SimCity BuildIt Reviews

by AnnSellers

I really miss the days when I had a choice to buy a game on my cell that was truly ad-free; it was worth the $10 to just be able to play the game without interuptions. So many games like this say they are free to play, which they are if you enjoy staring at a screen while you wait a long time for things to finish. The first week the game is fun, but soon the game gets boring while you wait for the raw materials, products and buildings to finish. There is nothing to do while waiting. It is all a big ploy to get you to spend money for speed ups. On top of that, this Sim game forces you to watch whole screen pop up ads that you cannot shut off. I really hate being made to watch ads for pirate or goldfish games. From now on I will read reviews, and when I see a game like this, I will not download it. I have deleted this on my tablet and phone and will just continue to play Clash of Clans which is much more fun. I have been playing Clash for 10 years and I have two accounts: my main acct that I have spent money on (because I like the game and wanted to) and the other supporting acct I spent no money on. Both accts are doing well. Unlike this silly Sim game, in Clash of Clans you have plenty to do while you wait for upgrades and training. I do not recommend this Sim game unless you like to waste you money on speed ups and enjoy watching pop up ads on your whole screen.

by I Haste In The Shower

Been playing now for a year and a half. I enjoy the game every day and look forward to growing my city. However, I would like to see some improvements: please change the statements for my citizens' opinion bubbles(seeing the same ones all the time is boring); I wish there was a comprehensive way to see a breakdown of all my cities' buildings by type, population, latest update date, etc; and although I enjoy the Mayoral Contests, I find it very difficult to finish in the top ten even though I only complete the assignments that have the highest point value. I understand that spending real money to finish higher in the standings is probably necessary(and even rewarded with higher point total assignments) however some mayors' point totals above me seem impossible for me to obtain without some kind of hacking of the game and that possibility makes me question even participating in future Mayoral Contests. Why spend real $$ trying to beat a cheater!!!"
So now it is December 2019 and I am having problems after upgrading Mayors Pass Season 3. I cannot get into the game because I’m kicked out before my city appears. I have asked for an explanation and am told that “the team” is working on a solution. 3 days later I’m still waiting. Boiler plate responses and apologies just don’t do the trick. I have completed all updates of iOS, force-quit SimCityBuildIt and reinstall SimCityBuildIt but still nothing.

by AFlame101

Overall I did enjoy some aspects of SimCityBuildIt. As an aspiring architect I downloaded this game expecting the whole “you have to pay to get this exclusive building” with a few buildings. But here’s the thing. Almost EVERY nice building/placeable item is expensive. Not to mention the cash in game is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. 50$ for like 2900 cash? Yeah no thanks. Plus, it is almost impossible to gain the larger and more eco friendly factories/power/water etc. Also, in the beginning they do not tell you about any of the fire stations and stuff you need later on, so I went about my game until I realized I had to redesign my entire city to place one fire station in. I ended up redownloading the game and starting all over. I just think it’s extremely dumb to have levels in this game? And have to expand your city land? With items that I almost never get??! It’s insanity! The only good thing about this game is designing a city. But they make it so hard - and the buildings are too expensive for the amount of coins normal players have. I’m not going to spend 500$ to buy a non-pollution power plant. I don’t want to spend money on this game. Maybe if it was better designed and didn’t have levels i would. But until something is done about the cash/coin problem, I don’t recommend this game. However it is a good way to waste 7 hours to upgrade a house that only gives you like 200 coins :)

by Scroycs

I am getting EXTREMELY tired of the mechanic where an item is in great abundance on the market but takes HOURS to find the second you have a construction that requires it. There is no freaking way it is a coincidence. I know you think it’s smart to make it more difficult to find so your brain releases endorphins when you find it or whatever but TONE IT DOWN!!! The annoyance I suffer far out weighs any relief when I find the item. And when you do and press on it someone has already bought it. I’ve been looking for canned fish for over an HOUR. It wasn’t that hard to find right before I needed it. It’s not like it’s rare at all!!! I’m legitimately considering deleting the game just because it’s become such a time consuming process to upgrade this one building that requires it.

