What went wrong with Crime City?

When I first started playing Crime City back in June of 2012, I thought it was an impressive combination of SimCity and Grand Theft Auto. It was a unique blend of city building with the added element of other characters sneaking in to rob you blind. There was a balance of attack and defense.

It also had a story line pushing your forward to do jobs, rob rivals, win battles and upgrade buildings. But all that has changed.

Over the past year, Funzio now Gree have turned Crime City in a game that constantly has it’s hand out for money. There’s no longer a reason to actually play. It’s all about the next Limited Time Building, Limited Time Event or Syndicate Event. There’s no time to complete jobs anymore, that would be a waste of energy. There’s no time to upgrade the buildings in your hood,  that would take away from the LTB upgrades. The multi-million dollar weapons in the store are useless compared to prizes won from an event. And there simply isn’t a way to survive as a single player. Either join a Syndicate or be annihilated.

I pity the newcomer to this game. Playing the game as it was originally designed is a terrible experience – you’ll quickly be run over by someone at your same level who has several million attack points.

When you do join a Syndicate, you best be prepared to make Crime City your job. Groups have become militant about scoring high and getting prizes. If you’re not willing to pay, you’ll be relegated to the minor leagues. It’s simply lost all it’s fun.

I had the good fortune to join a powerful, but relaxed Syndicate. We have won lots of prizes and completed most of the quests. My stats have jumped by several million, but there is always another group with their wallet open pushing their stats even higher. Spending $100 a month just to "keep up" isn’t something I’m willing to do.

Crime City has become a bit of a grind. I’ve hit that point where I collect my money, start a building upgrade, complete one part of an LTQ and repeat. It’s gotten pretty monotonous. Like I said, there’s no time to actually play and progress. It’s rinse and repeat month after month.

It has it’s moments of excitement, but overall my interest piqued a long time ago. I’m on the downward spiral. I’m struggling to find a reason to keep playing. I’ve collected and banked over $3.5 billion, I can buy and upgrade any building Gree decides to throw out and I have millions of respect point that can’t be used for anything worthwhile. And next month it will be the same thing, LTB, LTQ, SLTQ, Syndicate Battle. Blah, blah, blah.

So where to go from here? I’m not sure. I’ve put massive amounts of time into this game, but I’m losing interest.

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34 thoughts on “What went wrong with Crime City?

    • Author gravatar

      I do not have your breadth of experience with the game, although I find I cannot disagree with any of the points you have made, I realised early on that the game was being used as a cash cow and though I am a free player I can see the temptation to indulge in buying gold. and like you the game does not excite me anymore, stats inflation so on and so forth, in a short while I will be kissing the game goodbye,I play theses type of games for fun not to satisfy an ego that can be massaged with real money

      I still enjoy your site though, best regards.

    • Author gravatar

      So keep throwing money or quit- lol. At least we have a choice.

    • Author gravatar

      You know, I’m all for throwing in a couple of dollars here and there, after all the devs have to eat. Hell, I would have preferred to pay for the game in the first place, but things have gotten out of hand. It’s not just spending cash to finish a building or buy a single unique item, it’s gotten to the point where you have to throw cash at a problem that can never be solved. That’s no good. This went from a “casual game” to a game that requires constant attention. With the last Syndicate Battle over, I’m not really sure what I want to do. Maybe I will spend my time funding Syndicates. Pretty soon my 5 million attack won’t be worth a damn and I’ll get crushed by the competition.

    • Author gravatar

      I totally agree with Don. If u cannot play full time u will not make any progress. I pretty much play 18 hrs a day and sometimes and sometimes play 42hts straight during takeovers, or final battles. And we still struggle, top 600 team with 30 members and the last 2 takeovers we faced top 400 teams with 55-60 members 70% of the time. Needless to saywe only completex the 1st winning streak goal (2 battles in a row) total b.s. no matter how hard we tried we didn’t get 3 ina row and a few members spent some gold to help out. One event on top of another day after day. RIDICULOUS! a week or 2 ago there were 4 events at the same time that all required energy and none of them were aachievable. LTQ, SLTQ, and at least 1 other event that was 5 parts of 1-5 with the 5th goal being unreachable. I couldn’t complete part II.520 energy x 20 and I know each goal gets a lot harder.and uonly hav 2 days to do it while u are giving up on your other prizes that u were working toward the last 3 days. Deffinately notva fun game anymore. GREE never fixes the glitches or problems I tell them about, they just send me a message that says the problem is resolved and the issue report is closed. Meanwhile I still have the same problems I’ve notified them about back in Feb 2013! And now ever since they put new characters in for the LTQ’s (since Oct. I think) I have to re-do the jobs 55% of the time because they don’t revister when I complete them and get the prize screen and the next goal does not show up. These guys are really choking!

