SimCity 3000 Unlimited – PC – Review

When you have the No. 1 PC game of 1999 in
your stable, what do you do next?

If you are Maxis, and the title is SimCity 3000, you listen
to the fans of the game and then incorporate their ideas into the new title
SimCity 3000 Unlimited.

“It’s been over a year since the original SimCity 3000
shipped and the game is still as popular as ever,” said Patrick Buechner,
public relations manager at Maxis. “We saw Unlimited as our chance to create
the definitive version of SimCity 3000 and give fans a number of the features
they’ve been asking for. The addition of scenarios also makes the game
easier to get into for players looking for a traditional ‘win or lose’
style of gameplay.”

Hmm, scenarios, huh? What can you do in a scenario that
you can’t do in the game? As Buechner stated, win. The basis of SimCity
is an ongoing battle of city survival, with no definitive outcome. You
build, you tax, your population base grows or you become a ghost town.
You can certainly lose, but, in the past, there wasn’t a winning situation.
Now there is.

Unlimited contains 10 different scenarios, and three tutorial
scenarios to ease the newcomer into the program. Each scenario presents
a different challenge, has a skill rating and is a timed event. Some may
be rated easy to intermediate and will limit you to 30 minutes to solve
the problem, while others will last an hour without enabling a pause in
the play. As for the scenario content …

London is on fire and you must stop it from becoming an
inferno. Locusts are destroying the small farms of your community and you
must find a way to get rid of these pests. Your city is literally torn
in half. Or you must reconnect East and West Berlin. If politics and disasters
are not your forte, perhaps you are more in touch with the world of
sports. Fine. How about a scenario where you must turn local athletes into
stars with the future of the city riding on the outcome of your moves?
Or you can prepare Seoul, Korea, for the upcoming 2003 World Cup.

And, of course, the program comes with a scenario editor
which allows you to create your own situations and the parameters for winning.

For those who have never indulged in the SimCity phenomenon,
the basics of the program are simple. You create and maintain a city. You
can start small and watch it grow as more people invade that quiet hamlet,
or you can start big and hope you don’t have to overtax your citizenry
for the privilege of living in your corner of the world. You are the mayor,
the city planner, the financial officer and emergency services all rolled
into one. Even at the most elementary or introductory levels, this is far
from easy.

You can get your feet wet by starting with a tutorial
town, or you can jump right in and build your town from the ground up.
You start with a section of a map, alter the terrain to create the environment
you want for your town, then start laying roads. You have to zone the town
for residential and commercial property, then you build your power plants
so there is the means to attract Sims (they are the people who populate
this world) and businesses. And don’t forget that where there are people,
there is a need for water and garbage utility services. Where will you
put the town’s waste? What about the fresh water supply and waste water
treatment?

Naturally you have a budget and everything you do costs
money.

Those are the basics of the program. What Unlimited adds
to the SimCity 3000 mix are new disasters – yep, ill fortune can befall your community
and now it not only includes fire, UFO attacks, tornadoes and earthquakes,
but toxic clouds, a whirlpool (the price you must be willing to pay to
live near water), insect plagues and falling space junk.

Your city can sport any of the 95 world landmarks and
the Unlimited version adds Asian and European buildings. A Japanese temple
sure does look pretty at the end of park that sits in the center of town.
This program will draw out the architect in anyone with the Building Architect
Plus tool.

Both the Architect and Scenario features require more
than just a passing interest. They are not difficult to learn, but thoroughly
absorbing.

In fact, aside from the new features, this program is
not much different from the original SimCity 3000 product. The options
package is easily accessible, the graphics are bright and inventive, the
sound is solid and the action is painfully fluid. Painful? It is tough
watching your city, your child, die because of poor management. But the
lessons learned can be applied to a new town.

SimCity 3000 Unlimited is the same engrossing civics lesson
as other SimCity titles. This program is supported by the on-line Web site
(www.simcity.com), and is rated for everyone.

However, you should be warned – this product may become
habit-forming, causing gamers to spend incredible, and fast-paced, amounts
of time sitting in front of a computer screen worrying over spending money
to rezone a section of their cyber city, or accepting a garbage contract
from a neighboring town to boost city revenue. And if a game can cause
you worry, joy and wonder – all of which are incorporated into SimCity
3000 Unlimited – then what you have is a terrific program.

Install: Medium.

Gameplay: 9. Flawless, time-accelerated action with easy-to-use option bars and incredible detail.

Graphics: 9.5. Exquisite architecture, animated city life
and rich colors give this program a lush screen presence.

Sound: 8.5. Solid, from the soft musical backgrounds,
to the noises of a city come to life.

Difficulty: 8.5. No matter what you try to manage – from
a small town to a bustling city – this is a challenge.

Concept: 6.5. Sure this is a tad low, but remember this
is an upgrade program. Points are awarded for the scenario features.

Overall: 9.5. You don’t need a super computer
to enjoy the many facets of this program. The addition of the scenarios,
and the architectural tools is a bonus. The Web support is fantastic. You
can actually download, or upload, cities and building designs. This is
one program that is not only well-thought out, but designed to optimize
the gaming experience. This genre may not appeal to everyone, but it is
a great combination of education and entertainment.