Just don't ask why it is a police station spends authority-like many of the categorizations, the connection between a building and its social energies is mighty unclear. Doing that makes everything from Sim happiness to your coffers fall nicely into place. To succeed in SimCity Societies, all you have to do is treat your social energies as currency and keep them relatively evened out. Your Sims need to have places to work, hang out, and live, but you'll rarely need to worry about it. The categorizations are actually rather helpful because you can create themed neighborhoods without having to scroll through full lists of buildings. As your city grows, you unlock newer buildings and décor, each of which is separated into various themes, such as 'romantic' or 'cyberpunk.' You don't have to theme your city, so feel free to mix and match. There are six of these energies, from creativity to spirituality, and each building uses or provides them in different amounts. The idea sounds good in theory: Each building you place has a positive or negative effect on a particular social energy.

If you wanted an intricate system of checks and balances to hold it together, or economic depth, or something that would give you any sense of challenge, you won't find it here. There are a lot of buildings and a lot of decorations, so if you just want to plunk down buildings and make a pretty city, go for it. It's a highly casual take on the city-building genre, which isn't bad in and of itself, but it comes across like a politician's campaign speech: rambling on and on, but with no real depth or point. There's something not quite right with SimCity Societies.

Simcity 6