SimCity Social Facebook Game Review

As a longtime addict of EA’s The Sims franchise, I was delighted to find that a “social” version of the game had come out on Facebook. The interface of the game is actually more similar to the 90s classic “Sim City,” so instead of creating delightfully dysfunctional families, you’re in the mayor’s office building and managing your own city.

There’s no “winning” or “losing” in SimCity Social, but you do well in the game by raising your population, your town’s money, and your exports.

The “social” aspect of the game comes in when you involve your friends. When your friends build towns, you can visit each others’ towns. Those visits can be used to cause mischief by entering businesses and committing acts of anarchy such as vandalism, or they can be used for bridge-building by committing good deeds (such as bringing donuts to the local cops). The majority of the fun is derived from either seeing your town flourish or from having the fun of watching it crash and burn.

There is also a competitive element – you can play pranks on your friends’ towns. For example, in my first half-hour of play, a friend sent me a “gift” of a crate full of birds to poop on my town. The challenges are relatively easy to complete, so you have the fun of watching yourself succeed quite quickly, but there also isn’t enough of a challenge at times.

Much like in the family-centric “The Sims” games, there is no real winning or losing in SimCity Social. All you can do is turn the town into your ideal town. Unfortunately, the alerts and tips along the side of the game are difficult to ignore, so you’re not given a lot of autonomy. There’s also not too much to choose from in terms of factories, services and attractions to build, so your methods of achieving your goals are pretty obvious: invest in your town without hemorrhaging money. It’s also important to keep your town’s “energy” high.

It’s quite simple; when your town is making money and creating exports, your energy is high. How large you allow your town to get is also completely up to you, though many will try to aim for a highly populated city. It’s all about what is managable for you. Of course, as with any simulation games, some people feel that it’s more entertaining to watch the town crash and burn. There are infinite ways to do that, but the most effective way to do so is to build up a highly populated town with a solid economy and to then remove the most significant sources of income.

Engaging in prank wars with neighbouring towns is also an excellent way to make your game as colourful as possible. But to create a prosporous, respectable community, diligently creating jobs and making nice with other cities is the solution.

The hardest resources to come by in SimCity Social are diamonds.

Unfortunately, they are also the most essential. You either need to beg your Facebook friends for diamonds or pay for more out of your own pocket. Without diamonds, you will run low on energy, which will prevent you from playing any further. Of course, you can acquire diamonds organically when you level up as mayor, but with deteriorating energy and buildings that will remain unfinished without the use of diamonds, it is pretty difficult to earn a significant number of diamonds. The only real way to do so without resorting to begging your friends or opening your wallet is to raise your experience points at a quicker rate. Experience is usually raised by boosts in population or profits.

Some SimCity sleuths have found that location of businesses and homes greatly affects the profits generated. The more businesses are crowded into one area, the more profits you will be able to collect at collection time. Similarly factories placed on the shoreline will produce supplies more quickly, and people will want to move into homes which are placed next to high-profile businesses.

Unfortunately few have found any real cheats or hacks to SimCity Social, unlike the desktop versions of The Sims which have many accessible cheats.