Furthermore, they just recently added mandatory advertisements that pop up when you try to make something in your factory and you can’t exit out of them. It’s never beneficial, even it auto completes whatever you’re creating, more times than not you get a mandatory advertisement when you’re creating metal which only takes 60 seconds to complete and the ad is half that long. Or you’ll be trying to plan our resources for the future and suddenly get some items you have no need of until you’re other products are completed in a few hours and it fills up your storage space for a few hours. It’s only inconvenient.

by Achrist3

This is a good game, the graphics gameplay and strategy are exciting and different. But after you build your city up, one day you will hit a wall. The game ceases to be fun and becomes tedious and small. I’ve hit the wall, and now barely play the game anymore. The challenges become overwhelming at times only because you are so restricted with supply depot size and city size, both because it becomes almost impossible to find the special items you require to grow either. Eventually, the global trade center will become useless. It will always be full of the same 4-5 high level items that nobody can use in their own city and so become flooded into the market. You are forced to build these same items for some challenge and then find out they are completely useless to you as well. You can’t use them to build any other items, you can’t use them for building homes, and you will have a hard time selling them because it’s the same items everybody sells. They just become a waste of supply space. As you raise your city level, the game really makes it harder and harder to succeed without paying real money for special items or sim cash. I used to really enjoy playing this game but have become bored with sitting endlessly in the global market hoping for an expansion item to pop up so I can finally expand my land or supply. I’d say give it a shot, but keep your city small. The bigger you get, the less enjoyable it becomes.

by Yotes#1

I have had this game for a long time on many different accounts and have built a lot of cities. I remember when Omega was first introduced and when the mountain was put in! I also remember when Epic buildings were added to the game. It required 10 epic tokens to make that special building produce bronze tokens. The change you guys made needs to be undone. 40!!!! Really? That’s a bit excessive for a building to produce bronze tokens. That was really crappy of you. PS please for gods sake remove the club wars! This isn’t clash of clans. This game used to be a relaxing game where you can build your own little world and now it’s turn into pay to make your city better than everyone else. One last thing that needs to change is the traffic jams. There will literally be no traffic on the road and people will move out because of traffic jams. Come on that’s dumb, especially because there is a loop hole. Just bulldoze the road and then immediately replace it. The traffic jam complaints disappear and nobody complains and the sims move back in. Other than these issues I have with the game, it’s a great game. The graphics are fantastic and it loads up really fast. Great game it just needs to go back to the simple times. I have never battled that octopus thing and never will!

by Ring_zero

Success in this game requires heavy use of the Global Trade to find things to buy. SimCity has always used algorithms to determine what is offered to you to buy. For example, if you need specific items to upgrade a building, SimCity will filter these items out of the Global Trade, requiring you to spend even more time trying to find them. Eventually, perhaps after about 30 minutes of searching, the algorithm might allow one or two to appear. On the other hand, if you don't need a particular item, that item is much more likely to appear to buy. If you don't need them and already have several of them in your inventory, they are even more likely to appear. If you have some items, like hamburgers, for example, up for sale yourself, then dozens of them will appear on the Global Trade for you to buy because the algorithm has determined you are unlikely to need them. In this way, the algorithm modifies items on the Global Trade so that high demand always equals low (or nonexistent) supply and low demand always equals high supply.
SimCity updates these algorithms in most patches. This latest patch has caused even low demand items to not appear on the Global Trade. I don't know exactly what was done, but now nearly all of the time I am offered about 7 different things. This prevents players from stocking up on items for future demand. Hopefully this gets fixed in the next update.

by Bellocinodeoro

I downloaded this game because it seemed very similar to the DOS version of SimCity I used to play many years ago. The first part of the game was very exiting and I really enjoyed building homes and roads and factories. And getting my city to grow. I was on the phone at any moment I could. The more I did the more requirements kept me pumped up. But it gets to a point when I started to get into Mayor contests and it starts asking for wars between cities. That makes this too complicated for what I am willing to play. Also the building upgrades requests items that I cannot produce or buy like a sweater or bread. Then the upgrades requests things that take 5 or more hours to make turning it hardly impossible to complete the task without being stuck to the phone practically all day. I think a game like this should allow the user to play at leisure. I don’t have time to dedicate only to a game. I would love a game that stays simple and keeps me engaged. Microsoft had a game called Age of empires that kept me going up to the end because tasks where hard but possible. The same i would say for the first version of Starcraft.
For that reason I am deleting SimCityBuildIt from my phone. I gave it 3 stars because the game is well designed. And it gave me pleasure before it gave me frustrations.

