City Life: 2008 Edition

A Recap, Then: City Life is the city-building game that makes you to deal with the conflicting needs of six groups. At first, you'll build housing that'll only attract the lower tier, as those upper class scumbags won't move into your town until there's a strong bloodstream of poverty for the vampiric bastards to suck on, yeah? Am I right, brothers? So the main thrust of the game, apart from making sure everyone's got a shop and a doctor to go to, is making sure you don't incite a riot by forcing the arty chic types to live or work next door to the blue collar workers. In other words, keep the jazz poetry readings away from the beer factories.

This is a balanced and relaxed take on city-building, and the extreme zoom that gives you little snapshots of the city dwellers' lives is fair enough, but the original game's unpolished, yet acceptable, quality is already well-documented. What is it that warrants this 2008 repackaging?

Basically it's just a few extra maps, a bunch of buildings to break up the formerly monotonous skylines, and a few extra scenarios. The satellite map import function is pure gimmickry, so this is absolutely no reason to buy the game again - the original is bundled in this pack, anyway.

However, if the original, and the 2007Deluxe Edition passed you by, then this is definitely a modern citybuilder that's pretty absorbing and worth $20. Then again, if you've already managed to ignore the game twice, perhaps it should take the hint and sod off until the sequel.