A decent collection which could have been so much more...
The SimCity Box is a good value for those who are interested in city building, yet haven\'t experienced the SimCity series of games.
The SimCity Box\'s "premiere" title is Destinations, an expansion to Simcity Societies. Destinations helps elevate the gameplay above the mediocre levels presented in the original game, but it still doesn\'t measure up to the depth of the other Sim City titles. Its a fun game to play around with, but won\'t really challenge you with balancing budgets or worrying about pollution.
The shining jewel of this collection is SimCity 4. Even after five years, it continues to exist as one of the premiere city-building games. The game offers the highest degree of micro-management and is quite challenging, but this makes creating a successful city all the more satisfying. The game has aged well and still looks great.
SimCity 4: Rush Hour is an undisputed improvement over the original. If focuses on transportation, allowing you to fix up your road networks, add garages and ferries, etc. The coolest feature is one that lets you take nearly any vehicle for a spin.
The last game, Sims Carnival: SnapCity, is hardly up to the other games\' caliber. It\'s a strange addition to this collection, and can only be described as a fusion of SimCity and Tetris. Hardly a compelling game.
If you want to try out the SimCity series for the first time, then go ahead and pick up this collection. It\'s just disappointing that it doesn\'t include the more relevant games from the franchise: SimCity, SimCity 2000, and SimCity 3000. These would have been great to try out, and would have easily been a better choice than Sims Carnival: SnapCity.
Gameplay: 9 - SimCity 4 and its Rush Hour expansion are some of the best city-building sims out there, and more than make up for the shallowness of Societies and nonrelevance of Sims Carnival: SnapCity
Presentation: 8.5 - SimCity 4 has aged well, while Societies looks quite modern. All of the games have neat little touches.
Graphics: 8.5 - SimCity 4 has aged well, while Societies uses a modern graphics engine that looks great, albeit runs slowly.
Sound: 8 - Typical Simcity fare, some interesting soundtracks and detailed city sound.
Value: 8 - A great value for a collection, just don\'t expect much from SnapCity
Final Score: 8.4 - A decent collection which could have been so much more
Marcin Skok
Editor-in-Chief
"The Gaming Corner"
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