Well...
It's nothing like SimCity 4. I'd wager it more resembles the early Sim games (SimCity, SimCity 2000 and even SimCity 3000) than anything close to SC4. Still, even SC4 had some major issues when it launched and it only got better with the add-ons, extensions and downloads - so, it's not fair to compare the current incarnate to what SC4 became over the years.
Even so, it's not without some serious flaws. Graphically, it's much more different than SC4 graphically and takes on a more lego-ish approach the closer you are to your city. But that doesn't bother me too much because I still think it's cool once you delve deep into the streets of your city. I also don't see near the repetitiveness you got in SC4 - so, there does appear to be more building diversity.
The biggest complaint so far, though, is the size of your city lots. They're not big at all and because of this, you run out of space rather quickly. As you can see, the entire land area of my city is pretty much used and this was only after a few hours of play. In SC4, you could spend a few years and not fully develop your entire city (let alone a region). EA has said they'll offer larger lots in the future, but I'm guessing it'll cost money to download, unfortunately.
If they do, the game has the potential to be really good. It's not nearly as complex, I think, to build a city and I didn't struggle at the level I did when I first started with SimCity 4 many years ago. The fact you can play in regions online also makes the game more diverse, as each region will grow differently depending on the neighbors - and it finally offers legitimate city rivals, something I think has always been missing from the past SimCity games.
Roads are also different. The entire development of your city is established by what roads you lay - as there are no longer low, medium and high-density tiles and it's all now based on low (dirt), medium and high-density roads. Since all the roads are pretty much the same size, it's much easier to upgrade (or downgrade) a road and change the density level of a neighborhood. I did this in my city as initially, I had a lot of medium-density roads and realized I needed higher-density roads to grow out my city.
Electricity and pipes are also automatically laid with every road, which makes it much easier to connect your city to water and power.
One thing I wish had been done in the game is the area between each city in the region. Because the lots are smaller, your city runs out of space quickly and, as you see in the photos I've posted, there's generally an empty area between your city and a neighboring one in the region. It looks goofy and while I understand limitations, it would've been nice to see some suburban or rural development pop up to make it look semi-realistic. As is, though, you've got a city with large towers that abruptly ends, then an empty area of grass or hills, and then another city with large towers. It looks absolutely awkward.
All in all, it's a completely different game than SC4 ... but I still enjoy it. If they give you bigger lot sizes, I think it'd be far easier to create a more realistic looking city than in SC4 (at least without heavily modding it).
Last edited by Comrade; Mar 6, 2013 at 9:52 PM.
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