When SimCity launched in March it had issues such as build locations being too small, poor AI which led to traffic on streets slowing to a crawl (the AI traffic issue was addressed in a post launch update) etc. The new futuristic expansion, Cities of Tomorrow, takes a look at the games issues and attempts to fix them.

Cities of Tomorrow is all about bringing the future to your city with players being given wonderful looking new technology to play with. There are three new major city specialisations: MegaTowers, The Academy and Omega Co. Each specialisation will allow you to create your own vision of the future. With MegaTowers you can create up to eight towers that are all eight levels high with the contents of each level determined by you, content choices include housing, offices, malls, services and at the very top a region wide tower bonus, once you build a tower your Sims will never need to touch the ground again. The Academy offers a very much different approach, with this specialization you can research futuristic technology to help your city and the region, some available technology includes a sewage sanitizer, new transport options such as a maglev and even tech that can improve your MegaTowers, and since the tech is futuristic it is powered by a wireless signal called ControlNet. The last new city specialisation is Omega Co. this specialisation revolves around using large amount of natural resources and using a drone workforce, this is specialisation is perfect for those who want to make money no matter what.

As you can see each new specialisation lets the player choice what type of future they want. A city where you build up and try to squeeze in as many people as possible, a clean environmentally friendly city or a city that is run by one massive corporation that puts profit above everything else.

The three new specialisations offers some great new placements for players to use. One of the best new additions is the maglev, a new transport system. The reason why I say it’s one of the best is because it helps fix one of the biggest issues with transport in the city and that is congestion, but since the maglev is above the ground it you don’t have to worry about space or congestion.

Unfortunately the expansion doesn’t fix SimCity’s biggest issue, the size of the build locations. With this expansion I would have loved to see bigger build locations, but it seems like Maxis and EA want players to either own multiple build locations or play to with friends. Granted the MegaTowers do allow you to build more since you are building up, but if you want to build a city that is fully self contained with at least two specialisations be prepared to make a constant loss.

Honestly there isn’t much to say about the expansion as it hasn’t made any major changes apart from the three new specialisations. If you are looking at a more detailed look at SimCity, check out my SimCity review from earlier this year.

If I was to forget about the issues and look at look at the expansion and judge it on how fun it was I would first point to the fact that since getting the game on Thursday I just can’t seem to put it down. The enjoyment from taking a city of only a half a dozen houses and place of work, and turning it into a sprawling metropolis with massive MegaTowers, maglev transit system and multiple pieces of futuristic technology is incredible. And of course seeing the unfortunate natural disaster destroying your city destroying your city is soul crushing. For example my main city was hit by two tornados, monster attack and a zombie outbreak (apparently I’m incredibly unlucky) it’s heart breaking because you worked so hard to build the city, and now you have to try and save what remains of it.

Conclusion

If you are a fan of SimCity and are thinking about playing again Cities of Tomorrow offers more than enough incentive to return. However some of issue such as the size of the build locations still exist.

SCORE: 80%

*Sim City: Cities of Tomorrow requires SimCity to play*

SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow information

Developer: Maxis
Publisher: EA
Genre: first person shooter
Rating: 7+
Platform: PC
Release date: now out
Website: http://www.simcity.com/