SimCity Social, the new game from some clever people at Maxis and  Playfish UK, was released into it’s open beta on 25 June 2012. This new game directly competes with Zynga’s own CityVille (and bites at it with it’s slogan: More City, Less Ville). SimCity Social is an exciting facebook game that is very addictive and has many reasons why you’ll keep coming back wanting to play it more.
Gameplay
SimCity Social has the basics of SimCity present and offers a fair amount of depth. You start off with a small basic city with a few buildings and several plots of empty land. A quick tutorial will get you going and you’ll soon be ready to build! The game offers quests for users which allow you to earn simoleons, experience to level up and materials. The game also has the standard Facebook energy feature, which can be annoying – however I rarely find myself out of energy for very long, allowing you to play for long periods without spending a penny.
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Simoleons, Materials, Experience, Population, Diamonds, Fame and Energy all help with different  things in-game. Simoleons allow you to purchase new things such as homes, materials are needed for some buildings, experience is earned and levels up your city giving you diamonds and more, fame is earned as you visit other cities and are used for special buildings which greatly increase population, diamonds is the paid currency and can be used to skip things if you’re dying to rush through things, and of course energy allows you to actually do things in the game – every action uses energy.
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Back to talking more about the gameplay! After the tutorial you can name your city – I took inspiration from a neighborhood in The Sims Online, Blazing Falls. Your city is then born! You’re then free to build up your city, and make it something wonderful or a complete disaster. Your decisions will affect your city and how it looks. Not upgrading attractions, or placing decorations will make your city be small – doing the opposite and decorating will make your city look expensive. If you don’t want to invest in police or firefighters, prepare for buildings to be taken over by criminals and for buildings to burn to the ground!
Players familiar with SimCity will be able to relate to the gameplay as it has elements from the games, and has charm. It is also very accessible for anyone, even grandma, yet still offers a decent amount of depth and offers unique gameplay not found in other Facebook  games.
Graphics and Sound
SimCity Social features colourful graphics and works with the style of game that it is. It reminds me of older SimCity games – such as SimCity 3000. They are well animated and the graphic artists have done a wonderful job at bringing the game to life.
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The sound in-game may be nostalgic for many players. Travelling to another city? Prepare for music from Buy mode in The Sims 1! Sending a friend hot air balloons? Expect Sims 1 music again! As you’re looking around and hear a car horn – you guessed it, the horn is from Sims 1 again. I personally love this because The Sims was my #1 game growing up and reminds me of “the good old days”. There are sounds for almost anything you interact with in the game, and they are all high quality. Playfish appeared to have put a lot of effort into the graphics and sound for SimCity Social – as they look and sound great.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed SimCity Social. It’s the only facebook game I play, and have played for many hours in such a short time. The servers are stable meaning you’re always able to access the game, you can play fine without spending a penny, and it’s darn right addictive. Unlike CityVille, the games main competitor, SimCity Social offers more depth and has the power of the SimCity branding. I am giving this game a positive review, and a rating of 9/10 as it’s not a perfect game however it will keep you entertained and before you know it you’ll been checking in on your city regularly. Something else to add – you won’t find many bugs either – wowzers!
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What do you think of SimCity Social? Let me know in the comments! I hope you enjoyed my attempt at a “review”. Hopefully this will explain the game a bit more to people who haven’t tried it yet or want to know more 🙂