Streets of SimCity

The Good
Hmmmmmmmm...............well, the way it crashes your computer is fun in a masochistic way.

The Bad
I pull this game out of the box of Sim classics I just spent my hard-earned money on. I remember it getting bad reviews, so it sat as far away from my computer as possible. But, finally, I convinced myself to play it. And what I saw was a crime against humanity. The graphics, for the time were so-so, but even on my 1000 megahertz Athlon, I still get slowdown. Plus, the game plays horribly too! The engine has more bugs then a porch light. I've heard better music in PC speaker games. The controls are so sensitive, a simple tap of the left arrow sends the car carreening off the road I have a suggestion - the makers should be taken outside and shot.

The Bottom Line
Wow! You love bad gameplay? Buy this game! Oh, you don't? THEN STAY AWAY, FOR GOD'S SAKE!

The Good
The concept is executed decently. That's pretty much all.

The Bad
Where the devil do I even start? The graphics are atrocious in DirectDraw mode. If you use 3DFX, it doesn't look any better. The people in the last game that shared the same engine (Simcopter), people were a mix of flat shaded polygons for the body and 2D for their heads. But here, they're sprites compressed in Smacker video format. The cars are just vehicles made around the 1960's and 70's, if you compare it to Interstate '76, which was their competitor at the time of release. The scenarios are really awful with no set time of day or weather. It's just daylight (or nighttime) in clear weather all the time you start a scenario. The gameplay is just 'shoot, take package, deliever it, kill more cars', repeat. The AI just drives around, tries to shoot, and on some occasions on hi-end systems, they just use the Hopper due to the engine not allowing you to handle the frame-rate on a new PC. The voice acting in the scenarios is just awfully made. While it's a K-A rated game, expect a bit of mild language here and there. The music is repetitve, five or six songs per station, and that's it. However, there is a mix function that plays songs in order, and a option to play only music, DJ announcer toggle on/off and adverts between songs on/off. The sounds are just some sound effects recycled from Simcopter, along with a sound effect shamelessly taken from the film The Junkman. However, the sounds are awful to hear. The glitches are the worst thing that kills this game. The physics are broken, the turning is wrong, and braking is as if you let go off the gas pedal. The clipping is really terrible, you go through gas stations, trees and power lines. If something goes wrong with the game, it goes into an "unrecoverable error" and the game quits. Has someone playtested the game? Nobody.

The Bottom Line
There's nothing I could describe it. It's a mess that some people bought it when it came out, and no sequel to either Simcopter and Streets of Simcity was done. If you see it on a store, and online, don't buy it.

The Good
About the only good thing about the game was the original purpose -- to be able to drive around cities you create yourself.

The Bad
Graphics -- compared to other games of the time, the graphics in SoS were bland and low quality.

AI -- Enemy vehicles (in modes with them) were of the "drive and fire" or "drive and crash" school of combat, without any guile or intelligence seen in other games.

The Bottom Line
Unless it's in a bargain bin for $5 or less, it's not worth buying.