Watered-down SimCity – Pocket City Review

When I saw the lack of “in-app purchases” next to the purchase button, my eyes lit up like Hiroshima. I hate the “free”-ness of other games that share a genre with this game, and I think liking microtransactions is a symptom of clinical insanity. Therefore, it is with bitter disappointment that I have to say that Pocket City is incredibly mediocre. It has all the elements of a standard city tycoon with nothing to stand out. It doesn’t even have enough polish to look competent. Alright now that the second half of this review’s title is explained, time to tackle the first half. Well, for one thing, progression doesn’t feel rewarding. In other games of this sort, unlocking something new felt like adding a new machanic to deal with, in this game I treated like it was just another thing to occasionally place between my blocks. Aside from disasters, where you literally can do nothing about them, except buy back the stuff they destroy, which isn’t a problem at all if you have any money whatsoever. I guess I just want a more original idea. You’d need a football stadium’s worth of people to count the number of SimCity clones that exist with fingers and even then some toes would need to get involved, but there are plenty games with an incredibly creative idea and charming feel that use the “give them the game, sell them the gems” business model. This game feels cheap, and it uses a business model that I prefer. I guess it’s a step in the right direction for mobile tycoon games, but boy-oh-boy is it a crappy step.
Review by William Productions on Pocket City.