CITY LIFE

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Monte Cristo

Publisher : CDV , Deep Silver And Focus Home Interactive

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : City Building Games And Strategy

Release Date : June 2 , 2006

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 Processor / AMD Athlon XP 2800+

Memory (RAM) : 512 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 64 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 4 Series
ATI : Radeon 8500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 2 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

In game, the six classes are depicted in a circle. Clockwise from the top are Elites, Suits, Blue Collars, Have-Nots, Fringes, and Radical Chics. Each class can tolerate the two adjacent to it, but is hostile towards the three across the circle. Further, the income generated by businesses focusing on each class is indicated by its height on the circle, Have-Nots generating the least and Elites generating the most. Lastly, the left side of the circle favors education while the right side favors safety (e.g. police and fire department coverage). The higher classes are of course more demanding. When a city is founded, only Fringes, Have-Nots, and Blue Collars will settle there. The Suits must be attracted by having good conditions for the Blue Collars, the Radical Chics are attracted by good conditions for the Fringes, and the Elites are attracted by good conditions for both the Suits and the Radical Chics. Due to the literal class warfare, if classes that dislike each other live near closely, they will start riots and make complaints. Much of the gameplay focuses on arranging your city so that this will not occur. Every business will employ a specific mix of classes; the earlier, less profitable buildings may employ only one class, e.g. six fringe, but later buildings require a mix of several classes to reach their full potential. Thus, a successful city must manage a population of each of the classes. As their name implies, The Elite community brings together the most powerful and wealthiest segments of the population. They are also the most demanding. They have no problems with either the Radical Chics or the Suits beliefs and behavior. The Radical Chics are in the upper ranks of high-income individuals. They are very close to the artistic and creative world and have liberal views and disposition. They are attracted to the Fringes and Elites lifestyle. The Suits are a fairly wealthy community which moves in the industrial circles in your city. Broadly speaking, they are generally managers of business. The Suits generally like the near proximity of Blue Collars and Elites. The Blue Collars work in the industries of your city and have revenues close to, or the same as, the fringe. They represent the typical suburban family with traditional values. The Have-Not community is at the crossroads between the artistic and the industrial worlds. They are also lowest on the scale of power, representing the poor people of your city.

Initially, your focus will be on small housing estates and businesses. The first priority is to attract settlers to your new town, and the type of people that move in will be determined by a number of factors. As your town grows in size, you'll need to provide amenities for your citizens. Grocery stores, medical centres, and primary schools will suffice for lower-population areas, but later on, only expensive shopping centres and hospitals will do. There's also a fine balance to be had between large businesses, power stations that provide profits and electricity, and the impact the resulting pollution of these industries will have on residents' happiness levels. Each step of the way, it's a challenge to make sure you provide all the basics whilst making a little profit to be able to build the next part of town. Alongside all of this juggling is a series of objectives for each map. These range from fairly simple tasks for the bronze award, such as growing the population to a certain point or making a specific amount of profit per month, to the more sophisticated elements of neighbourhood harmonisation and integration in the silver and gold categories. Other aspects of the game include the threat of fires breaking out, both accidentally and intentionally, and even organised crime if unemployment is rife. As with most things in the game, there are obvious solutions to both--build a fire department and reduce unemployment--though the implementation of these solutions isn't always so straightforward. Once you've outgrown your initial patch of land, you can buy more, assuming you have enough cash, and continue your expansion. Visually, Monte Cristo has done a nice job at re-creating the bustle that a city usually contains. Buildings will change in appearance as different types of residents move in, and roads will change colour depending on which type of citizen class that particular area appeals to the most. These visual cues make it easier for the player to gain an overview of what's happening where, which helps as the city begins to grow. What's more, there's even an option to abandon the traditional top-down view usually associated with games of this type and wander around your creation in first-person mode instead. One significant criticism of the game in the long term is that fresh challenges are a little thin on the ground. Although it can take a long time to create the perfect city, once you've done so the first time, you've got a blueprint for most other maps in the game. The variety in climate or land distribution in the various regions does make a difference in how you approach the task, but on the whole, they're slight changes in flavour, rather than a whole new experience. City Life isn't quite up to the caliber of the franchise that inspired the vast majority of its design, but it's still a rewarding and enjoyable city-building sim. City Life combines the fun of a city-building game with the challenge of a financial simulation, though it requires patience and perseverance to master.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

City Life Trailer :-