Jan 28 2008
PC Review: The Sims Carnival SnapCity (2008)
If you have read my review for SimCity: Societies, you would have realized city zoning was removed from the game. Now it has turned up in The Sims Carnival SnapCity which is, surprisingly enough, not a Sims game nor a Sim City game. Instead it is a perverse puzzle casual game that just borrows elements from both franchises.
You’re in charge of building a city, and this city is built by falling blocks. You must fill an area with same colored blocks (green for residential, yellow for industrial and blue for commercial). The more areas you fill up, you get more tax revenue. And with your tax revenue, you use social services: if there’s a fire, you spend money to put out the fire. If there’s a riot, you spend money by deploying SWAT forces, and so forth. Of course you need to build roads to make sure those filled areas develop, and bulldoze decaying buildings. Some special areas allow you to construct attractions and services buildings such as a police station, municipal parks, or even gas stations that effect surrounding neighbourhoods.
It all sounds interesting, but the actual gameplay is incredibly repetitive and boring as all you do is direct where falling blocks will go. There are no strategies involved, and after a few missions, you’ll realize not too many new concepts are being introduced to make grinding worthwhile. In the later missions, all that changes is there are more requirements (such as no abandoned buildings, certain number of trees, building certain structures…) thrown at you just to make it more “challenging”.
At $19.99, some could consider this purchase but instead, spend the same amount of money and get SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition which will guarantee you a lot more strategy and fun city building.
Rating: 25%
