SimCity Societies

In the last few months, long-time devotees of the SimCity series have proven that they can play the rabid fan-boy just as well as any other. The news that Electronic Arts and Maxis were taking "SimCity 5" in a new direction, then, was not well received amongst this fraternity. Particularly offensive seemed to be the fact that Maxis have not even been developing the game - it has been handed over to Tilted Mills for this outing. Let's delve a little into what's coming up in this instalment in the series to find out why.

Tilted Mill's recent releases include Children of the Nile and Caesar IV, two fairly great city-builder games. In fact, it is often easy to forget that the SimCity series is really rather different to these titles, although they are both technically about building cities.

The fundamental difference seems to be that SimCity has been very much about infrastructure (roads, rails, power, water) while other city-builders have been very much about the buildings (houses, shops, offices). Both are equally important in a real-life city of course, but Twisted Mill are going to stick with what they are good at and take SimCity Societies down a different route.

In the new game, you (as the mayor) will have to deal with the various "societal energies" that appear in a city. It might seem a bit hippy at first but do let me continue. You can place different buildings or structures that produce or use up these energies. According to the current prose on the official site, the six different energies will be Productivity, Prosperity, Creativity, Spirituality, Authority, and Knowledge. So, for example, lots of Authority energy will mean your Sims are kept in line thanks to strict "re-education" while lots of Production will mean lots of stuff for your Sims - regardless of the consequences.

The fun comes when you decide which one (or more) of these energies you want your city to focus on. You can create an Orwellian state with plenty of Authority energy, or attempt to go for a mix of Creativity and Productivity.

Each social energy has 3 different types of buildings: Homes, Workplaces, and Venues. Obviously, Homes are required for your Sims to live in. Slap one down, and Sims of that persuasion will come running. Workplaces will generate money for the city. Your Sims need to go to work to generate this money, but will not go of their own accord. For this, they need to visit Venues. These might be shows, or a shop where they can buy luxury goods.

The more time Sims spend in a Workplace making money for you, the more compensation they need with Venues. For example, a Productive Sim will go to work in a Factory if you provide, for example, a Dive Bar for him or her to relax in. Both of these are examples of Productivity buildings.

But a Dive Bar isn't all fun and games - the Sims may get drunk and be unable to make it to work the next day. Also, the Dive Bar may cause an increase in crime in the surrounding area. You will find that a Sim who finds his or her hard-earned luxury goods gone is not a happy Sim. This is typical of the pros and cons of each of the 300 plus buildings in the game.

This leads on to another interesting point; in SimCity Societies each Sim is dealt with on an individual basis. Similar to the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, each one wants different things and needs to be made happy individually, or they won't do their bit. One or two out of line probably won't make much difference, but you will need to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand. This, of course, opens up all sorts of possibilities for collaboration between SimCity Societies and The Sims series, although nothing has been said on that front yet.

In short, it seems to be that Twisted Mill have taken their city-building pedigree, lifted it from its traditionally historical setting into the modern world, taken a few ideas from SimCity and a few from the Tycoon series, and mashed it all together. It does look like a very intriguing spin-off, but the die-hard SimCity fans will simply be waiting for a 'true' SimCity 5. We'll be interested to witness with whom this title curries favour, then. More soon.