Overview
It’s back, and better than ever! The latest in the SimCity series, SimCity
3000 (SC3K) is a very grown-up version of the game with tons of new features and a
glossy new look. You’ll find a greater range of tools, lots of bug fixes and a whole
new building tile set. One of the best new features is the huge library of actual
landmarks included with the game (with more available for download.) It’s kind of
cool to have a simple one-horse town with the Arc de Triomphe sitting in the middle of it.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
The control panel has been completely revamped from the last
version, with an RTS-style playing field surrounded by controls. You also now have a
ticker across the bottom of your screen with news and advice from your various advisors,
instead of having to monitor the newspaper as in SimCity 2000 (SC2K).
Access to charts, maps and graphs is much easier, too. The game speed is easier to
control, as each time you load a city you start out in pause mode, and the various speeds
aren’t so hugely different from what they were before.
You can even load in cities from SC2K, though there are
some things that have been changed that will make them rather different in this version.
Otherwise, the basic gameplay is the same as always and most of the strategies you’re
familiar with for building cities before will work here. There are also some strategy
updates, though, as some of the ordinances, pollution and crime data are different. The
biggest problems I ran into when playing, aside from being a bit confused over seaports
and farms, were never having enough schools and dealing with traffic congestion (though
this particular aspect is vastly improved over SC2K). I also kind of miss having
hydroelectric plants, since those worked so easily before. Building bridges is also a bit
of a pain at first, but once you’ve done a few, they make sense.
 Graphics
There isn’t quite as much improvement in actual game
graphics as I had hoped for (I was imagining something closer to what the pre-game
cinematics look like), but the overall look is much cleaner, clearer and more colorful.
Buildings are much more detailed now, there’s actual animation on many items, and on
the closest zooms you can actually see cars and people moving around. The terrain is also
smoother and easier to work with, and you can even turn off the grid lines to watch your
city in action.
Audio
Authentic sounds, especially on the closer zooms, and some
really good (if oddball) music. No great need for a major sound card, unless you want the
surround sound immersion effect.
System Requirements
It’s a hefty one—be sure to have a fast system,
or a large city will take forever to load.
Minimum: Win 95/98, Pentium 166, 32 MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM
drive, 2 MB, 16 bit Video card DirectX 6 certified, 230 MB hard drive space, DirectX 6 sound
card
Recommended: 233 Pentium or faster, 8X CD-ROM drive, 4
MB video card
 Documentation
One of the largest play guides I’ve ever seen comes with
this game, along with a 15-page reference “card” that’s almost a
play guide
in itself. Both are very useful and handy. The SC3K website is also a great
resource, as it addresses a few issues people have reported with the game, and has some
great downloads and updates, too.
Bottom Line
A great update. Lots of hard work went into this, and
even though it took forever to finally be released, it was well worth the wait. They
obviously listened very closely to what people wanted from the game and delivered very
well. Many, many problems were completely resolved (such as water issues) and tons of new
features were added that make the game all the more fun. There are still a few minor
issues, such as difficulty with farms, seaports and bridges, but information on the
website and in the play guide can help you get past those.
Review Posted On 19 April 1999.
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