In SimCity -Maxi's progeny for this game- you dealt with where to place Residential, Commercial and Industrial zones for optimum city efficency. With SimIsle, you place only single Industrial buildings, closest to resource sites you have to find with one of many pull down maps of the island. Chop down trees to clear space for buildings, then place Coal/Iron Ore mines, Manufacturing Plants or Steel Mills accordingly. You must generate profit from Exports and create raw materials for Internal island growth. Just keep the buildings away from the natives and tourists! This island setting is a different idea, but why Maxis chose a Rainforest backdrop seems a political statement. It is educational I suppose.
You're still that familiar Mayor position, but as an anonymous CEO pushing buttons. SimIsle uses various Agents (20 available) to make things happen on an island, each with certain Industrial and Enviornmental degrees; Local culture and Negotiation, Construction and Exploration, Forestry and Fauna etc. Your job is to move Agents with pertinant skills to various places about the island you decide need manipulating. Only specic Agents can do tasks like Exploring or Construction, so hire/fire among them wisely per island!
There are about 20 pre-made islands to work with, each a scenario with specific goals. Examples; Tourist Trap, Plunder For Profit(Rainforest be hanged), Stop the Drug Overlords, Keep Island happily Green,etc. Each scenario/island has common pitfalls -pollution you made, oil spills to clean, tourists getting bored and natives starving, etc. Additionally, there are hidden'bonus' areas on most islands. Pots of gold, ancient ruins to discover in the forest -which become tourist attractions and supply some manufacturing bonus or other boons to island. And yes, you can still build a city <BUT> here it's a tiny map icon, and you better have tons of money beforehand! Every island will "Game Over" if you fail to keep the money going. Unlike SimCity, even a freeplay island will depose you as ruler, and freeplay has disasters. 4 islands are Tutorial-good thing when you have no SimIsle Manual, although there is a built-in Island Encyclopedia. One island is randomly generated, pristine with no bothersome scenario. ALL islands may be played on a 'Freeform' setting, but you'll still have scenario clutter to work around. The Freeform setting is the saving grace of SimIsle. The reason I keep the game. It was interesting to manipulate various island economies and fates, or just to make an efficent yet Green industrial hub among them.
Basically, SimIsle is a microcosmic reduction of other SimCity games, very heavy on Industry- it expands upon those old factory zones and minimizes the others. Residential areas are now reduced to single native Villages randomly spread about(your only workforce besides the Agents). Commercial zones are Hotels or Tourist attractions you have to build to keep island coffers full and locals fed. Collecting resources with minimal environmental impact, is pretty much the whole game, yet it still manages to keep you interested and on your toes. Where's the money gone?! Export or Import? Open another mine? How?
SimIsle; Missions in the Rainforest is a nice change from SimCity'X', if you always wanted to know how those SimCity zones worked in a close-up view. Although it may not be enough thrill for anyone familiar with the City Sim genre, I still like playing this old game...