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.