    • Author gravatar

      I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been playing about a half a year now, and it’s gone from obsession to drudge. The new rivals algorythm has made it next to impossible to find a decent victim to rob. Most of the rivals it pulls up have iph less than half mine, so there’s no way I’m going to jump them. It’s a losing proposition. And I refuse to dump real money for fake stuff. Just doesn’t make sense. Asked a guy my level (119) with stats in the 15 million range how he did it. He said he dumps about $50-100 per month. That’s a chunk of change my friends. Think about it. For what he’s spent, you could buy a new XBox One or PS4 plus a good selection of games. Just on what he has thrown at the game so he can be undefeated. What’s the fun in that?
      Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox now and go spend another hour or so to find someone worth robbing. Apologies beforehand if it’s you.

    • Author gravatar

      just read that the rival list will stay. Argumentation: on facebook there were a lot of complains but it stopped after several months. ‘we think that is also happening now’. So what they actually say is: quit or dont whine about it. Im taking the easy way: i quit.
      Im getting robbed 60x an hour on all my buildings. Even the electronic store, house aso. I thought the best way to get strong is to aviod xp if possible(?). I thought i was strong with lvl100 and 8,5mln attack, but i found out im a mini in this game. All in my list are between 10-25mln. Cant rob back and even dont want to. Their IPH’s are mostly below 100k….. Why getting better? to get stronger rivals?

    • Author gravatar

      I agree with most of the comments here. How many people got into CC thinking they were going to spend upwards of hundreds of dollars a month and some even more? Some folks in the syndicates I have seen are doing that or are hacking or are CC employees methinks spending crazy amounts of gold/money. Before you’d buy a game and play it as much as you want…now with CC you keep paying and paying and paying. I think my days are numbered with CC and I think my wife and family will be all the better off. Most events are impossible to complete without spending. The skill part of playing is utterly lacking and if you’re not part of a syndicate then you’re utterly at a disadvantage and there literally is a battle every month if not more frequently. It really is getting mundane but if Greedy sees the cash keep coming in then they’re going to keep doing what they’re doing.

      I’ve found myself spending more than I thought I ever would on this game, sometimes $50 a month and I really do think that’s way too much. Could go on and on but it’s me spending yet too much time on this ‘game’.

    • Author gravatar

      Ive spent over $400 since I joined a couple months ago… but now I’ve read this (which I completely agree with what everyone has said) I’m gunna be taking it easy now. even spending that much the jobs are nearly impossible – not just because you get to the point where you realise you have to pay for real-life things like… food etc. but also I think it is PHYSICALLY impossible with the time given. unless you start the jobs instantly, and don’t stop tapping the screen of your phone for 48hrs!!!!!!

      While im here… my syndicate are pretty lazy – one got “dealt with” but the others aren’t great…can I post my syndicate code here?

    • Author gravatar

      So the game never gets fun? Kind of figured. Thanks for the post.

    • Author gravatar

      Level 154, Att 9.7M, Def 8.1M daily player, looking for an active synd.

    • Author gravatar

      174 066 580 very active buddy ! But u have to hold up your end of the deal, thanks! UNDEFEATED SYNDICATE.

    • Author gravatar

      I agree w/ANDERSON and Vamper! GREE has me on this stupid game for 16-18hrs a day fxxx them! Done buying gold, not a single goal can be compleyed by playing 18hrs a day non-stop. #BLOMEGREE

    • Author gravatar

      I’ve been playing since early 2013 but then stopped at the beginning of this year. In the past cople days I’ve picked it up again with a new account and if anything it seems a lot easier to up your stats and get money.

      The best thing about CC to me is building your up hood and watching the transformation from rags to riches, also having a syndicate that knows what they are doing. Helps a lot

      I buy gold every now and again

      I agree about not having time to finish events and how they sometimes overlap. Gree needs to sort it out

    • Author gravatar

      Stop moaning and buy a few vaults of gold, that’s what the games about, only the richest survive, the gimps die.
      Art of war code motto… win at any cost or be a loser

    • Author gravatar

      Not only Crime City but also Modern War, too. The games were fun at first but now it seems to be the same thing over and over again. Not only that but who really has time to attack a PvE 100 times for some lousy prize. I actually spent a little bit of money in CC and I glad I didn’t spend more.

    • Author gravatar

      See, I’m not on board for buying a vault of gold for this game. That’s $99 for a mobile game and that doesn’t seem right. If other people want to spend that kind of cash, I can respect that, but I’m not going to spend $100 a month just to play a game on the iPad. (Or Android if that’s your leaning). I can understand spending a bit of cash from time to time to get a boost, and I certainly would have spent money to buy the game in the first place, but I don’t like games that continually have their hand out.