by ThatDudeNamedRob

I downloaded the game 2 days after it launched on iOS, not knowing what to expect. To my surprise it instantly became my favorite mobile game app. I've never agreed with the idea of in-app-purchases but Sim City Build It is the only game that I've actually spent money on. The fun factor, and replay value are simply unmatched. This game has been near flawless in my opinion. That is, until recently. I was excited when new city areas were introduced because it allowed me to experience the fun of designing a new layout from scratch. And the addition of seasonal and holiday events seemed promising. But then the game began crashing. CONSTANTLY. It's like the game can't handle all of the stuff that's happening on screen. If I switch to a different area map the game freezes then completely crashes. If I open the game and swipe on the screen before all of the intrusive game notifications pop up, the game freezes then completely crashes. If I try to interact with the game in any way before the intrusive on-screen notifications pop up, the game freezes then completely crashes! I thought it might have something to do with the version of iOS running on my phone but my software is up to date. I update SimCityBuildIt as soon as an update is available on iOS. The problem continued even after I upgraded to an iPhone 11 pro max! I still love the game but these constant crashes are wearing on my patience.

by Horrifying Horror

I love this game! I also love the creators! I play sims almost every day! This game is great! But, I do have some suggestions... My first suggestion is to make it easier to progress. I always run out of money the first five seconds I start playing the game. My second suggestion is that there should be guides to build better cities. Because when I load up other players cities they look a lot more improved than mine when I come back and look at it. If I had a guide to follow to make something that looks like a city. (You should have a variety of guides to choose from to get the perfect city!) My third suggestion is that it is easier to get the bucks. When I buy some it runs out less than a second. Also I think my money runs out to fast to because I have non at the and of my playtime on SimCityBuildIt which usually ranges from 5 minutes to 1 and a half hours. A little bit of other suggestions I have are that you should be able to make cities with your friends. Like having a special friend city world. If this was possible I would love it: In the game you are able to make wooden chairs and I this this city buildings should have a inside apartment where you can put all different furniture and have a sim walk around in there. You should also be able to see what’s wrong in there ( if anything ) like no power or water. About everything else I love in this game!😉

by Rossco The Cat

I got this game when my mom started talking about how she used to be obsessed with it, and after I saw her playing it. I can spend hours making things to upgrade my buildings, and even longer trying to do challenges and cargo shipments... and, well, you get the point. I use the global trade HQ all the time, and I like how they added export HQs for the other regions so that there’s multiple ways to earn lime simoleons and other currencies like that. However, I do wish there was one other way to earn sim cash. I barely ever spend any, and have been saving them for a while, but I still don’t have that much. I know that there’s already a lot of ways to earn them, but I feel like at least once a couple days there’s a option to earn them by making a bunch of materials in a hour or something like that. Or, at least, make it a little more common to get simcash from watching videos. Speaking of which, there’s something that really bugs me. You see, sometimes when I watch a video, it doesn’t give me a reward. And no, I’m not talking about when one of the three boxes are empty. Sometimes the option to pick from them doesn’t come up, which is frustrating after I’ve spent time watching a ad. I feel like that’s one thing that definitely needs to be fixed.

by Avidrailroader57

I’ve been playing this game for a few years now and I like seeing all the mew exciting changes. However, I find it so difficult to expand my city and city storage. Especially when I need to collect these items that take forever to get all and take up half of my city storage. Also, please make the Global Trade HQ easier to use by adding a search bar for the thing you need, not having to wait 30 seconds and hope the item you need will appear. Please add an option to stop upgrading buildings. I don’t need a thousand skyscrapers in my city. It doesn’t look realistic. I really like the idea of the regional cities but there are a few things that should be worked out. One: Why is it if I have three regional homes and one regular home, the demand for any service is seven? Shouldn’t it be four like in the capital city. Two: Why can’t we place the other commercial building in out regional city instead of having to travel back and forth to get supplies. The same applies to factories. Three Can we get some sort of city hall or town hall to be able to collect more of the regional currency. Finally, I would like to be able to choose a name for my regional city instead of calling it Cactus Canyon or one of the other names.

