Surviving Mars is sadly not SimCity 4 [Updated - Final Review]

[Edmon]

After playing a lot of Surviving Mars this weekend, I am saddened to report that the game is not SimCity 4. To this end, I've made a video explaining why Surviving Mars is not SimCity 4 and I hope that the developers of Surviving Mars will watch this and understand the issues I highlight and maybe find ways to resolve them.

SimCity 4 continues its reign as the best "City Builder" type game ever made and honestly, it's a shame that 20 years on, no-one has yet managed to make anything better. Surviving Mars maybe has the potential, but it has a long way to go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lOM8BL_IWA

Feedback? Comments? Something you'd like? Don't agree with me?

Let me know :).

Original Surviving Mars first impressions & review is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93AKPmHhTlY

60 Hours Later, My Final Review:

https://youtu.be/XJBYghBzajE

Also since it won't record the steam overlay:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1336406893

[vivas]

Isn't surviving mars more then just a city builder, and thus a bit hard to compare to a city builder only game?

[StingFinity]

I do not think this game ever tried to be SimCity. It is more like tropico with a space-theme. After EA abused and killed SimCity, that title was dead. The best and latest city builder in my opinion is City Skylines, if you install a ton of mods.

So, I think they will never go as deep as Simcity in the golden days, or even City Skylines. Think of it more like a space Tropico.

[morph113]

Why would you think it's SimCity? It's a very different game and you should have know that. If you want a modern city builder which is better than SimCity 4 then play Cities: Skylines which is better than SimCIty 4 in almost all regards.

[barrygreybeard]

I am so glad it isnt simcity 4. If it was, I would have been disappointed.

[Edmon]

Originally posted by StingFinity:

I do not think this game ever tried to be SimCity. It is more like tropico with a space-theme. After EA abused and killed SimCity, that title was dead. The best and latest city builder in my opinion is City Skylines, if you install a ton of mods.

So, I think they will never go as deep as Simcity in the golden days, or even City Skylines. Think of it more like a space Tropico.

Cities Skylines is no where near as good as SimCity 4 is.

The only thing Skylines has going for it is that it's modern and thus takes advantage of graphical and hardware improvements that have occurred over the intervening time period. But the actual simulation and depth of Skylines is far, far less than SimCity 4.

I think SimCity 4 is a game that you need to go back to if you played it when you were young, I certainly didn't understand it's complexities as a kid, like I do now.

Please note: Modern SimCity games are awful. Don't confuse the new SimCity games with SimCity 4. SimCity 4 also has a massive modding community with huge additions to the base content available for free if you so wish to add them :).

[[AUT] Beazerka]

Ofc its not SC4. Its Surviving Mars? It never pretends nor tryd to be SC4 like. Why would PDX publish a second SC like title if they already have Cities? Where they can squeez more money out ;)

Oh and btw. Completly different types game?

Imho that makes no sense

[Visions of Del]

This game is not supposed to be a SimCity game - This game is about resource management between Earth and Mars and trying to get a pioneer colony started on Mars. There's massive difference between the two games and even if Surviving Mars can be considered as a city builder game, it's not supposed to be a "SimCity on Mars"

[Edmon]

Originally posted by AUT Beazerka:

Ofc its not SC4. Its Surviving Mars? It never pretends nor tryd to be SC4 like. Why would PDX publish a second SC like title if they already have Cities? Where they can squeez more money out ;)

Oh and btw. Completly different types game?

Imho that makes no sense

Paradox didn't make this game, paradox is only the publisher here. So, it makes sense for two completely different developers to make a city builder type game.

This game is very much like SimCity, Skylines, Banished or any other city builder type game. Yeah, it has a totally different theme to those games, but it's still the same "supply things to people and manage supplies to grow the population" type gameplay. Especially once you are fully established.

But critically, it lacks depth and end game to keep you interested. If you watch my video, you will understand what the issues are as I explain them.

[morph113]

Originally posted by Edmon:

Originally posted by AUT Beazerka:

Ofc its not SC4. Its Surviving Mars? It never pretends nor tryd to be SC4 like. Why would PDX publish a second SC like title if they already have Cities? Where they can squeez more money out ;)

Oh and btw. Completly different types game?

Imho that makes no sense

Paradox didn't make this game, paradox is only the publisher here. So, it makes sense for two completely different developers to make a city builder type game.

This game is very much like SimCity, Skylines, Banished or any other city builder type game. Yeah, it has a totally different theme to those games, but it's still the same "supply things to people and manage supplies to grow the population" type gameplay. Especially once you are fully established.

But critically, it lacks depth and end game to keep you interested. If you watch my video, you will understand what the issues are as I explain them.

I think Paradox being the publisher is relevant. They decide which games they will fund and publish. They wouldn't fund another city builder which competes with their current brand of cities skylines unless it's cities skylines 2. Especially since the market of modern citybuilders is saturated enough with cities skylines. They did afterall initially didn't want colossal order to make a city builder due to SimCity dominating the market. But when SimCity 5 failed, they gave colossal order the okay to go ahead and develop that game.

[Demyan]

I´m really glad it´s not SC4, and why the hell should it be, it´s on Mars fcs!

Go back to SC4 and stop whining that a game other SC4 isn´t SC4.

