City Island 4 Review

Welcome back to Freemium Queen, where a new app is reviewed every #freemiumfriday. This week, we look at Sparkling Society’s City Island 4.

City Island 4 gives players seven islands (more may come in future updates) on which to place housing, commercial, and community properties. The goal is to have your residents (housing) and jobs (commercial) keep pace with one another, while not allowing your overall happiness (increased by building community properties) to fall too far below 100%.

Players start out with a small square of land on Pleasant Plains. More land can be purchased with gold or cash. Cash and XP are earned by tapping commercial buildings when they’re ready to harvest. Gold is earned by achieving goals, such as enhancing a certain number of buildings to level 10. Gold is also earned by watching ads, and twenty or more per day are available. Gold, XP, and cash are also occasionally earned by tapping on transportation (there will be a speech bubble). 

Besides erecting and enhancing new buildings, players can improve their construction firms so that more workers are available. And since players will quickly outgrow the small square the game gives them, they can expand by paying cash or gold. Players who wish to expand to other islands will need to buy the land connected to the port, then wait as the port is built. Once on new islands, more land and access to ports must be bought.

There are over 250 buildings, although some of them remain locked until future updates. After placing the same buildings on your islands a few times, the price will either increase or require gold instead of cash. Each time players build, there will be two prices displayed: the price to build over a period of time, and the price to build instantly. Players who do not wish to wait for construction to finish (construction takes as little as one minute to as long as forty hours) can pay gold to speed it up. Players can also pay cash to start the build, paying gold to speed it up later.

Players will notice that the ground beneath buildings in the store is different. That’s because all buildings must be placed on their own surface, like the Dive Shop goes on water, etc. Players looking for space to place items can toggle to grid view. Unfortunately, there is no option to move the screen around, so placing tall buildings in front of short ones may require to player to toggle to grid view in order to upgrade.

Buildings can be moved, and roads are free to build or bulldoze. Players also have the option of placing trees or beach umbrellas, at a cost of roughly 3000 cash. These will give a small population boost to the surrounding buildings. Parks also give a boost to surrounding buildings.

Buildings occasionally need to be repaired. These repairs will use construction workers and cash. 

The biggest downside to this game might be considered an upside by some—its repetitive nature means that it is pretty boring after a while. A lot of reviews in Google Play mentioned force closing and losing progress after ads, but this reviewer has not experienced either of those things. The game even remembered progress made while away from a Wi Fi connection.

This app is great for players who don’t remember to log in every day, as there are no daily bonuses and no competitive aspect for players to fall behind on. The only problem faced by the infrequent player is that cash and XP earned on commercial buildings do not accumulate and progress will be slowed.

Category: Simulation

Developer: Sparkling Society

Last updated: 29 May 2016

Is it worth playing? If you're not bothered by the repetitive nature and plodding pace of the game, yes.

What is the time commitment for this game? With no daily sign-in or tasks, it takes only a small amount of time. Budget 2-3 minutes each time you want to collect from your islands, with more time needed to build. 

How long does it take for commercial buildings to be ready to harvest? This ranges from once a minute to once every two hours.  

How intrusive are the ads? I would describe the ads as being not very intrusive, except since the May update, the app freezes for several seconds before the ad is shown. Strangely, the app frequently displays an ad for itself. Players who spend money on the game still have pop-up ads.

How is premium currency earned? By “discovering apps,” i.e., watching ads.

Top tip: If you place properties that require different types of roads side-by-side, you can layer the roads on top of each other to save space.

Does the game utilize Google Play Games? No, although players can create accounts through Sparkling Society.

Does the game grant achievements? No

What permissions does the app ask?