      I’d rather spend $100 on a bottle of Scotch or buy half a dozen games from Steam. I know people who spend hundreds a month on this game and they love it. Good for them. I simply can’t justify that for any game. That’s also why I won’t play WoW. I don’t see any reason to pay massive amounts to buy a game and then pay you a subscription to use the software I bought. Companies like Microsoft play that game, but that doesn’t mean I’m playing along.

      CC was a fun game in the start, but it really has gotten to be a grind. It’s the same thing over and over again, month after month. I have built up a hefty fortune with $8B in cash on hand and all the LTBs – except that Dockside Mill thing. I think we’re all just playing events, no one is actually playing the game. There used to be a point to actually do the jobs and progress in the game.

    • Author gravatar

      I just quit CC after three years of playing, it became a pissing contest with real money. Got my stats to 50 mil then it became like a second job to login every hour, plus it was a vampire on my phone battery.

    • Author gravatar

      Your level is extremely high to your stats but I am building a baby syndicate of minis that have learned all the tricks and trades. Wont you join mewe could use a defense leader and anyone with mini’s that have learned or want to learn the tricks of getting higher stats without gold. 010 no 1 before or after 408-377-828 or join my mini mafia mikah 774-529-724 thanks

    • Author gravatar

      Holy spaghetti. This is exactly what ive been thinking since i started playing again last april. I played back in 2012 and loved it but solded my phone and didnt care to continue for some reason but started a new game last spring and started to notice the changes, at the beginning whitout giving it a lot of thought except for one thing, hell way faster to get higher stats, first day maybee 3000-3000, then up to tenthousands, then hundreds and then millions and all that in a few weeks. I also noticed that I couldnt do jobs because theres always new ltqs sltqs events and so on, the first followed by the next right away.

      Well, I dont mind but the regular jobs seems quiet unecessary. I havent spent a dime and i wouldnt do that for any other game either, and bout gold, I get 20-40 gold everyday free by watching videos and downloading apps in tapjoy. Though I hate all limited effing buildings and dont bother to buy em, andmore. Up to killer condos theese special buildings cost up to 10mil and thats fine but now you need 100mil just to effing buy the effing buildings and then effing hundredsofmillionsmore to effing uppgradera level 2.

      Still play and like it a lot though but will always be a mini planer and never pay a dime. Btw, I red the art of wars code motto here, if that is there motto then they are true loosers and should invest their money in a life.

      Also, mr nuttz i think ive been in your syndicate lol

    • Author gravatar

      Stop your winging. This game keeps going because of the participants that pay for the extras. Your missing the point. Get into a decent syndicate. Grow for free and make some friends along the way!

    • Author gravatar

      If you join my relaxed syndicate, Laid Back Experience, you may get some of your joy for the game back. 58 members, room for a couple. Syndicate code is 671816982

    • Author gravatar

      I know you all are into playing this crime city game so maybe this would be a good place for me to look for some answers.. My husband has been a very obsessive player of this game for about 3 years he plays on his cell phone his iPod and his iPad AT THE SAME TIME… He has all his devices locked and when he’s on the game he tries to tilt the devices so I can’t see what he’s doing. He also has his own bank account that he is very secretive about and an email address that I have no access to. I’m not stupid I know what he’s doing. I also know this much about this game that none of you have mentioned… There are MANY chat rooms that share nude pictures and one speaks very sexually to another. Many people playing this game develope relationships that are more cause for the gamer to keep coming back for more. My husband has been caught a number of times commenting on nude pictures and talking too closely with other women. I found all this out about two years ago and about 6 months ago it became too much for me so I left him. I moved back home a month ago and was happier then ever- he didn’t touch the game for the first two weeks but has been back in action for the last 3 weeks. He knows my concern but doesn’t seem to care. He talks to (who knows who) all day long and continues to hide it from me. His bestfriend is a addict to this game as well and has actually met up with a chick from ONE OF HIS MANY cc flings. He had relations and cheated on his wife of 15 years. This game is a problem for many… Please don’t get me wrong MOST of you are probably innocent but the stories I have read all over the Internet prove that not only my marriage has been victimized by this game. Is there anybody that plays this game willing to have a discussion about this that knows what I’m talking about? The hiding of all things he’s doing while playing this game has given him every reason to lie and hide EVERYTHING from me.

