I picked this game up randomly in a bargain bin in a local game shop. For only $5.00 I figured why not, Metropolismania looked cool, and I adore games in where I have complete control over the reigns.
The game allows you to control one weaselly looking dude in a tacky bright yellow suit. His mission is to basically build a town from the ground up. This means you create the roadways, plop down homes and businesses.
Your job?
Run the show!
Immediately I was hooked; more than I actually thought I would be. A game with such a simple concept, was so addicting!
The game started with me being sent off into an unpopulated mass of grassy land. Nothing on this parcel of land besides me, some trees, and grass.
But fear not, my land mass did not go unused. I began to draw in my roads using a little piece of chalk. The whole concept of building roads is pretty fun, because as you walk, your piece of chalk magically draws out roadways, complete with street signs, lights, poles, and everything else you would normally find on roadways.
After building one straight long line, I was given a set of cards. Each card had a different color to it. Green cards were residents looking to build homes in my town, orange cards were small businesses looking to open shop, and blue ones were offices and factories looking to set up in my town as well.
I happily went around the road I created, placing each home, business or office along the side of the road. In a few moments the town had give birth to a small population of workers, residents, and business owners.
Just as quickly as they moved in, I introduced myself to them. I built relationships with them, and some of them would even ask me for small favors, like fetching them groceries, or helping them find a certain building. The tasks were fun, and relatively easy. Suddenly though my towns folk began requesting more and more of me. These requests if not fulfilled quickly would be marked in my planner book as a complaint.
Establishing relationships is very important, you will want to make friends with everyone who moves in to your town, because later on when you level up into a brand new town, you will be able to call them on your cell phone and ask them to move to your new town. You will need them too, so definitely make buddy buddy with anyone and everyone that you can. It helps you in the long run to have a gigantic network of friends.
Anyhow, I realized immediately that if I did not respond to their complaints they would simply up and leave my town! One down!!! Oh no!!!
Complaints at first are simple to fulfill though. Residents would ask for me to build a school, a hospital, or a police station. In order to find such buildings I had to ask the people around my town if they knew anyone who worked in a police force, or if I knew anyone who knew someone who worked in an Elementary school, and so on.
Eventually they would introduce me to such people, and I would gain access to the buildings or places I needed to get my people to stop complaining.
One resident in a particular wanted me to build a factory. I plopped it nearby a residents home, and got taught a lesson in placement. You see the residents who were located next to the factory all complained about the loud noises coming from the factory. I ignored there complaints because I felt there was nothing I could do. As a result they all moved out.
From then on, I knew that Metropolismania was all about strategic placements of buildings, homes, and businesses. If you flop your town together in a sloppy manner more people may move out, instead of moving in.
In order to move on to the next level, you have to complete a task. Usually the task consists of having 100 people in your town. If you complete that challenge you get thrown into a brand new blank land mass. The mass is larger, which means the town will grow larger. Which means more complaints, and more tasks.
The game gets extremely difficult toward the last stages, where you will have to complete tasks such as making a town with 50% businesses, or a town with 500 residents. Although it gets difficult, it also brings new challenges that are relatively fun. If your town is impressive you may have aliens wanting to move into your town! Yep, if you build it, they will come!