by Iluvekats

I really enjoyed playing this game, but feel that a few items should be changed about the game. I think that if you put an item for sale you should be able to spend coins or dollars to take the item down and keep the item. I also think it would be nice if we could trade omega items with others. My main issue with this game is when it comes to having a war with another group. There seems to be a new strategy going around, which while brilliant, it’s frustrating and makes me not want to play. Team 1 goes in and bombs team 2 quickly, therefore accumulating a lot of war points quickly. Team 2 retaliates, but maybe they don’t have as many members, so they can’t put up as many war points as quickly. Team 1 is completely bubbled and doesn’t ever unbubble. So team 1 is going to win because they refuse to unbubble, and team too just has to sit there and wait. I understand that it is “war “ but this is happening every time I play, and it’s to the point where I don’t even want to go to war with my group anymore. Can’t you make it so that we either have to pay a penalty if we stay bubbled after a certain amount of time or you automatically have to unbubble after so many hours? Just in the name of fairness this would be a great option. Again I understand it’s a game, and it’s a great strategy, but it’s been used way too much and it’s ruining the game for me.

by André Orlandi De Rezende

Well, I really love this game that much is true. However, I have one complaint. Why do construction bubbles exist? Why do they have to pop out? Or even better, why do we have to see them?

Could you just create two ways to view your city? One that doesn’t always show bubbles and one that does? Because sometimes, I’d just like to see my city the way visitors would see it, without construction bubbles. Or if you could just deny the construction of a building, so that there can be some building diversities in my city and not just a bunch of skyscrapers. Even though those really look awesome. And if the player doesn’t want to deny that forever then, create a way where we can deny those building upgrades for a while (a long one, at least for a few days). I think that many players who build their cities in a planned way and for looks would agree with this... upgrade thoughts are annoying.

And also, just something I was wondering about... why do residence upgrades require food? Can you make it so that those only need construction items? Because then we can use the food we make for economic growth, to earn money from that. Or maybe the food you make could be used to feed the city and keep it happy...? Kinda like those survival shelter games! You gotta have food to supply to your city! The food should also be used for exportation... economy growth!!

by Ghjsfujffjoomvxs

This is a great game! I love the club wars and the challenges. My city is at level 50 now, and it’s totally fun. You get to build buildings, and you can get other, special limited time buildings from the city challenges and other things too. But to expand now I have to get 20 of each item. It’s hard to get the items, eventually you’ll have to pay real money for them, so it would be nice to make them easier to obtain. Maybe at a certain point it just costs a certain amount to expand every time. It would also be nice if your city could expand more. Also, make it so there are limitless expansions. You would still need the items to expand, but like I said before, maybe stop raising the expansion cost after around maybe 20 of each item. They take up a lot of space along with being hard to obtain. Besides that, I would suggest adding weather to the game. You can see the temperature and the forecast. Maybe you can make holidays for your city to celebrate. Maybe people get injured in the weather, and you can upgrade your hospitals to take more patients. It would be cool to add snowplows that go around your city. Also, add a feature that shows how environmentally considerate your city is and healthy it is too. Maybe the more parks, mountain, beach and entertainment specialization's you have your sims health improves. Those are all my suggestions. I would highly recommend this game, it’s super fun!

by Mancyness

I really like this game and I want to keep playing, but it is so frustrating. Firstly, expanding your land is so difficult. You need certain items and the game rarely gives you these items and you have about a 1% chance of finding them for sale from other players. Then, expanding your city storage is frustrating. The game gives you a ton of those items right up until you almost have enough, and then it just stops giving them to you. The game tries so hard to make you spend real money, and honestly Id feel better if I just never downloaded it. I want to play this game but I cant expand my territory without paying 24 simcash for EACH upgrade item!! Ridiculous!! I actually broke down and paid 2.99 to get 200 simcash, and it was only barely enough for one expansion, including the items I already had. Seriously this game is ridiculous!!

