The latest addition to this family of innovative city-building games leaves players wanting more, mostly because it offers so little that is new.
The Good
* Most complete version of City Life
* Innovative socioeconomic classes adds spice to your city planning.
The Bad
* Not nearly enough new features for even a stand-alone expansion pack
* "New" campaign and scenarios retread old ground.
Although this is the best version of City Life, if you own the original game the additions made here do not warrant a re-purchase. With that said, this is an accessible city sim for the uninitiated. But, for the initiated, be warned. While the gameplay mechanic is solid, the formula hasn't really changed since the early 90s, and things feel a little stale. However, if you have aspirations of going into city planning, or just like managing things in general, then City Life might be up your alley.
Presentation - 7.0
Graphics - 6.0
Sound - 7.0
Gameplay - 7.0
Lasting Appeal - 7.0
Overall -
Gamepyre writes: "My first encounters with PC gaming involved playing the original Sim City and the original Civilization. Soon after, I bugged my mom to the point that she got me a computer just to shut up.
Modern technology has created some awesome products when it comes to sound and graphics, but all this modern technology can't teach a programmer to program a fun game. This was the case with Sim City Societies. Visually, the game was a masterpiece, but the gameplay was terrible and there wasn't much fun-factor behind the product. Not even a year later, EA decided to re-release the game, this time bundled with the previous Sim City. Sure, Societies is patched up and has new buildings and stuff, but it is still the same game. Just leave it to EA to take more of people's hard-earned money."
2404 writes: "As far as city-building games go, City Life has been the best replacement for the SimCity series. After SimCity Societies shook up the series' core gameplay foundations (mostly for the worse), City Life stands as the only modern city-builder that lets you cultivate barren expanses into urban, populated cities or throw yourself into the middle of scenarios that require your hand in saving cities from dissolving away into rural wastelands. With Monte Cristo's latest entry, City Life 2008 Edition adds new buildings to build and new scenarios to take part in. It's the definitive version of City Life, but it's also devoid of features that change anything, which makes City Life 2008 Edition a purchase for newcomers only."
