amount of buildings?

What I found cool was the was the building will interact with each other. For example, one of the churches in the game will shut down your bars. The police will shut down the vigilantly group in town. The Department of Health will shut down any slum buildings.

All and all, the game was simple, but that made it fun and relaxing. Simcity 4 was complex, puzzling and frustrating at times. You’ll get bored of SimCity Societies in about 40 hours, but it’s worth the 5 dollars. I mean, the funny puns in the game are worth that much, this game is a huge value that doesn’t deserve the bargain bin.