When I was asked to play group City by a friend of mine, I was rather skeptical at first. Yes, Facebook games can be rather addictive for some, mainly puzzle games, but simulators? however after hearing that Playdom was the one who develop the game, I put my doubts aside and give it a try instead.
Game play
Facebook Game
Game play is rather easy to pick up for group City as you first start off the game with a exiguous whole of money and the tutorial will give you a short introduction on how the game works. The interface allows you to pick what you wish and build and how you dispose your small town during the first level of the game.
As the Mayor of your new city, you are in payment of raising your town population, holding your citizens happy and carry on the town resources in order from a small town into a mega city. Sound easy? precisely it is after a few minutes into the game I have already got the hang of the game mechanics.
One of the main goal of the game is to raise the populations to your newly raise town and as the Mayor you will need to build residential area for your people to stay (for group City, it seems that you train your people instead of attracting them from neighboring town or cities, not unheard of really) This somehow feel more like one of those war game strategy game like command and conquer instead of the standard city simulator. Training citizens...sound like a military town to me.
Once you have adequate citizens staying in your town, as their Mayor it is your duty to keep them happy and productive by construction theater, fast food outlet and freedom area. The interface to allow you to build your town/city is rather easy to carry on as it is divided into categories (Residential, Factory, and Leisure). One question I do find during my time in group City is that although the structure are very well design, there is no options whatsoever to allow you to rotate them. I truly wish that Playdom can implement this feature as it will allow me to good place my structure on the map.
One area of correction for group city is that I notice is how slow you derive resources during the starting of the game. As Mayor you do not derive any tax money from your favorite citizen. Instead your major wage comes from taking up contracts and manufacturing discrete goods in your premise district (food, clothes to high tech gadget). all that you develop takes time and you need to spend a bit before you can see your returns. I precisely like how Playdom add realistic to the game, however I do wish that I can suck some hardworking tax payers money a bit. I am the Mayor after all and it is my job to keep the city running as best as I could.
Also, I do notice is that you need more than a few friends to play with you in order for you to grow or to expend your land. The more people in your friend list the large plot of land you can purchase. I do find it frustrating a bit at first since I notice that I have quite a whole of friends playing this game, but I still have to send one by an additional one to ask them to be my neighbors. Hope Playdom just add them automatically and with this feature, I could save myself the trouble of sending the invitations manually.
Graphics
For a web base flash game, I am truly amazed what Playdom has done. As soon as you look at it, you will be awe by how detail the game is. At first I was expecting this game to be just a normal city simulator with structure all over the map. However, I was rather surprise to find a interesting city with people walking around the streets, working in the premise and even spending potential time in the theater. This is one distinguished game that can make you sit back and marvel at your creation and think back how far flash game has gone from the day of 2D Sprites to 3D models.
The details even go as far as providing clouds hovering over the exiguous city, law officer patrolling the streets and normal people mowing their lawn. Now only thing left that would make this game more alive is to have cars driving down the streets, that would be precisely cool, right?
Sound
Nothing much I can say about the sound potential for this game as it is like any other flash game with repetitive music going on a loop. At least the music is not that annoying, but if you prefer something else, I would just suggest muting the music and just listen to your favorite music in iTunes.
Conclusion
I do find group City rather interesting and like all Facebook games, this is for those who precisely wish to spend their spare time playing with it without installing it into their system. It can get a bit dull after you run out of cash and have to wait till your funds get bank in, but this will be rather fun once you learn how to carry on your resource and make your city grow the way you like. I would give this game a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Facebook Games - communal City
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น