[Edmon]

Originally posted by Demyan:

I´m really glad it´s not SC4, and why the hell should it be, it´s on Mars fcs!

Go back to SC4 and stop whining that a game other SC4 isn´t SC4.

Your glad this game, is not anywhere near as good as a game that's 20 years older?

This game is amazingly like SimCity 4 once you get past the theme and pretty graphics.

Surviving Mars:
Deliver Oxygen, Water, Power and Food or the population won't survive. A loss of any of these will depopulate your colony. You can add services to make life better.

SimCity 4:
Deliver Transport, Water, Power and Workers or the population won't survive. A loss of any of these will depopulate your city. You can add services to make life better.

Surviving Mars:
You have limited money, technology and resource to get established, you can get more from Earth or over time.

SimCity 4:
You have limited money, technology and workers to get established, you can get more by linking other cities to yours or over time.

...

Where Surviving Mars doesn't measure up is that it has no depth. Nothing to keep you interested beyond these two phases.

[meraco]

Originally posted by Edmon:

Cities Skylines is no where near as good as SimCity 4 is.

Neither of those games are relevant to Surviving Mars. Because Surviving Mars is neither of those games.

Seems to me this topic is little more than click bait for the vids..

I'm not biting...

[Edmon]

Originally posted by meraco:

Originally posted by Edmon:

Cities Skylines is no where near as good as SimCity 4 is.

Neither of those games are relevant to Surviving Mars. Because Surviving Mars is neither of those games.

Seems to me this topic is little more than click bait for the vids..

I'm not biting...

Tell me, other than the graphics, how Surviving Mars is different or has anything that SimCity 4 does not have?

And I would like to warn you, that you can drive/control the cars / helicopters / etc in your SimCity 4 city and do missions in them to generate money.

So it's not even like the early resource deposit collection is particularly unique.


You need to look beyond the graphics and at the actual gameplay. This is why this game is getting such mixed reviews. Those reviews that look beyond 14 hours or so of play and reach the "end game" are often the mixed ones. The game lacks depth.

Also, the videos are embedded. If you want youtube traffic that matters, you have to direct people to the actual site...

Not that I care, I'm not monetized...

[vivas]

Originally posted by Edmon:

Originally posted by meraco:

Neither of those games are relevant to Surviving Mars. Because Surviving Mars is neither of those games.

Seems to me this topic is little more than click bait for the vids..

I'm not biting...

Tell me, other than the graphics, how Surviving Mars is different or has anything that SimCity 4 does not have?

And I would like to warn you, that you can drive/control the cars / helicopters / etc in your SimCity 4 city and do missions in them to generate money.

So it's not even like the early resource deposit collection is particularly unique.


You need to look beyond the graphics and at the actual gameplay. This is why this game is getting such mixed reviews. Those reviews that look beyond 14 hours or so of play and reach the "end game" are often the mixed ones. The game lacks depth.

Also, the videos are embedded. If you want youtube traffic that matters, you have to direct people to the actual site...

Not that I care, I'm not monetized...

I think you are quite wrong here, it's the opposite. from what i read is that alot of people fall over a lack of knowledge and ones they have a certain amount of gameplay they discover there is more debth then the eye meets at first.

Like this post from Envie in an earlier thread.
"I think there are some early-game issues that are causing people to knee-jerk react with reviews after only playing a short time. I'm not saying the issues aren't valid (lacking tutorial and UI frustrations) - I'm saying look at reviews of players having played more than 3 or so hours if you want the full picture when trying to decide to buy it or not.

This game doesn't really start to shine until you've gotten to the early mid-game where you're juggling several or more domes, figuring out how to sort all your colonists and needed jobs, and unlocking some of the better research rewards.

That's why I think the reviews are mixed. Half the people are getting frustrated early game and giving up, giving bad reviews, and half are sticking with it, riding the learning curve, and realizing that despite some of those aforementioned UI frustrations and no-tutorial struggling, there's a great game to be learned.

If you have patience and love creating production chains and working job systems, this game is great (Anno 2070 fans like me will love it). If you expect a fast paced city builder like CS, this isn't the game for you. It's slower and has a lot of random variables, like Tropico."

[Edmon]

Originally posted by vivas:

Originally posted by Edmon:

Tell me, other than the graphics, how Surviving Mars is different or has anything that SimCity 4 does not have?

And I would like to warn you, that you can drive/control the cars / helicopters / etc in your SimCity 4 city and do missions in them to generate money.

So it's not even like the early resource deposit collection is particularly unique.


You need to look beyond the graphics and at the actual gameplay. This is why this game is getting such mixed reviews. Those reviews that look beyond 14 hours or so of play and reach the "end game" are often the mixed ones. The game lacks depth.

Also, the videos are embedded. If you want youtube traffic that matters, you have to direct people to the actual site...

Not that I care, I'm not monetized...

I think you are quite wrong here, it's the opposite. from what i read is that alot of people fall over a lack of knowledge and ones they have a certain amount of gameplay they discover there is more debth then the eye meets at first.

This game has been out 2 days and I already have a near 500% difficulty game with 300 colonists that is completely stable and basically has nothing left to do.

I could spend a month on SimCity 4 and not "complete" a city.