In years past, I have spent hour upon hour consuming countless bowls of Doritos and gallons of green Kool-Aid (which contributed to my girlish figure) working to create virtual societies that, I felt, had the perfect layout with all the right buildings and parks, trees and police stations, only to have it all destroyed by a natural disaster.  A tornado, earthquake, or other random disaster would wreak havoc on my quaint little town and all would be lost.  If you are anything like me the “Disasters,” resulted in many broken mice and smashed keyboards.

So it was with a sense of caution that I ventured into playing City Life 2008 Edition, wary of the frustration the game might bring, but instead I found myself pleasantly surprised.

Sound - 75%
The background music in the game is quite soothing and can be fun at times but given the amount of time one would spend in front this game it can be quite annoying.  It all has an adult contemporary feel to it, but after awhile, tends to drone on and on.  The ambient sounds within the game were good and added a nice touch.

Graphics - 85%
When I think of overhead society simulation/city-building games, I never have very high hopes for the graphics.  But I was very impressed with the graphics in City Life 2008 Edition.  As I examined my first constructed section of road (a brick-trimmed, two lane boulevard with trees lining the median), I knew I was in for a treat.

To my surprise as I began building various restaurants and businesses, I was able to zoom in and was able first to see a tremendous amount of detail on the exterior of each building.  From the bricks to the sign, everything was looking great.  With another roll of the mouse wheel, I was suddenly inside the building.  Although I was impressed with the ability to zoom in to such extremes, it serves little purpose with regard to gameplay, but being able to see the toys of your residents’ children in the yards does enhance the fun factor of the game. 

Gameplay - 85%
The gameplay of City Life 2008 Edition can be quite difficult.  The game can be overwhelming and tense at times, nearly to the brink of frustrating.  The game is based on a society built of classes.  Each class has a distinct set of likes and dislikes, derived from their socio-economic status.  In turn, their careers differ greatly as well.  From the Have Nots working in fertilizer factories and going to the basketball court during their leisure time, to the “Elites” working in investment banking and attending the opera, the class lines in this game are well-defined.  Although these classes may reflect those of our own society, they seem to have an even harder time co-existing.  Don’t get me wrong, our society has its issues, but the classes in my City Life society were constantly fighting.  It may have been my layout but not much could be done to change it short of restart (which I did numerous times.)

The game includes a large number of maps, a scenario mode, the ability to expand land mass, the option to take out loans, all of which increases the longevity of gameplay as well as replay value.  Having the maps broken up into smaller sections that can be purchased at later times is a nice touch as well.  Though the map may be mostly surrounded by water you can choose to start on a parcel further inland to have room for expansion.

City Life 2008 Edition’s tutorial screens contained a bunch of information and were well organized.  The sections of the tutorial contained great pictures and short captions, and although it reads more like in game instructions than a tutorial, per se, if you are like me, you’d rather spend your time playing than learning to play.  The tutorial’s design lends itself very well to this.

Controls/Interface - 80%
The controls are pretty standard for the game type.  Without a mouse with a scroll wheel the zooming in and out that is necessary could prove to be very time consuming.

One of the drawbacks to the game’s design is the view.  Depending on the topographic layout of the map you are doing a lot of rotating and zooming so to best utilize the space properly.  The objects didn’t always snap to.  In some areas I had to zoom out rotate zoom in and rotate again just to build one building.  Luckily I only ran into this near the edge of the maps.

Cut Scenes/Video - 80%
A feature of this game that I liked was the news videos that would display at the bottom of the screen. The graphics in the videos and the news reports were displayed like a local news station.  The people fighting in the streets to the ever expanding city hall the videos always keep you informed and focused on the needs of your city.

Summary - 81%
City Life 2008 Edition was a great change from days past.  It was entertaining that harkened to my gaming days gone by, and reminded me of a past love - Sim City – yet it was better, with nearly every aspect improved.

I really enjoyed the game, and can easily see myself spending many more hours trying to create my own virtual utopia.  Hopefully, my mouse will survive the process.

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