A very underrated game and one of my favourite city building games.
It's the best city-building game I've ever played since Sim City 2000. The game's mechanics and visuals have exceeded my expectations from a game that is so underrated.
There are a few modes you can play. There's the Campaign mode, where you choose your Avatar and name, then you start off on some missions to accomplish certain tasks and progress. There's a multiplayer section where you can go head to head with your friends in building cities and conquering each other.
There's the free build mode for those who just want to get right into building a grand city.
The game-play is pretty fun because you have to be careful about your materials and food and such. Keeping track of crime, food rates, hygiene, entertainment and religion will keep you occupied the whole time while working to create a city. When you play and consider these things, you will probably not realise that your city looks like that
So it's more logical because your not building things where they should not be.
The visuals are very impressive, the lighting and shadow is fantastic, building models are very detailed and the strong use of bump mapping makes the visuals even more better.
If you haven't picked up this game because of Gamespot's review, I suggest you think again. In the end, it's a pretty damn fun game.