Review by Kurz

Score 10/10


Introduction.

Cities: Skylines is an exceptionally well-made game, where you can dive into an immense world of management. I will try to give you some insight into the game, but with tons of things you can do, I can only cover the most important aspects.
The game was made by Colossal Order Ltd and released in 2015 by Paradox Interactive.


Gameplay

Have you ever had the feeling that time stands still? That’s how it is to play Cities. You can play all day and into the night, and when you look at your watch, you realize that you should been at work 3 hours ago. This game will draw you in like a sponge and force you to create the wildest cities to date.

Let’s start off with the different options you have to play. Starting with an empty map, there are different types of maps to choose from like Savanna, Forest, Islands, and so on. Each map has their own specified natural resources.
Alternatively, start a scenario. In scenario mode you will get different task to handle like traffic or natural disasters.
You can edit everything in this game: maps, themes, assets and scenarios.

Starting your own new city, there are some basic things you need to make for your city to work. You start out by making some roads for your citizens, then electricity, water and sewage. With the basic needs in place, you can start to zone your residential, commercial, and industrial zones, and grow your city. As you expand and you get more citizens, new buildings will unlock to keep up with the demands of your people.
The beginning of the game is difficult and time consuming, because you are starting out with a set amount of cash. You need to be careful, and not spend too much before your city starts to generate money. But once the gold coins start to flow into your account, you can build more, better and bigger things. Cities will always challenge you even when you have your finances in order, since by then, the traffic has increased, and you have a new challenge.

Traffic is the most difficult aspect of the game to manage. It is extremely difficult to get a city with a population of 200,000 to have no traffic jams. It’s possible, but you need to use all the tricks in the book to get all your roads green and jam free. There is no greater feeling of achievement than when you are able to make a city jam-free. There are a lot of different roads to choose from, like gravel and highways. To be able to manage the traffic, it’s important to get the bus lines and subway lines connected and spread out in the city.

People move into the city automatically when you zone, and if you have the right utilities in place. But if you want to boost your visitors, you need a well-managed city and some unique buildings. The space elevator generates a lot of visitors, but before placing it, you would need a waste network and transport systems in place. You will also get visitors from docks, airports, and trains.

Parks and recreational areas are a way to make your people happy- the more the merrier. The sims just love the green areas, and it makes your city look great.
There is also a DLC which allows you to make your own customizable parks.
You can play the game any way you like. Personally, I love to make a city as beautiful as I can get it by making suburban areas with curved roads and a lot of green areas. The mountain maps are perfect places for constructing beautiful scenery.

The menus in the game are easy to use, with an explanation for each icon. This makes it easy for new players to navigate the game. But there are a lot of icons, so it will take some time to be able to navigate with ease. The different icons will unlock as you progress through the game, making it great for people new to Cities.

Informational views are a great feature to check your city’s status. You can check where you need to fix a traffic problem, how your transport system is connected, water, power, and so on.


DLC

Cities: Skylines has many different DLC. I would recommend getting all of the gameplay DLC to make to most of your cities, and the music DLC when you want some new music.
Since there are a lot of DLC packs, I would recommend buying them on sale when you could get the DLC at as high as a 50% discount, and that’s a great bargain.


Music & Graphics

There are some basic radio channels to listen to, but if you love the game as much as me and play for 900+ hours, you need to change up the music. That’s easily managed by making your own playlist or by buying one of the many music DLCs for the game.
The standard music of the game is perfect for the game and makes you relax and have good feelings.

The game is some years old, but the graphics are up to date. Beautifully-made buildings and surroundings make this game a really enjoyable experience for the eyes.
You need some great PC specs to run the game when you have more than 200,000 people in your city.


Steam Workshop

There are 100,000+ items in the workshop which you can implement into the game. Some are almost mandatory like the automated bulldozer and automatic emptying, which relieves you of the stress of emptying the garbage and demolishing abandoned buildings. Remember that if you choose to use the workshop items, you would not be able to get steam achivements.


Conclusion

There are no words to describe this incredible city-building game. It’s the best game I have ever played, final.
If you like to build and manage, Cities: Skylines is mandatory in your library.10/10


Pros
- Unlimited possibilities
- 100,000+ items in workshop
- The feeling of greatness after completing a full map
- Beautifully designed buildings
- Great tools for editing

Cons
- Needs a good pc to run a big city
- The need of emptying garbage
- The need of demolishing abandoned buildings
- Price for DLC
Written by Kris Kurz

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