City Life Edition 2008 is not very different from its previous installment, World Edition. Of course, considering our review, that isn't exactly a bad thing.

Of course, most people never got a chance to check out the previous City Life titles, so let's start with the basics. City Life is basically a take on the classic SimCity formula, but with a twist: competing social groups. The goal is to make a city that is pleasing to "have-nots," "blue-collars" and "elites," as well as other groups. While some groups interact fairly peacefully, there are combinations that set off neighborhood-wide riots, so the main task of the game is keeping these neighborhoods as isolated as possible.

All this makes for one of those titles that will suck away hours upon hours of a player's life. It takes a bit to grasp the menus and controls for every task, but though the tutorial itself really isn't much help, there are at least some hints along the way for the more common actions.

2008 Edition really doesn't add much for fans of the series. There are a few new maps and buildings to use, and everything from World Edition is here for people who enjoyed the original game, but it's hard to justify a purchase for those people. Of course, it doesn't claim to be City Life 2, and puts it like it is: this is just an edition of the previous game, and Paradox has put in a little added value to entice new players.

Among the new features is the ability to import satellite maps to base a city on in the editor. This really isn't something that is going to be used by the average player, and it's barebones at best, but there are people out there that will find this useful. The extra campaign provides more hours without really shaking up the gameplay significantly, and the buildings are mostly clones of existing ones with some superficial changes, but for a title like this, anything extra is appreciated.

City Life Edition 2008 is just what you would expect: a deep, plodding city builder with a fresh coat of paint. With three editions under its belt, we can't call it innovative anymore, but there's still fun to be had for genre fans.

Aug 1, 2008 | 0 comments
Graham Russell