Whoever decided to abandon the interesting game mechanics of the six socio-economic groups from City Life 2008 made a poor game design choice that takes the franchise backwards. And since online play is fairly limited, the new ways of playing do not make up for it. Priced at $49.99, if you're interested in a good city simulator, your money would be better spent skipping this one and buying City Life 2008 until more content and better mechanics are offered in the massively multiplayer online component of Cities XL. 2/5