In celebration of the impending release of the new SimCity (I got a chance to play it at a game convention. It was awesome.), we take a look back at one of the best in the series, Sim City 2000.
There have been many city/business management games made over the years, but none have been able to balance the details required to truly be a realistic management game while still being downright fun. Whether you're a casual player that just likes to build little cities again and again, or the hardcore player looking to create that city of all cities, Sim City 2000 will deliver.
This sequel made some major advances from the previous. Water is now required to be delivered to your Sim population, rather than just power. Transit was improved by adding subways and highways. You now have the option of building low and high density residential, commercial, and industrial zones, as well as more customizable shapes and sizes of the zones. This allows for much more interesting and varied cities. You can now purposely build things like hospitals, colleges and universities, libraries, zoos, museums, and even jails. Careful! Disasters were also upgraded, adding rioting, hurricanes which cause mass flooding, and a massive alien robot has taken place of the original Godzilla-like monster attack. For those hardcore number crunchers, a multitude of new reports and graphs tracking your cities progress and needs were implemented. An easter egg or 2 were added, in the tradition of a lot of 90s games (if you build a library and use the "Query" tool at some point in the game you can access an essay about SimCity by Neil Gaiman).
A map editor was also included, which was a great addition. Before you start building your city, you have the option of altering or completely recreating the map based on your liking. Any changes you make are done at no charge, as any terrain changes after the game starts can be very expensive. This new feature lets you make some really creative cities and map variants that simply weren't possible in earlier games.
If you've never played any of the "Sim" games (not talking about THE Sims here), then this is a great game to start with. It's not too overwhelming unless you want it to be, and its easy enough to just pick up and go. There were also an almost insane amount of other variations of Sim City made over the years. Here's links to all of them (some free, some only available to buy):
SimCity 1
SimAnt - Weird, but cool
SimEarth - Really like this one.
SimFarm - VERY difficult.
SimTower - Very cool.
SimCity 4 - Simply awesome.
SimCity Societies - My favorite.
Simcity 2000 is now available as freeware HERE. GOG.com also has a Special Edition made for Windows HERE which includes the Urban Renewal Kit, letting you design your own buildings.
Thanks once again for stopping by, and as always, I'd love to hear from anyone who has played. Check out our Facebook page and share with your friends!