Earning money hasnt even been the problem for me at all, like some other reviewers have said. To earn money you just have to produce and sell a lot. That is easy and feasible, and pretty fun as well. But expanding your city is difficult and frustrating. To the developers.. Please make it easier to expand!!

Edit: The clubs are a cool idea, but there is no point in having them or the wars if I cant find a club that is active. Every club I join has like one post a week. I would like to participate in the wars, but I have been unable to find an active club that will allow me to do so.

by Minor Child

Ok, so I’ve been playing this game for a while now. It’s been really great and a fun way to build a city. However, I have some complaints and suggestions.
One thing I really don’t like about the game, is the difficulty to expand cities or certain areas (mountains, beaches). The expandable areas are only gained through the small chance of receiving the materials, or the even smaller chance of them being on sale from other players. This makes the game hard to play because after a while, it takes more and more of these materials, and if you can’t expand and build more, you can’t make money. I think it would be easier to create a cap or limit on the amount of materials needed eventually, as they are hard to get and take up space.
Another thing is the Global Trade algorithm. Later in the game, building your city has a heavy reliance on Global Trade and the random availability of items from other players. Whenever I don’t need something, have a lot of something, or have that item on sale currently, the item appears almost excessively on Global Trade. However, when I need a certain item, it filters it out of Global Trade making you waste a good 30 minutes searching until you find a couple of the items. This is vey frustrating and I would recommend an update or change.
Otherwise, the game is extremely fun and creative. I love the game and can’t wait for future updates!

by Banterranter

I really enjoy playing this game it almost gives me a Sid Meiers civilization (which I also enjoy playing!) except without the worry of being attacked by barbarians or competing civilizations-unless participating in club wars of course.
The only thing I would ask that become available on the next update would be the ability to trade goods or simoleons directly with club members. I joined a trading club in hopes to be able to trade my goods for those that I need to expand and improve my city but the way we have to go about it is a bit difficult. If I’m looking to buy x5 shovels from a member of my club; the other member has to post the items to there trade depot w/out advertising; then let me know it’s posted; am I have to rush over to their depot in hopes the goods haven’t been grabbed by someone else. A way around this that I would suggest is a separate transaction system used between members where goods can be posted in private(so no one else can grab them) and so each party can access it at there availabile time w/out the worry of losing out on the deal.
Awesome game you guys got here though I really like it

by Snowstorm9595

i really enjoy this game so far. i’ve only had it for around 2 days, but i’m already on level 13! i love how it doesn’t take time for the building upgrades to finish, for it only takes from 5-20 seconds in a stunning time-lapse process. you also don’t have to pay for main road extensions, which is great for players and awfully realistic for this kind of game. i also enjoy the fact that EA took great measure to ensure that their game had an accurate representation of pollution in several of the buildings, such as the Coal Power Plant or the Factories. they also included population, which efficiently helps upgrade your city. i’d also like to point out the Simoleons you obtain from residential upgrades is very realistic, as more people pay taxes for the mayor and the government. i know i’ve been pointing out everything i adore about this game, but truly, in my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with this game. one more thing- the thought bubbles above the buildings. some will give you efficient store items if clicked, some give you compliments, and some notify you they’re not getting power, water, sewer outflow, etc.

i really believe Electronic Arts did an exquisite job with this game. i’d love to see more games as time goes on!

by KatGames6

So first of all, I'm ten. And this game is amazing because I recently found out that later in this game, the sims start giving you video bubbles which you can get money from. Also later, you get to start a daily chest that can give you money, or materials. Use you're money wisely or you'll run out of it! Also be careful using your coins (I can't spell that other word for the coins). You will need them. I ran into a real challenge when I did not have enough coins at the fire station part. I could not make fire stations, and so some sims left there homes. There is some things I'd like to say. 1. You should not have to pay for more money. Instead, you should be able to go into the money and pay with coins, like you do with coins. You click the add coins, then you can get more coins using your money. 2. You actually have to wait like 20 minutes for materials to finish being made! You should, be able to wait like a minute! 3. When you get the part where you have to fight monsters, you do it once, then you can't get the materials because you don't know how! That's all I have to say. Creators please take my information and add it to the game! (But get this game!)