No one wanted to give Metropolismania a chance, and it was not long till
the Playstation 2 title hit the junk bin and was selling for a mere
$5.00. That is exactly where I picked up my copy of Metropolismania at
my local gamestop.
What caught my attention was of course the
artwork on the cover. Although I didn't quite understand what the game
was about seeing how the description on the back of the case actually
made things sound confusing; I bought the game anyway. It looked cool,
so why not, it's $5.00 for cryin out loud.
I plopped the disc
into my Playstation 2, and began my journey into running a town. My
character was a young man who was in charge of getting things up and
running in a town that I had to create.
On the first board I was
thrown into a blank land mass. From there I had to draw streets with my
piece of chalk. I enjoyed making roads this way, and it reminded me of
Harold and The Purple Crayon.
After building streets I was then
given a few cards with names of people who wanted to move into my town. I
was swamped at first with regular citizens, and before I knew it I had
farmers, bakeries, and seafood markets wanting to move in.
As
fun as it all was, things got ugly pretty fast. You see this one girl
Joan wanted a factory to be built, however when I placed the factory
this senior citizen moved out of my town because the factory was too
noisy for him.
From that point I figured out what
Metropolismania was about. It was a game about strategic planning, and
keeping people happy, otherwise they move out. The objective of the game
is to build a town with such amount of people. If they keep moving out,
I will never reach my goal.
I learned quickly that families
with children want a school and playground close by. Older people want
book stores and no noise, younger teens ask me for amusement parks and
music stores.
If I do not place these buildings correctly, I could upset someone, and as a result, they leave.
After figuring out how to make my people happy, I then advanced to a
larger empty board. Basically I was starting all over, only the goals
were a lot harder to achieve.
While building my new town, a side
game popped up where I had to locate a thief in town who had been
stealing from other towns people.
What I liked about the game
was how it drew me in. I was sucked in, and seriously I sat in front of
the tube for hours upon hours making, building and keeping my towns
people happy.
Relationships:
Your towns people will form relationships
with you. You begin as strangers, then the character becomes a 'known
face', then an acquaintance, and then a friend. Last but not least, they
become your best friend.
It is a good idea to try and make as
many best friends in the town you are in. When you move on to another
town, you can call the people from the last town you completed and you
can ask them to move into your town you are playing now.
Why this is a good idea?
Because sometimes you need certain businesses or people to move into
your new town, yet you cannot locate them no matter how many people you
ask 'do you know anyone who works at a gas station?'. If everyone in the
new town says no, you then have to call an old gas station worker from
an old town and ask them to move in.
Always establish a 'best friend'
status with gas station attendants, sea food market workers, doctor's
and nurses, factory workers, and pesticide workers. These people are
hard to come when you get deeper and deeper into the game.
What I love about Metropolismania:
I love the fact that I am in charge of building and destroying at
will. I create the entire town from scratch, and I place things where I
want them. It's really like playing God in a sense; seeing that I have
the power to say who stays, and who goes.
I love that with each
new town I create new people are introduced into the mix. As you get
closer to completing the game, you will even have space aliens asking
you to move in to the town.
I like the puzzle solving aspect of the game.
Issues:
With the good comes the bad, and Metropolismania does in fact have some not so great things about it.
The repeated dialog given by the towns people is sometimes annoying.
It seems that old people have the same 5 sentences as every other old
person in town; as do teens, children, and adults. The repeat in dialog
does not make the characters very personable, as they all seem to be the
same.
The characters also lack individuality. You will find
that many of your towns people look just like another person in town.
You will see that there are only 4 different types of old people, the
grumpy bald man, the bearded friendly man, the grumpy old lady, and the
sweet nice old lady. There is no variety. This goes for all characters.
The game after a few hours of playing gets tedious because it feels
like a repeat. The objectives are all very similar. In board 3 you have
to get 200 people to move in, and in board 7, 1,000 people. You see, the
goals are all the same, only harder. It gets sort of old by the time
your at the last board.
Graphics:
Metropolismania
comes packed with some pretty old school graphics. I don't mind though.
In my opinion it makes the game seem charming. Playstation 2 does not
come with the best graphics a console could offer, but compared to other
games graphics for the PS2, Metropolismania sort of duded out when it
comes to excellent quality graphics.
The town and the characters are all pretty cartoony, but they are all done up in 3D so it's not terrible.
Controls:
The controls are easy to use. The analog moves the character around,
and the other analog allows you to switch views of the town. They're
very basic, and you will know how to use the controls within just a few
seconds.
Sound:
I cannot stand the background
music that plays in Metropolismania. The reason is because they repeat,
nothing changes, and you will find the tune stuck in your head playing
over and over again even after you are done playing. Some people like
games with catchy tunes, but me, I cannot stand it...it digs into a
level of insanity for me.
Overall:
Metropolismania is one of them junk bin games that was never given the
kudos it righteously deserves. I picked up the title for $5.00, but for
me the re-play value was high, and I enjoyed the game; it totally should
of been a $20.00 title.
I recommend Metropolismania to anyone who enjoys puzzles, strategy, and Simulation games. It includes it all.
Tips:
-Never place a factory near townspeople's homes.
-Always make best friends with gas station attendants
-Do not waste money on buying towns people gifts t establish a higher
relationship rating. It is expensive, and the ranking goes up as fast as
it would if you were to say hello.
-Don't waste money on petty
town decorations like benches and lamp posts. The townspeople do not
appreciate them, nor do they use them. When you move on to the next town
you basically lose the decoration and the money, so it's pointless.
-Always place schools about a block or 2 away from homes with
children. You want to make sure the school can be used by a few blocks.
Placing a school at the edge of the town will only allow up to 4 blocks
of people to use it. You want to place a school and high school on every
5 blocks or so.
-Gas stations should e placed near factories
-Never ever remove a gas station from town. They are hard to come by.
-Make as many best friends as possible on each town map
-Feed your character till his food bar is all the way up. He will run faster and jump higher when he is not hungry
No comments:
Post a Comment
Leave a Comment