Sim City Societies - Reception

Reception

SimCity Societies received mixed reviews. GameZone praised the game's increased accessibility and less "sterile" gameplay compared to previous titles in the SimCity series, and Game Informer concluded that the changes to the gameplay were "inventive". 1UP.com compared SimCity Societies to The Sims series and described the gameplay as being "addictive enough" and having "the pervasive sensation that your city is a single entity" with features, such as achievement awards, to keep players interested. Computer performance and lack of information within the game were however criticised.

GamePro described SimCity Societies as over "simplified" and "exceptionally easy" with "frame-rate woes". The review concluded that the game "tries to take the franchise in a better direction but it ultimately gets lost along the way". GameSpot stated that SimCity Societies was a "lackluster spinoff", and although their review praised the game's visuals and sound effects, it described the graphics as "sluggish", and criticised the gameplay for a lack of connection between sim happiness and "societal values", as well as being too easy. GameSpy's review concluded that the game "may be enjoyable" to casual users, but it lacks the depth of gameplay for "hardcore" gamers. It also commented on the "weighty system requirements" of the game. IGN described the gameplay as "too arbitrary" and "confusing" and also commented on the lack of connection between sim happiness and "societal values". The review criticised the lack of realism in the gameplay, giving the example of fire stations making money for the city, but did go on to praise the game's visuals. Aggregate review websites give scores of 62.65% on GameRankings, and 63 (out of 100) on Metacritic.

In response to criticism, a second update was released to fix bugs and add new features to the game. In this update three new modes were introduced into the "Creative play" mode. These modes are, in order, "Basic", "Hardcore", and "Nightmare". Basic mode is the easiest of the three but is more difficult than the most challenging mode from the game's release version. Three further updates were later released which added additional features to SimCity Societies including six new game scenarios, city policies such as universal health care, building maintenance costs and city income adjustments, and a UFO attack.