SimCity Societies

SimCity Societies takes a completely different approach to the city-builder theme and distance itself from the economy-simulation that SimCity 4 was.

Instead of laying out different zones and caring for the infrastructure, the player now places every single building individiually. Technically, only money is needed to do so, as each building also produces or needs one of the six resources to function. These resources include productivity, prosperity and creativity - so a normal three-storey house needs prosperity to function, which requires, for example, a bank to maintain said prosperity. Resources a building requires also depend on what type of city the player wants to build, which range from a normal town through industrial cities to a cyberpunk metropolis. To make the process of building a specific type of town, the buildings can be filtered for the different city types.

Since water or power-infrastructure do not need to be constructed, it is only required to place a power plant somewhere and it will automatically supply all the buildings until reserves are maxed out. But, it is still needed to build streets, subway-systems and other public transportation.

The Sims will come also automatically into the city once there's an open room available regardless their needs like schools or police are met. The important thing is to keep them happy by giving them a place to work and other things to do like a baseball stadium. Many of these leisure buildings also feature a special event which gives Sims a short happiness boost and makes them more productive for a short period of time. In the case of the baseball stadium, it's the Nickel Root Beer Night. These buildings and events can also be a danger to the citizens by having a greater chance of being injured during such events.

Although the game is still open-ended, there are some achievements in forms of medals and trophies, and at the beginning of the game the player first needs to unlock all of the buildings in normal play before they can use them in free play or god-mode (unlimited money). The criteria range from simple tasks like having a big enough population to more detailed and mixed up requirements which include population, happiness of the citizens and a fixed amount of resources.