The SimCity Societies I've been playing this weekend is nearly unrecognizable. When it came out last November, it was a set of blocks without rules. Elaborate, certainly. But with about as much structure and gameplay as a box of mismatched Legos from a Salvation Army store. Build a city, watch it run, shrug, and then go play something with a purpose. It was a classic example of the difference between a toy and a game, and it had the misfortune of being slotted into a genre – city builders – that hasn't consisted of toys since the first SimCity in 1989.

After the reviews and player complaints, you could sort of hear a quiet "oops…" from the developers at Tilted Mill. So they rolled up their sleeves and five months later released a patch that added a new challenge mode with upkeep costs for the buildings. You couldn't just merrily plop down whatever building you felt like anymore. There was also a set of varied goals that would unlock trophies, special buildings, and harder difficulty modes. Now this was something to chew on! It still felt a bit slapdash, but it had structure and purpose.

But as of May 23rd, with the release of patch #5, I'm happy to say the developers at Tilted Mill have finally turned SimCity Societies into the game it should have been in the first place. Details after the jump.

You can check the changelog here, but in brief, patch #5 adds some clever scenarios, it completely reworks the economy, and there's new feedback to help you manage all the detail. There's even a nifty policy system. You have three slots in which you can put special global effects like Martial Law, Universal Health Care, or Arts Endowments. You can use these slots to take out loans as well, but the slot is clogged up by the loan until you pay it back. It's a relatively minor sub-system, but it folds neatly into the gameplay and it recalls the political initiatives from SimCity 2000, where you could do things like ban smoking or prohibit litter.

Here's an excerpt from a post on Tilted Mill's forum, where lead designer Jeff Fiske talks about the new economy:

"The economic rebalancing was extensive. Different societies will not only play very differently from each other, but most of them play differently from before update 5. One example- The Manufacturing facilities used to pay 75 per worker per shift. Now they pay 10. Why? Because the building ability is much more lucrative and frequent. Now you really only care about workers showing up. Combine that with an overseer policy, and you really will feel like you are cracking the whip."

That might not make much sense if you haven't played SimCity Societies, but the long and the short of it is that your steel mills aren't going to be making money from people just showing up for work. Instead, they're going to be making money from their periodic special ability called a Production Drive, which will happen more often if you implement the Overseer Program in one of your three policy slots. It's one of many ways that different buildings now occupy different roles in different cities. With all the various buildings, and with all the helpful options to sort them and pore over them, this is finally one of those great city builders that you can't stop playing because there's always something else you want to do: one more building to build, one more tweak to try, one more neighborhood to start up, one more trophy to earn, one more day to pass.

It's too bad the game wasn't released like this when it first came out, because many of the city builder fans who wrote off SimCity Societies would be delighted to see how it's progressed. It's ironic that patch #5 all but salvages the game less than a month before the expansion pack, SimCity Societies: Destinations, comes out. Because now that I have patch #5, Destinations doesn't seem to add anything particularly sexy. Ski towns, resort beaches, and some new buildings? Whatever. I've got my hands full trying to oppress 10,000 citizens in the Dawn of Tyranny scenario, after which I can't wait to try the new Futurology cybercity scenario, which reminds me that I want to try an agricultural/religious city to see if I can finally get my Gold Spirituality medal. Patch #5 is all the SimCIty Societies a fella could hope for.