While I don’t see graphics as a priority, I will take average looking graphics if the gameplay (strategy/tycoon games) or writing/world-building (RPGs) is excellent, I have to say city-builder visuals have come a long way since I was intrigued by a something called “Simcity 2000” that came on one of those “100 in 1” pirate CDs that my father bought me (this was when I was young kid in the mid 90s).

And while by 1996, we were already starting to see early 3D FPS games (Quake 1 releases in mid-1996), to me the terraform-able terrain and the large set of detailed building/infrastructure assets (that you could look at from 4 sides and zoom-in pretty close to street level) seemed pretty advanced from a graphics perspective.