We all loved Sim City, so we're gonna adore City Life
City Life draws you in all day long, keeping you entertained with their close to great visuals and fantastic building designs, and making sure you're never left behind with a "Live Reporting" window on the screen keeping you up to date with anything you (as mayor) may need to address.
Starting off, you're shown a large area of land on which you get to build. Your first only option is to build your Town Hall as sort of solidarity to where you wish to start. You being building homes and work places for your residents to work and earn you money through taxes and soon you find a cosy looking "village" set out in front of you. It doesn't take long however, before you realise the real difference between this and all the other games of it's type.
One absolute gem about this game that really puts a fantastic new spin on the genre is the Social Groups aspect. There are six in total, starting with the "Have-Nots" moving right up to the elites which make the most income but are the most demanding.
Each social group has it's own demands and separate fancies to their lifestyle. The "Have-Nots", being the lowest of class, if you will, have very few needs, and only wish for a place to live and work. "Fringes", my personal favourites, lean a little more to the educational side of life, but are slightly laid back. "Blue Collars" are more focused on safety, and are not usually attracted to a city without decent Fire or Police protection.
These are only the basic 3 that you begin with, but once your city flourishes and begins raking in real dough, the higher rated residents begin to move in. But that's not necessarily the real challenge, although it does get tough with more demanding residents.
The smart side of designing these social groups, is that each group has friendly and unfriendly terms with the other 5. For example, look out for trouble within your city if you leave "Blue Collars" and "Fringes" alone too long. No one likes a riot in their town! Or at least some of us don't...
It's all very intricate and intense, yet playable for hours. There is nothing more satisfying than working hard on a city and seeing it working in perfect harmony. Which is where the bad parts come in...
It took me at least 9 months of on and off gaming before I could get it remotely right. So many times I started playing and it almost seemed as if there is one and only one way in which you succeed. Sure you could design your city as personally as you'd like, but if there are any faults, your city will feel it. Hopefully it's not just me who feels that, but those who are not used to these type of games, prepare for hours of practice and logical thinking!!
All in all, I do love this game, even the borderline cheesy music is nice enough for me to not want to scratch my ears off with cheese graters. It's fun to play, it looks gorgeous, and from the screen shots I've seen, it sure looks spectacular when you've got a full blown city built!!