Bringing the exceedingly popular SimCity franchise to the mobile realm is SimCity BuildIt a title that offers up striking visuals for a mobile app as you expand your city lines from your town hall into the horizon. In true SimCity style you’ll have to balance this expansion against maximising the happiness of your residents and revenue for yourself to keep the expansion flowing. Originally released in 2014 SimCity BuildIt continues to receive constant updates into 2020 and can boast tens of millions of downloads across the respective app stores.
While its not a real SimCity game in terms of core gameplay you’ve got enough of the mechanics there that it at least feels loosely connected. While this means it’s not one that SimCity fans will want to be jumping at the game does have plenty of redeeming qualities that firmly place it on the higher end of the freemium building and construction mobile genre.
Central to your success in the world of SimCity BuildIt you’ve got factories that will happily produce all sorts of materials to serve as the building blocks of your expansive city which grows street block by street block. This is predominately fed into the residential side of the game which offers money, increased population and experience which helps you unlock more spectacular building options in a traditional experience and unlock system.
Outside of residential buildings that range from single houses to large apartment blocks you’ve got services such as power, water, sewage, government, health, police and fire to protect and serve the community and vital to maintaining their happiness. Further city happiness is developed through specialised options with the likes of parks, education, entertainment, transportation and landmarks which slowly grow more extravagant with the aforementioned level system. Some of these are restricted to premium currency only but the others are in reach of committed players and outside of this restriction the freemium elements are mostly fair. Like many titles in this space you’ll also find the normal opportunities to exchange ad watching for some resources.
Regardless of what you intend to build all of this requires a mixture of resources which must be obtained either directly from the factory floor or crafted by mixing several other materials together. If you find yourself overwhelmed with a particular resource you can opt to sell it to the AI or other players in order to convert it to something your city needs although generally you’ll be better off waiting out the resource shortage in the long term.
Few games can compare to the impressive graphics and mostly fair monetisation that SimCity BuildIt offers up to players in the freemium niche. While it’s not traditional SimCity gameplay that many fans will likely crave it’s still a solid and enjoyable experience for mobile devices.
Summary:
- Based on SimCity fundamentals of keeping residences happy with essential services and specialised locations.
- Create your dream city street by street as you unlock and use a large range of building options.
- Expand your town lines as your population booms while managing happiness of your residents.
- Use your factories to create and craft important building materials to fuel your expansion.
- Free to play SimCity inspired city building game for Android and iOS
Links:
Videos:
Review Platform: iOS