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  1. Games
  2. City Builder
  3. Sim City

SimCitys Cities of Tomorrow expansion is part Demolition Man, part Judge Dredd

Features
By Hollander Cooper published 28 October 2013

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

I am the law

I am the law

In 1993, Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider starred in Demolition Man--a futuristic film about a utopian future where everyone is happy and nothing bad ever happens because its a police state. Two years later, Sylvester Stallone and Rob Schneider starred in Judge Dredd--a futuristic film about a dystopian future where everyone is sad and nothing happy ever happens because its a police state. I was reminded of these two parallels as I played SimCitys Cities of Tomorrow expansion, which adds both sides of the potential future to the city-building game.

Lets start with the Demolition Man side. By building an Academy, youre able to research new, environmental-friendly technologies to make the world a better place. Theres a catch, though--the technologies are all powered by one hive mind, and while it cant go full-blown Skynet, it can still go down, leaving your city to crumble under the weight of its advanced computers.

This brings me to the Judge Dredd side, in which crime and pollution are out of control thanks to Omega, a resource which can be used to make everything better. Omega will allow you to become blindingly rich, but it causes your people to grow fat and lazy--eventually sending drones to do their work for them and never leaving their homes. Both the sad/happy future will benefit from other changes to the game, like giant mega-towers and Mag Levs (monorails), and youll be able to play side-by-side with players who havent purchased the expansion. In other words, yes, its still an always-online affair, but we have to imagine the servers will be ready by the November 12 launch.

Check out the following slides for additional images and more information.

Page 1 of 5
Page 1 of 5
The Omega factories will send out drones to do their bidding.

The Omega factories will send out drones to do their bidding.

Page 2 of 5
Page 2 of 5
Technologies researched at the Academy are shared with the district--expansion or not.

Technologies researched at the Academy are shared with the district--expansion or not.

Page 3 of 5
Page 3 of 5
Huge towers can be built to add more population to your city.

Huge towers can be built to add more population to your city.

Page 4 of 5
Page 4 of 5
The two sides of the expansion can be mixed together to create incredible cities.

The two sides of the expansion can be mixed together to create incredible cities.

Page 5 of 5
Page 5 of 5
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Hollander Cooper
Hollander Cooper
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Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade. 

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