Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition

There are many PC game series that have since lost their limelight from their past years. Games like Doom, Kings Quest, and the Sim series have seemingly died off to different renditions of their concepts, being left in the dust of the advancement of technology. As “The Sims” is now a multi-million dollar franchise, one would generally expect that Maxis, now owned by EA, would continue their series of games and focus less one one insanely popular game. Unfortunately, this is not so true.

However, thankfully, we can all be happy to know that in the midst of their transformation into “That company that made “The Sims””, Maxis has continued to keep their biggest franchise alive that made them who they are now- Sim City. Since the original game was launched back in the late 80s, Sim City has gathered countless fans in the allure of creating your own city, managing it, building it, then setting the forces of nature on it.



Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition is the compilation of Sim City 4 and Sim City 4: Rush Hour, the original game and the expansion itself, who have both created a huge fan base in the market for not only being the most technologically advanced Sim City game, but also being the most fun (at least in some opinion). Built around the same GUI system and engine as the famous “The Sims” engine, Sim City 4 does nothing to surprise as it continues the legacy of the Sim City franchise- just building a city and managing it.

First off, obviously, the discussion should be about updates from it's predecessor, Sim City 3000. Other than the obvious (And quite annoying) use of the “The Sims” style GUI system that does not even really fit the genre, changes have been made across the board. First off, the main changes come in the realm of the minute, such as the traffic systems (Which really expound upon themselves in the Rush Hour expansion), agricultural systems, and other small tasks that really end up making a huge difference to your potential city. The engine now tries to be more 3D than ever, which ends up dropping the exclusively 2D aspect many are familiar with, but as I will go on to explain, this is actually a very bad thing. As well, there are hundreds of changes I could mention- but in the long run, it all boils down to the simple fact that this game is updated, and quite well at that.

When I played Sim City 4, I could not shake the feeling like it was crucifying my nostalgia for the previous games. While the original Sim City games were very complex and enjoyable, they never made you feel overwhelmed or even offset, as the easy to use systems as well as the forgiving city generally made it very simple to play, and you never felt like you were being rushed into something horrible. However, this is the exact opposite in Sim City 4, which seems to take away all the fun in the creation of your city and make it an apocalyptic type game, where you know the inevitable (you losing tons of funds and going into the red, city crashing) is always on your heels.

I don't think I can explain this any better than saying that Sim City 4 is basically taking any of the original Sim City games, taking out the fun and easy-to-play concept, and essentially making it one monolithic pain in the rear. It seems like the City is constantly trying to create a way to destroy itself, and it is unstoppable in this attempt, due to the fact that no matter how hard you try, you will never make enough money to place a barrier in this effect. For example, you may be told that the city needs a hospital- so you place one in the middle of the city to cover a small area. That not only will then require monthly funding, but will also require more funding to keep growing. Then, do remember that this will drain your money- and if you try to cut expenses (since you cannot tax beyond 20%), they will strike and the whole city will be angry. This kind of stupid micromanagement that seems to be entirely unforgiving will take many Sim City fans, especially younger kids who like “thinking” games, and toss them out the window on their rear.



There are some aspects of Sim City 4 that are new, but in reality Sim City 4 is basically what fans wanted- a compilation of all the “good” features from previous titles bundled up into a game itself. The news ticker that features alerts regarding different areas, as well as advisors and quick pop up tips all really make the game a little bit easier (but by no means easier to be playable), and it really shows that while Maxis never really thought deep into the concept, they did know what fans wanted, to some degree. With the Rush Hour expansion for those with Deluxe or the money to upgrade, your ability to network your city becomes even bigger, and I can admit I had so much fun playing with the ability to build highways, railways, and roads that I almost forgot about the city building aspect of the game itself.

One blessing and punishment comes in the form of the 3D aspect that seems directly ripped off Maxis' other big name title, “The Sims”. While by all means a Sim City game in 3D is a great thing to behold, the 3D engine in Sim City 4 is a failure in many ways, including these simple facts:

- The engine is still isometric, which means the 3D is unnecessary.

- The engine tends to lag like crazy even on the latest powerful gaming computers for absolutely no reason.

- The engine is ugly.

These happy reasons end up making Sim City 4's graphical setup a little bit to premature, especially for it's 2003 release date. The engine itself, as I said above, tends to lag for no real reason and cause issues even on our official Gametrash gaming PCs, which handled even the latest strategy games (Civ 4, Age of Empires 3, etc) without even sweating. This leads me to believe that it is not the computer but rather a faulty engine in and of itself, which should have been fixed before it was sent to people en masse.



One of the key features of the Sim City games has always been replayability, which I can say got dropped on the side of the road in this version. Instead of allowing you the fun of randomly creating a location, you are limited to a small map (much like “The Sims”, the engine this game seems to be derived from) and forced to modify from there on, instead of funner random generation setups. This disappoints me in about every way, because I miss the ability to create a completely out-of-this-world city and terraform it however I wished- but this does not apply as I would want it to. I only ended up getting a maximum of 10 hours out of Sim City 4 before I got absolutely sick of the game- and that's sad, considering that a very inferior game in the series, “Sim Tower”, still serves to be my rainy day bundle of fun.

In the long run, there is not much I can say with a thumbs up about Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition. Yes, it is the new rendition of the series, and yes, it is a great value pack for the game and the expansion- but unfortunately, it fails in so many basic categories and is so insanely difficult to pick up and play, I would recommend hunting down older versions of the phenomenal series to play rather than this specific version. It is very obvious that this is the Achilles Heel of Maxis' big franchise, as now we are beginning to see many Sim City ripoffs emerge that best the once powerful series. With that in mind, Sim City 3000 is cheaper than ever- and you will have much more fun with it.

3 star(s) out of 5

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