Cities: Skylines Review

Hey Enthusiacs,

One game that I have adored for a while now is Cities: Skylines, and I thought it was about time that I review it for our site. There are numerous great things about this game, and all of them combine to create the best city builder I have ever played. I’m no pro at them, but I did discover the joy of the calm strategic gameplay that they offer at a young age. I remember my brother and I both sinking hours upon hours into Sim City 2000 in the mid 1990s. I always found it more challenging than he did, but since he was more of an intellectual and had 4 years on me, I figure that was to be expected.

As I got older, our computers were always behind the times, and PC gaming slipped away from me for a very long time. Sure, some city builders are available on consoles, but to me they just don’t work right. For such an intricate game, I need a mouse. My OCD will not allow me to rely on clunky sticks to perfectly place everything in a neat and orderly fashion. The last thing I want to do is recreate San Francisco’s Lombard Street. So once I finally had the option to get back into PC gaming, I hopped on Steam and spent a ton on various games, including quite a few city builders.

A few frustrated me, like Banished and Tropico 4, with their overly complicated micromanagement. I have since grown fond of the latter, but that took a lot of trial and error, and I’ll get into that game in a future article at some point. Sim City 4 was ok, but I quickly lost interest. It just didn’t grab me, partly because it wasn’t pleasant to look at. Graphics certainly aren’t everything, but I was really yearning for something new and pretty. And then I tried Cities: Skylines, and I was hooked right off the bat. It was like finding my city builder unicorn. That perfect amount of control without needing to worry about workers for every.single.building… It also had truly stunning graphics, and a difficulty level that was right in the middle.

Cities: Skylines isn’t too easy, and it’s not too hard. This game is much more like the Sim City games we all loved before EA started to destroy the quality like they so love to do with many established franchises. You don’t need to set wages for workers and buildings. You control your finances at a higher level; deciding when to cut or raise taxes, when to take and pay off loans, and how much funding will go into emergency services, education, etc.

But the biggest reason why I find Cities: Skylines’ difficulty level to be perfect is the way the game walks you through everything. I never felt like I had to google anything to figure out what to do next or why something wasn’t working. Their tutorial pop-ups are thorough, without making anything sound complicated. There is also a handy question mark button that you can click on, at any time, then click on anything in your menu, and it will give you information on what that selection does. The game itself is very deep and you will need to test certain things out a few times before you learn what works and what doesn’t. They don’t dumb things down, they just explain it all very well, so you won’t find yourself getting bored.

I also love the way they reward you for getting to higher population levels. They treat these milestones like achievements, where you then unlock larger and better buildings, as well as necessary tools such as loans. They also grant you extra money, and this has gotten me out of debt countless times.

But enough about difficulty! Let’s talk about how insanely beautiful this game is to look at. I LOVE tilt shift photography, and the way it makes real life images look like miniature sets. While Cities: Skylines certainly isn’t real life, and is completely computer generated, they still manage to give you that sense that you’re watching a miniature come to life. The colors are vibrant, and the buildings all seem to have their own personality. Watching the beautiful little trees blow in the wind as you see these tiny people go about their day is so satisfying.

That’s right, in Cities: Skylines you get to watch your citizens come and go. At any time you can click on any person, and it will tell you where they work, if they’re happy, and what’s bothering them if they’re not. You can see where they live, and even set the screen to lock on that person, and literally watch them throughout their whole day. This brings such life to the game, and I love that aspect. Gone are the days where you build a lifeless city and don’t get to see anyone living in it.

I also wanted to talk about the developers, Colossal Order. While I have never played their older titles, Cities in Motion and Cities in Motion 2, I do appreciate their continued support for Skylines. I have seen many updates and bug fixes come through. When they released larger DLC packs such as After Dark, which added expanded city services, and additional control over leisure and tourism, it also added a day/night cycle. What I really liked is that they gave the day/night cycle for free in an update. They have added a few others, such as the Snowfall DLC, which I also don’t have, but some people have complained because you can only get snow on winter-only maps. This doesn’t add seasons to all maps. Important to keep in mind, but personally that wouldn’t bother me, and it certainly doesn’t make me think less of the developers.

Lastly, when talking about Cities: Skylines, you have to mention the workshop on Steam. There are a ton of great, free mods for the game that you can download. This opens up countless more options for a game that is already full of great content.

While this article ended up a lot longer than I expected, it makes sense. I just love this game, and there’s so much to rave about as a fan of city builders. If you’re like me, and find yourself missing the grand old days of the earlier Sim City games, while also craving beautiful new graphics, definitely get Cities: Skylines.

xoxo,
Dark Princess

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *