Some would argue that the more recent SimCity games for the PC (SimCity 4, for example), have gotten a little too complex for their own good. The earlier entries could easily be enjoyed by just about anyone, but the newer, more complicated titles seem to be made for the most hardcore players. With Creator, the series is being brought back to the mass market, allowing it to be enjoyed by fans of all ages groups.
This is done not by dumbing down the gameplay, but by adding a sense of progression to the experience. Unlike other entries in the series, you're not just starting out in modern times. Instead, your term as mayor begins in the stone age. Here, the city you build will be modest at best. Still, you're not going to have to worry about anything like managing electricity, water pipes, and pollution. Instead, you must make sure that your citizens have enough food to survive. To do this, you'll need to construct animal trails instead of the standard roads. In order to expand your village, trees must be cut down. Eventually, your city will grow enough to develop agriculture.
When your city has developed enough, it's time to move into the (relative) future. Here, you're given a choice. You can move to either a renaissance-era Europe or Asia. The layout from your original city remains the same, but the graphics alter depending on which area you move to. After clearing that level, it's time to move into the modern times. In addition to the Europe and Asia choices, you can now select to continue your city within the U.S. Succeed there, and it's off to the future to build more technologically advanced cities. EA has also dropped hints that there may be a second, secret future society that you can reach as well.
As the timeframe jumps ahead, the cities obviously become more and more advanced. Because of these, there are more and more things to manage the further you get in the game. This type of progress isn't really something that we've seen in a SimCity title, and it's a good way to ease new players into the game's mechanics.
No matter the era, your current city is displayed in an isometric view on the DS' top screen. The touch screen contains a plan grid of your city as well as all sorts of menus that are used to build and manage your utopia. As you might expect, everything is controlled via the stylus, making it easy to navigate the menus. We're just hoping that as we get further into the game, it doesn't become overbearing to manage everything on the tiny screens.
The graphics look nice and clean, and thankfully EA got rid of those creepy characters who assisted you in SimCity DS. Now, you're helped out by those adorable MySims. They're much more pleasant to look at.
With its gameplay that caters to all ages and its twist on the old formula, SimCity Creator looks extremely promising. Its release is only a few weeks away, so you can expect a full review soon.
