Rising Cities

Building cities is still popular from the times of SimCity and the social connection offers new possibilities. Rising City proves it.

There is nothing better than begin with empty area (ok, with two houses) and gradually rise a huge and functional city. Begin with small houses and building so you can continue with bigger pieces and industry. Rising City promises full-time fun, but there are some problems.

The game principle is quite simple. All is about money that are gained from collecting rents. The more money you have to more possibilities you have in building, construction and investments in factories or companies which produce certain material for more complex buildings. Those building then generate more money or workers. That’s the whole routine and it surprisingly works. Count with energy for industry and keeping good mood (or the production goes down). This is really deep economy. If you had free hand you would spend month playing the game. But there are limitations and I’m going to begin with my most hated one.

No more free parcels?
Ok, it doesn’t matter, just buy new area for few coins. Simple? Yes but only in the beginning, as you progress further you just get shocked. For example the fourth parcel costs 7 500 coins which are quite hard to get. You have to invest them and gathering this amount really takes time. And the new parcels aren’t even big enough. Well… after the Forge of Empires shock I don’t want to complain too much here.

The next limitation is the work power. You gain it from special group of households (workers work and capitalist give mroe money) but later, the need for working people is grater then you can make.

And the third thing I hate is the mood of your inhabitants. To increase it you just build more trees, parks and green around. However, the space is so limited that you would prefer more investments into quality than quantity. I have never seen so overpriced trees and parks. Authors really attack here at your wallet. Yes, you can buy them for real money, that’s not so bad, the F2P game is based on microtransactions but I really hate when it takes too much freedom from you.

So what about content?
This part is quite good. Buidlings offer some variety and more get unlocked as you progress. The maximum number of each building is limited but can be increased… but with the space limits, you won’t get bothered too much. The main separation of buildings is residents, industry, green, roads and some bonus things. Not too many types and possibilities, just enough.

Other think I like is the trade. You can sell and buy materials from other players. Those who overprice their good won’t be able to sell so the market doesn’t have some crazy fluctuations. That’s the only way, when you have no workers to get material… of course only if your city generates money.

Rising Cities tries to combine social part of fun, so you can invite friends but if you aren’t interested in it you can ignore it completely, it’s unimportant.

What the game reminds?
After several hours of gaming I remembered one similar game. It’s SkyRama where you create an airport. The graphics is very similar and the core almost same. I won’t be surprised if the authors made Forge of Empires. All minuses are the same in all the game named games, especially the space limits.

Casual gamers will love it, hardcore ones just continue searching.