SimCity Societies

© 2007 Electronic Arts, Inc.
$50, Windows, mobile phones
Teaches: social studies, civics, creativity, logical thinking, political science
CTR Rating: 92%
Editor's Choice

CTR Review

Wonderful for starting a discussion about how objects shape human culture, or the other way around, this new version of SimCity would work well in a classroom, providing students have enough time and you have a good graphics card on your Windows computer (note that you can downgrade the look of the graphics, for better performance, if necessary). As in past SimCity games, this one starts with a blank area of ground, surrounded with menus full of hundreds of drag and drop items. You have the choice of playing with unlimited money, or you can choose to try to make your city grow the old fashioned way, with careful decisions about how resources are spent. The better you do, the more your population can grow. You can eventually win trophies for a good city. New to this version is an emphasis on the overarching theme of the city, with attributes described as artistic, authoritarian, futuristic or rural community. In the authoritarian theme, you can choose to create a "big brother" type of atmosphere, with surveillance cameras and propaganda elements available for use. The menus of items available are associated with each attribute. For example, if you chose to create an artistic society, you can earn more points for theaters, spooky houses, murals. Buildings produce or consume new resources called "societal energies", which are measured as productivity, prosperity, creativity, spirituality, authority and knowledge. How players mix and match these energies determine the core attributes of their city. Content includes 350 buildings, which can be combined, connected and rearranged, and it is possible to check the mood of each individual resident, with a click. The more you play, the more you can unlock new buildings. Players can also share their cities online with friends. An auto-save feature puts your city in a save slot, and there's enough slots so that an entire classroom of students could have their own slot. Created for EA by Tilted Mill, the Boston studio behind the 2004 title: Immortal Cities, Children of the Nile. Note that a mobile phone version is also available that we did not test.