The city builder has gone through several attempts at transposition to a mobile form, some decidedly less successful than others, but the one we present here Cityscapes: Sim Builder Review narrates one of the rare experiments that managed to hit the mark, although without reaching the levels of the best exponents of the genre. Play stack managed to find a good compromise between a simplified and easily digestible structure, suitable for mobile users, and a remarkable completeness in terms of management and construction possibilities, which are progressively revealed through a particularly well-constructed campaign.
The situation is the same as always: in the role of newly elected mayor, we are forced to personally take care of everything a city needs, from the construction of buildings to the management of work, education, entertainment, traffic and all the main aspects. aspect of citizens' lives. It is a cauldron of activities that obviously go beyond the functions of a mayor, but that provide a complete simulation of everything that is hidden behind the correct functioning of an urban agglomeration.
To be honest, there is a lot more management than constructive creativity, especially in the mode Countryside that establishes continuous progressive objectives that channel us on a path of discovery and learning of every aspect of the game, but the most attractive part of Cityscapes: Sim Builder is precisely the fact of constantly trying to satisfy citizens' requests and see your own. city grow and prosper, maintaining an excellent social fabric through great attention to the services and needs of the inhabitants. Put like that, it doesn't sound like much fun, but the game manages to put even these boring matters into a truly colorful perspective, proposing new objectives at a constant pace.
Beyond the first, fairly basic construction phases, which include roads, residential neighborhoods, and major structures, Cityscapes: Sim Builder opens up to a number of options and gameplay elements that are quite surprising for a mobile game. For example, the attention to the topic is notable. sustainability, which leads us to have to take into account numerous complex aspects of the city's organization, in terms of resource use, energy consumption and waste management. However, the correct construction and management of the city also includes particular attention to the general well-being of citizens, which takes into account many other elements, such as traffic, healthy air and the possibility of satisfying their aspirations, things that inhabitants they can signal directly, through messages readable by the player.
The city and its needs.
We are quite far from the depth and breadth of Cities: Skylines, which currently represents the state of the art of this type of game on PC and console, but Cityscapes: Sim Builder is probably the most suitable meeting point between the city builder and the mobile game. The fact that it was distributed through Apple ArcadeAdditionally, it avoids drifts towards free-to-play that could easily have arisen through a more standard business model, with some traces of this being visible from the "city pass" with progressive objectives unlocked daily or weekly and a predominant presence of an in-game currency for purchases. Fortunately, the introduction of the game into Apple's subscription catalog has made these elements an integral part of progression in the classic sense, constituting an organic and well-structured single-player campaign, which naturally leads to the discovery of the different aspects of construction and management. The problem is that it is not always clear what we have to do and how to do it: although Cityscapes tries to guide the player in a fairly rigid way, in some cases the game mechanisms are not exactly immediate, also due to an interface so simplified that it is a bit airtight.
There are also some small inconsistencies, such as the fact that citizens tend to make requests that do not yet fit the building possibilities unlocked by the player, but they are still small things that are corrected in the space of a few minutes of play . . He control system It is designed to be used with the touch screen and the interface manages to convey the necessary information in a few words and symbols, although in certain cases, as we have said, it tends to exaggerate a bit with the synthesis.
The system for dragging and moving the frame is also a bit confusing, with controls that, on this front, sometimes tend to overlap when trying to more precisely position any particular structure, however, these are quite understandable drawbacks for such a title. stratified but developed. to enjoy practically with one finger. There simple graphics and clean, it gains clarity, especially on particularly small screens, although the attention to detail characteristic of other titles of this genre is somewhat lacking, leaving little room here for aesthetic contemplation of the city itself.
Conclusions
Tested version iPad 1.0.3 digital delivery App Store Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (1) 5.0 your voteUrban landscapes: Sim Builder manages to reduce the complexity of large city builders, proposing a simpler and more dynamic version, suitable for mobile use. There is no shortage of the many facets that are now typical of this genre, but through a simplified interface and an excellent campaign with progressive objectives it is possible to master the different aspects of city management even for those who are not exactly a passionate digital mayor. . . The fairly limited maps and a certain lack of different situations reduce the level of challenge a bit and, in the long run, make the simulation lose power, once you manage to master its different aspects, but up to that point we can get some good results. satisfaction of our urban creations in Cityscapes: Sim Builder.
PRO
- Excellent campaign that leads you to discover the mechanics of the game.
- Amount of elements almost on par with the great city builders.
- Clean and clear graphics even on small screens
AGAINST
- The interface is not always easy to understand.
- The "touch" control system sometimes does not respond correctly
- Lack of long-term challenge and bite
