I've been SimCity BuildIt on my tablet for the past month or two, but I'm pretty much done with it.
– There are multiple types of currency and collectables used to pay for various things that gradually make getting anything done more and more complex.
– The city design constraints are maddeningly arbitrary (e.g., this park creates a 6×8 enrichment zone — never in the orientation you want).
– While it's possible to play without spending actual cash money, it's far more grindy. By design. Which I understand, but I'd much rather see something that incents spending money, rather than disincents not spending money, if you see the difference.
– Stuff is awfully expensive.
– The auction house for buying stuff to meet various needs (including expanding the city) is horribly, horribly, unusably broken.
– The incentives, past a certain point, are to be able to put landmark buildings (Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, etc.) in your city. I really don't want that. But short of adding some Tokyo-style skyscrapers, I really don't see anything further-game than I'm at (at about 230K population, around level 30) that I want to aspire to.
– The basic mechanism should be about building a cool city. Instead, it's about manufacturing stuff as fast as you can for various trade and building purposes, and cursing madly at the trading post for not being able to get the one piece you need for something.
It's been a (sometimes) fun time, and I suspect there are further things I could do, but I'm done.
Now to find a sim game that I desire to play because it's fun, not that I desire to start up again because I have to harvest steel to start manufacturing hammers to build TV sets to sell to the cargo ship to get a gold key to buy a light house for the beach.
SimCity BuildIt – EA
Build, craft, and control! SimCity BuildIt is an all-new SimCity game designed just for mobile. Coming soon to iOS and Android for free. Welcome, Mayor!
What games do you recommend for world building?
+calvin coleman For Android? Haven't decided yet. I'd love a SimCity that actually had a little nuance and planning to it.
"Paradise Island" gets high ratings, but I really don't care for the graphics.
If you come up with an answer, let me know.
I believe I still have it rated as 1 start on GP. You try Cities Skylines on PC btw?
+Doug Dunfee I have it ranked higher, though I may drop it down just a scosh.
I'm really looking for something I can play on my Android tablet; when I'm at my PC I have more than enough to keep me occupied. 🙂
Agreed, wish I could find something on tablet that was engaging and not IAP overload…
+Doug Dunfee I'll let you know if I find something. 🙂
I’ve not played for months for similar reasons – it just gets ‘grindy’ – more like a job than a game. They new bits you gain as you get bigger after a while just make it more like a chore, rather than adding any game play.