Cityconomy: Service for Your City (PC) Review

Probably the best thing about Cityconomy, besides some of the ideas presented, is its actual world. Graphics aren't mind-blowing, but the game looks and runs nicely. Animations are a little stocky, but mostly there, and the trucks look and function like real ones. The game engine feels like something out of the sixth generation of consoles; back then this would've been cutting-edge technology, but now it just feels janky and dated. Controller support is lacking, but a lot of detail went into operating these vehicles, so much so that turning on blinkers and getting tickets for hitting other drivers come into play (the latter being something that doesn't happen often in video games, and is a nice touch.)

Those who like to wreak havoc in their open-world games won't find much to do here; players are penalised for hitting cars or pedestrians, and physics don't really exist; hitting trees or poles will just bring the truck to a stop (in one instance it glitched afterward and couldn't be moved at all, forcing a reset of the game). Traffic laws are in place, and it turns out waiting in traffic is even less fun in a video game than in real life. There's not much freedom in general; the game essentially forces players to play a single way: Drive to the next objective marker, get a quest from a random citizen (just like real life?), open the truck's arms, guide trash bins into it, press a button on the side of a truck to dump the garbage, put the bin back, and repeat. This gameplay gets old fast, but players can manage other employees and have them perform certain jobs, all the while moving their business up in the world.