SimCity™ 4 Deluxe Edition

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Very Positive · 81%Very Positive · 81%2010

$19.99

US Steam price, checked 1 h ago

The verdict

A deep, charming 2003 city-builder with a great soundtrack and a thriving mod scene, but it crashes and fights modern PCs. Skip it if you won't tinker or save often.

Great for

Patient city-builder fans and nostalgic players willing to install mods like NAM and save often

Main risk

Frequent crashes, no autosave and failing to launch on modern systems can cost hours of progress

What players love

Nostalgic, timeless charm

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“I played this game as a child, I'm playing it as an adult, and I will play it until I die.”
Steam review · 55.8 h played ↗

“Loved this game as a kid, Still love it as an adult.”
Steam review · 118.3 h played ↗

Great modding community (NAM and more)

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“the modding community for SC4 is better than Maxis ever was, they keep this game fresh even after 20+ years.”
Steam review · 42.5 h played ↗

“Especially if you install the Network Addon Mod, you don't need your Cities: Skylines at all.”
Steam review · translated · 85.8 h played ↗

Better than Cities: Skylines for many

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews

“Somehow, this ancient game is a better experience than Cities: Skylines.”
Steam review · 63.9 h played ↗

“This is the only city builder that really captures that feel of an American city.”
Steam review · 1.7 h played ↗

Deep, rewarding city simulation

Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews

“It offers deep, satisfying simulation where traffic, wealth levels, education, pollution, and regional connections all matter.”
Steam review · 30.7 h played ↗

“This is the most elaborate and versatile city-building simulator I've ever seen!”
Steam review · translated · 27.7 h played ↗

Wonderful soundtrack

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“Also, the music SLAPS. One of my favorite game OSTs of all time for sure.”
Steam review · 63.9 h played ↗

“A really cool, epic, atmospheric soundtrack - I often lingered in the menu just listening to it.”
Steam review · translated · 7.7 h played ↗

Regions and huge megacities

Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews

“build cities of 10-20 millions people with no population limit! And that's thanks to regions”
Steam review · 43.1 h played ↗

“Where else can you build a megalopolis if you want to? Only here!”
Steam review · translated · 642.4 h played ↗

What players complain about

Frequent crashes and lost progress

Mentioned in ~1 in 2 negative reviews

“it crashes every 30 mins because its too old and 32 bit.”
Steam review · 35.9 h played ↗

“Game consistently crashed after 50 years of progression. No warning, it just shuts off and you lose you game.”
Steam review · 30.4 h played ↗

“The game can easily crash without any warning, even while saving, corrupting files.”
Steam review · translated · 99.9 h played ↗

Won't launch or run on modern systems

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews

“Does not function at all on Windows 11. I spent half an hour trying to fix it with mods but it still will not launch.”
Steam review · 18.8 h played ↗

“you shouldn't have to jump through so many hoops to MAYBE get a game running.”
Steam review · 83.2 h played ↗

Overpriced and abandoned by EA

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“they are selling a 20 year old game for $20 which doesn't even work on modern PC's without 3rd party .dll patches”
Steam review · 47.9 h played ↗

“EA, that tiny indie studio, can't afford a patch to fix the problems on modern systems?”
Steam review · translated · 82.2 h played ↗

Resolution and widescreen unsupported

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“Can't get the resolution to 1920x1080. Tried everything.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

“The screen probably won't even have a resolution that will fit your monitor.”
Steam review · 359.6 h played ↗

Clunky UI, dated and unintuitive

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“The UI is extremely clumsy, the mechanics are a bit boring, and the progression is actually really weird.”
Steam review · 11.9 h played ↗

“It feels a bit clunky and unintuitive.”
Steam review · 4.2 h played ↗

No autosave

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews

“Game crashed and lost ten hours of progression. what kind of game doesn't autosave progress in 2026 ??”
Steam review · 4.5 h played ↗

“Constant crashing and the game has no auto-save feature”
Steam review · 31.6 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Playable

Minimum

OSWindows XP

ProcessorPIII 500 or equivalent

Memory256MB

Graphics32MB supported Direct3D capable video card with DirectX 7.0 or greater

Storage1.6GB

OSWindows XP

ProcessorPIII 500 or equivalent

Memory256MB

Graphics32MB supported Direct3D capable video card with DirectX 7.0 or greater

Storage1.6GB

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