I honestly have not picked up my Playstation 2 ever since buying a PS3 and XBOX360 Elite. Besides these two amazing consoles, I have Poker V which is an amazing online website that I visit to play online poker with other professional poker players. I truly thought I never would pick up my PS2 again really, however this past weekend on Best Buys $9.99 gaming title shelf, I saw a title I never even knew existed. Metropolismania 2!!!! Metropolismania was a game that I had played years ago and loved it, easily became addicted to it, and now before me sat the sequel for only ten buckaroos!
I dished out the ten bucks and went home with high hopes. What did this sequel hold that the first one did not? Would there be new secrets? Better graphics? Neater looking towns and town people?
I seriously could not wait. For a look at my review on the first Metropolismania, click here.
So… lah dee dah… I get home, pop in the disc, and wait for the new Metropolismania simulation game to begin. I was greeted with the exact same music the first game had. This was disappointing, to say the least. I figured a part 2 of the original would at least feature something different.
Next, I’m taken to a menu where I can create my character’s appearance. My choices are limited, and my characters look way different than the original games. Here instead of looking like a computer-animated character, I now look like some sort of cartoonish Jap Anime character.
No problem, I’m cool with it. I figured if my character looks different then likely the game’s content will be different.
My God what an utter disappointment this was. Metropolismania 2 is EXACTLY like part one, right down from residents’ names, buildings, shops, and every other aspect you could possibly think of from the original game. The ONLY difference that I can make note of is the way roads are built. Now instead of your character running around with a giant chalk crayon drawing roads, you now build roads using a new birds-eye view. Personally I loved the chalk way of building roads, but the birds-eye view makes it easier for you when you are making turns.
The gameplay is also the same, right down to the core of it. You build your city, and you are in charge of fixing tenants’ complaints. The Dixxon family wants an elementary school to be built, the Cox wants a senior amusement, and the Friedman’s want a playground…
Like the first game, you basically walk around the town, talk to people, and network. When they are our friend they will introduce you to new people looking to move into town. Each resident in the town is helpful, because they may solve the key to finding someone who works in a police station, playground, or hospital.
You basically walk around placing houses, and businesses correctly to balance out complaints. This task gets repetitive and annoying after a while because you have to talk to one person about 3 or 4 times just to make them your friend, without them being your friend they are useless to you. So basically you have a lot of text to scan though, and a lot of complaints to work out.
Now don’t get me wrong, this was a hell of a lot of fun in the original game… but when a second game is made and is exactly like the first it sucks the big one.
By the time board, 3 comes around you will be bored with the game. Board 3 though introduces a few new shops that you haven’t seen in the original game. Big whoop. This would have been fun had everything not looked alike. Some new shops are lotto stands, dresser, barbershop, sumo school, computer school, and more modern shops like cell phone shops.
Although some of the shops are more up to the times of today’s society, the game still blows.
Nothing was made to add to the fun the original game had at the time. It was a complete disappointment to pop this one in and see that nothing had been changed, the gameplay, the residents, the buildings, the names, all the same.