[In-Depth Review] City Struggle

[Alex Riley]

Hey all... Once again coming at you with another wonderful game that i have to disect and analyse. Enjoy.

 

Game Name: City Struggle

Game URL: http://www.citystruggle.com

Game Owner(s): Bianchi & Will

 

These reviews as always are going to be split up into 5 different sections, these are as follows;

 

- Login/Register (Easy sign-up, Layouts, What could be improved, What i personally like)

- Logging In (Logging in for the first time, Information provided on game)

- Exploring the game (Are things easily found, Are things made clearer, Layout of the game)

- Staff (Are the staff friendly, How do they help, Different staff roles)

- Misc Information (Game statistics and a general overview of the games userbase, Key feautres)

 

So lets get it started...

 

Login/Register:

The login page appears to be bland and plain, but i think with the whole concept of City Struggle, it isn't about fancy designs and amazing banners, it's more of whats actually inside the game that what it shows. Ever heard the experssion "Putting make-up on a pig wont make it look good" well it's never been more true with most games, however Bianchi & Will have picked up on this and deicded to put more inside than show more on the outside, so before people visit and think it's going to be boring and plain, think again.

 

Login:

The login page as i have said appears plain, and thats because it is, if you have an over the top login and basics everywhere else how stupid is your game going to look? So i think the idea to have a plain login is fairly acceptable in this sence, when you look at the login of city struggle you are kind of reminded of Torn City, do not be fooled this is nothing like Torn City. A good thing about this login is it has a link to the Mobile site which is obviously the Cell phone version on City Struggle which i think is very unique.

 

Reigster:

The register page is exactly like the home page, only it's more informative, underneath each section is a breif on what you should be entering into each field. for example it tells you how many characters to have in your password and also the strength of the password, this is a good security aspect as i know when i signed up with my password and it shown me the strength it made me feel more secure, again it has a captcha but it's not an eye sore like most others.

 

So in terms of this being plain and actually working i'm going to give the Login & Register page(s) a 7.5/10

 

Logging in:

When logging on you will see the menu on the left side of the screen, it looks almost like a MCv1 menu and thats probably because it is, nothing special again they have just stuck to the minimalistic look, but as i have said before it works. When you signup and login to the game you recieve two messages, one which states what you have to do in the game and what missions you may encounter during the game, and one message from a staff member which welcomes you to the game and tells you how to get started and where is best to visit first. When you login you are shown your index page which shows your house, items equipeed and player information, much like most loggedin pages, but again this is a minimalistic page so there isn't that much information provided.

 

So i'm going to give the Logging in section of City Struggle a 6/10 as it does have information but it could do with a little more.

 

Exploring The Game:

Exploring has never been easier than with CS, The explore button is basically your guide to everything on the whole game, the layout of the game looks a little like this

 

User Information Banner Stat Bars

 

Main Menu

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As you can see this is very very minimalistic, i know i keep saying it but this may give you and idea to how much there actually is on this game, thats why i love this game, because there is no fancy flash work that is going to distract you and the game is just straight to the point in you face. Now with this game there is no Experience bar, which adds a whole new concept to the game, people like to know how far they are from levelling however with this game it isn't the case there is an added element of suprise as to when your going to level and how far you are off leveling.

 

So exploring the game, i'm going to give a 10/10 everything is really easily found because of it's basic layout.

 

Staff:

The staff on CS i have a great relationship with and it's the same for most of the users on this game, They are always looking for ways to improve the game and they are always asking for the users input, and again what i like with this is the creators of the game are mostly NPC's whereas the rest of the staff are actually Characters and competitive characters at that, but i have had problems on the game before and unlike other games the staff aren't stuck up and they actually reply to their mail.

The staff roles look like this:

 

- Mayor

- General Manager

- Moderator

 

 

These are fairly simple to work out what each role does.

 

 

Anyway, for staff comunication and helpfulness i'm going to give City Struggle a 10/10.

 

 

And finally we come to the best section of all.

 

 

Misc Information:

This is the misc information section where i basically ramble about the userbase of the game and the key features in the game, so when this review was done the game had 33,000+ signups, the game was recently reset so i can't say how many days it has been open for, but the user base could be alot more active with i'd saymaybe 400/500 actually sticking around to play this game... I think these numbers are appauling and i would recommend people start playing this game more often.

 

Some Key Features include:

 

- Task Bar (Bottom Of The Screen) ... (Why? ... Quick and easy way to navigate)

- Unique Crimes ... (Why? ... Instead of boring crimes you steal things that are relevant in the explore page, e.g. Guns & Armour)

- Wanted Level ,,, (Why? ... Shows the user how much of a risk there is of getting caught and put into Jail)

- Forums ... (Why? ... Bringing the gaming community closer together)

 

 

In all i would give the plain and simple City Struggle a 7.5/10 ... For actually working as one of the best minimalistic games on the internet i have ever seen, i enjoy playing this game, and relished at the opportunity to write this review, hope you enjoyed.

 

Thanks for reading, As always... The Apprentice - Alex Riley.

[Dayo]

Looking good, may check it out when I get on my computer. Good review would like a review on my game http://www.themercenary.net once it's finished

[Vorless DarkChaos]

This game is nothing now, owner should have never started it. He does not know how to balance working on his game and real life. That is important if you are planning to start a game. For anyone who put money into game it was a waste for them. I am happy I did not waste any on it.