Rating: 2.5/5 stars (subject to change)
I didn't really know what to expect when I got this game, given it's by EA. EA are well known for sapping great games from the 1990s and turning them into "modern take" free-to-play games full of in-app-purchases and waiting times.
The game is quite fun to start with. At least you *usually* get to build your city the way you want it instead of the game telling you exactly what you have to do. The game has waiting, but it's not waiting for buildings to upgrade, it's waiting for resources to be produced to upgrade your buildings.
You need nails to upgrade this building. How do you get nails? You make them at the Building Supplies Store for metal and it takes 5 minutes. How do you get metal? You make it at the factory for 1 minute each. You need hammers to upgrade this building. How do you get hammers? Make them for metal and wood at the hardware store. That takes 14 minutes. How do you get wood? Make it at the factory for 3 minutes each.
This entire game is centred around waiting unless you pay real money. Wait, wait, wait. That's all there is to it.
It's tolerable at the start of the game because I can easily re-order the placement of my residential zones while I'm waiting for the metal to be produced. But it can start stretching on later in the game. 30 minutes to make planks. It's going to add up soon.
Of course, to skip all that waiting you can pay SimCash to skip it immediately or just buy the resources. How do you get SimCash? You can earn it through achievements, or you can buy it with real money.
The thing is that there is a finite amount of SimCash you can earn without paying. Once that's gone, that's it. You'll never get any more.
The main things I don't like about the game are:
1. The only way to get a reasonable amount of Simoleons (regular currency) is to upgrade residential zones
I personally quite like regular sized residential zones (probably not massive skyscrapers with thousands of people living in as that would be a bit too crowded) but what happens if someone doesn't want to? Then they can never build anything else because they don't have the Simoleons. So the game kind of dictates how your city should be and if you attempt to get creative you'll basically be punished (taking a quote from a TouchArcade article about Dungeon Keeper)
2. The game dictates what you should do when you level up
There are services like power, water, fire stations, etc. If you don't provide enough for your Sims, they'll get unhappy and move out. Levelling up is usually a punishment because your Sims will suddenly decide that their buildings are burning down and you'll have to wait and over-upgrade your residential zones to get enough Simoleons to even build a small fire station, and while you're doing that the building will be abandoned because it's burnt down.