    • Author gravatar

      I used to play the game constantly. The game has become too demanding, if u miss an event or 2 then u will start to fall behind if u miss a handful of events then u can forget about competing. Gree messed up a perfectly fine game with their greed, they want as many people on the game as possible at ALL TIMES. They do it so that players will buy in game gold to spend and fatten their pockets. I was an addict for about 1-1/2 or 2 years and yes it took up too much of my time but I have nothing to hide, have bought the gold in the past butwill not anymore (no need for a seperate bank acct). I am a member of several chat rooms on Groupme and have met lots of fun ppl but in the rooms we use their are not nude pictures going back and forth. Although I am aware that not every group of people are the same.

    • Author gravatar

      Its all good Doesn’t Matter. The game is set up to keep people addicted, but I broke the cycle! I win, don’t need this stupid game to decide what I am going to do with my day. I used to be drawn in but now u have to be 24/7 and I ain’t got time for that junk anymore….

    • Author gravatar

      The Art of war will spend any amount of money to be number 1, you cant blame gree for taking there money and finding more ways for them to spend it.
      These numbskulls would pay ten thousand dollars for a mod if it were offered for sale.
      Rolling on the floorin In my own piss and shit laughing my Ass off

    • Author gravatar

      Hello! I also have been playing this crime city game for about 2 years and I once played in those glory days were having stats at 1 million was almost unheard of. But now, with the new kingpin stats and everything else they have thrown at this game, it seems impossible to beat anyone! Playing for a long time has giving my stats a real good boost, sitting on 36 mil of each def and att, though I lose to relatively new players with stats of 10mil because their kingpin is slightly higher. Basically I’m fed up with all the new garbage they have thrown out and my way dealing with this frustration is by playin a game that has everything right, amazing real time battle system, syndicate/clan, buildings and upgrades! Sound good eh, well play Clash of Clans and have fun again!

    • Author gravatar

      Spot on. Same name and totally agree with you. A good syndicate makes all the difference. Play hard and have a laugh at the same time.

    • Author gravatar

      To be honest, I don’t understand a damn thing about this accomplice addition. It makes no sense how players are getting defeated these days. I only think Gree just uses a (flawed) random number generator that spins unseen dice before each battle to determine a winner and your stats don’t actually mean a thing. 🙂

    • Author gravatar

      I quit a year ago….I cant imagine the absolute horror of finding the average atk/df rating is 10x what it was the last time! Successful games don’t do this! They will get their money for a few years, then the game will decline as its bad rep finally comes back to them.

    • Author gravatar

      Well, their latest scheme with the Accomplices has been so poor they scraped it. At least in it’s current form. Hopefully, they just get rid of it. It was a dumbass idea that made no sense. They’re still making tons of money as people get outrageous weapons and now bringing back the old LTBs.

      I’ve given up on the Case Events and all the variations. I’m just stockpiling cash and upgrading buildings like a fiend. I prefer to put big blocks of cash into my syndicate. It’s a lot more fun to be a small group and do battles when everyone is ready versus setting timers and mandatory donations and all that other crap.

      This is a game, not a damn job.

    • Author gravatar

      Art of War…–isn’t that the syndicate that could never beat fight club..? You will always be number 2 Art of War, just get used to it.

    • Author gravatar

      I agree a trillion percent, I’m sick of money grubbing gree. looking for a better game to play. I too have invested a lot of time in this game and don’t like the direction it has gone. Have had a total of 12 accounts between my husband and myself. Just don’t enjoy playing it like we use to, we do have a real life and this is just toooooooo time consuming!

    • Author gravatar

      I think its because gree found out there was a bunch of cheaters so theyre trying to even the score maybe but thats just a guess

    • Author gravatar

      One thing I have noticed is the awkwardness of items and the attack points and how you can earn them. I was pretty pathetic with attack points and then I played that limited time boss and got weapons that had attack points in the millions or low hundreds of millions. While on the other hand the weapons in the store are or don’t even come close to that attack and require level advancements to unlock. The new collect and open these “useless” cases only gives you so many per attempt and the items maybe go from 25 mil to 50 mil and I guess without forking over a gold bar from your stash you have about a 1-5 chance at scoring like the specialty point and a certain amount of those you earn can reward you a weapon but I have only earned one weapon but it hardly improved my overall attack. One thing that’s sort of nice is keeping up with the goals, which can award mob members. The syndicate building asks too much for too little in return. I think there are a few extra little additions that they have thrown in idk maybe to “keep things interesting” while you try it out for the first few times, after that it gets boring and useless. The building cost and income ROI is way out of whack and you can earn more just by attacking people and building stuff with what you esrn. The ratios and other things are not quite set at a good equilibrium. Respect points should maybe be an overall earning and depending on who you fight near your level and mob member number, whoever had more respect points gets an advantage over the other person, or make better weapons available for respect points.

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