Quick Final HONEST Review.

[Catchin22 299]

I have to write reviews for this game multiple other places and since I can't be copying and pasting between them I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

I was not going to purchase the game based on my Beta experience, the DRM and small Lot sizes but did for the sake of writing some reviews.

The Good.

It's fun
All in all it looks good, it could look better, but it's good.
Musical Score
Sound Effects
Trading resources and building products, fun.
Lots of charm
It's addicting! In that SimCity sort of way you know


The Bad

Graphical glitches here and there such as buildings flickering.
Multiplayer regions that are open to public seem to get abandoned quickly, I expect this to get better over time
You really have to push through some initial boringness at times.
Single zoning sucks. They need to patch this with the typical 3 level zones. It shouldn't take much to do this actually. Low Density zoning would not upgrade no matter the road type and high density zoning would upgrade if the road type allowed it. Fairly simple. This would allow MUCH more creative freedom. Not everyone wants their city bulging at the seems with sky scrapers in a 2kx2k lot.
DLC for the models is too expensive. It should not cost HALF the price of the entire game for 3 model packs. They should be priced at $5 each or 3 for $10. I won't buy any of them now, but I would buy them all for $10.
I'm not sure I agree that the basics needed such as water should be used so fast without replenishing. It's frustrating to have to build an entire city up and then destroy parts of your city (killing off tons of population or industry) to build a water building. Or in my last case while playing multi player nobody was selling water and I was forced to abandon my city after playing for hours.
I wish there were city ordinances.
Servers going down.
needs more models, less repetition. This isn't horrible, but it's noticeable.

The Ugly

DRM. This we all know about. The fix for this would be allowing local saves with a "check in" connection to the servers every X amount of days.
Lot sizes. Seriously needs fixed ASAP. Let us decide what our computers can and can't run. After mauling over this a lot I can't see any logical reason to limit this. This is really hands down the biggest issue with this game.


If you miss sim city and want to play something new, BUY IT. It IS fun and that's what counts. You will find you get that "sim city addiction" again like the old days.

If you don't want to see every company out there implement this sort of DRM and ruin it for a lot of people, DON'T buy it! Vote with your wallet.

Do I think it's worth the money? Yes because it's not another FPS, it's the only game of it's kind. If it had some real competition I might say otherwise. You will get lots of hours of entertainment out of it, plenty to make up for the $60 price tag. It's completely unfair to compare the game with farmville or some other crappy game designed by a crappy company. This game has TONS of potential and we should do our best to support it, but let EA / Maxis know that there are things we WONT support and they damn well better listen to the community a bit more.

The one star reviews on Amazon I feel ARE warranted for some, the DRM means they can't play on the road, while traveling, if they pay for bandwidth per month... and so on. There are many situations people are in that this sort of DRM will prevent them from enjoying the game. If every company did this.... it wouldn't be good. Hear me EA? Don't be rude to your customers, to the people who supported you and built this franchise, think of the people who are NOT in the majority!

SimCity 2013 Amazon Reviews

It's a touch decision telling somebody they should or shouldn't buy this game only because of the DRM and the example it sets. Even with the small lots I would probably tell somebody to buy it because they WILL have fun and I want to see this game succeed, I really do, it's just got so much potential and it really is a great game.
 

[beyurslf 5]

i haven't been able to play the game for long enough to give a fair assessment.  it did seem fun but so much of it bugged out and didn't work and now i cant even log into it.  i did give it a 1 star review.  what do they expect when a hard core fan is left sitting for hours and can't play?  i had do something with my time so why not write a review?

[Catchin22 299]

Were all the servers busy for you? BTW, I had time to write this review BECAUSE the server went down! hah! Well, I did get to play for many hours and I suspect they will get this issue fixed. Still, it would be nice if they at least planned for this sort of thing for once wouldn't it?

I do feel bad for them that they are getting so many low star reviews but on the other hand this DRM... I just don't know what to think. I think at the end of the day I have to say we should make an exception for this DRM because this is a unique game and these sorts of creative games are dying, being replaced by 10 billion FPS games...

Without that DRM I really feel this is a 4+ star game.. Larger maps and it would be a solid 5 star game, and I don't consider many games 5 stars these days.

[niac123 25]

You Sir... are very awesome.

I was considering not buying it because of all the crap I've been hearing, but hearing a rational review of a long time fan has certainly helped me.

Thank You.

[beyurslf 5]

Were all the servers busy for you? BTW, I had time to write this review BECAUSE the server went down! hah! Well, I did get to play for many hours and I suspect they will get this issue fixed. Still, it would be nice if they at least planned for this sort of thing for once wouldn't it?

I do feel bad for them that they are getting so many low star reviews but on the other hand this DRM... I just don't know what to think. I think at the end of the day I have to say we should make an exception for this DRM because this is a unique game and these sorts of creative games are dying, being replaced by 10 billion FPS games...

Without that DRM I really feel this is a 4+ star game.. Larger maps and it would be a solid 5 star game, and I don't consider many games 5 stars these days.

 

not busy,just disconnected.  Been going on all day today.yesterday, none of the cities in my region would sync together so I could not trade anything. And the game crashed every 15 mins or so. there have been several other buggy things too. I had about a 45 min stretch this morning aftr my cities synced up.  It was goinggood and i liked what I saw then. but then it crashed and now it won'tplay.  Dont even know if my city saved. 

[Catchin22 299]

I had that crashing issue too. Oddly after the servers cleared up the crashing went away, I think it was due to the servers being busy and not the game itself not running correctly. I'm sure they will get that straightened out. I'm having a ton of fun with the game so far.

If anyone wants to add me on Origin you can add me Catchin22

[Catchin22 299]

Servers still giving problems. Looks like they added 5 more server locations though. I think the problem right now is EVERYONE is trying to get on at once. I'd expect this to clear up soon. I still give it 5 stars, it's a blast and I don't mind the wait. Oh well, such is life!

[zogleheros 2]

The problem is not online requirement, it's their inability to make it work.

[Catchin22 299]

 The problem is not online requirement, it's their inability to make it work.

huh? You should expect launch day problems. I've been playing fine again for the last 2 hours.