Cities: Skylines Reviews
The true successor to the SimCity legacy, and even though it only restates what was great about the original it still does a better job than the last decade or so of official games.
Let me put it this way—Cities: Skylines made a sim game fun for me, and that's quite a feat. Though it's not something I would normally play, I had a lot of fun fiddling around with the options and just figuring out how things worked. I didn't feel like my hand was being held, but I also didn't feel like I was being asked to fly a transcontinental flight just because I had watched a documentary about World War II fighter planes. Maybe it's not the most accurate city simulation, but in my opinion, it's definitely the most fun.
Cities: Skylines is how city-building games ought to be. It's fun, it's pretty, it's easily approachable, yet, difficult to master. It doesn't have all the features that one might dream of in the perfect city-building simulator, but it does absolute wonders with what it does have.
That distinction between the two doesn't retroactively make SimCity a better game. A failure is still a failure. It does, however distinguish a visionary-but-broken game and one that works enough to please an itch without pushing boundaries. Skylines is a merely competent game that's smart enough to let the community innovate for it. All its problems and all its genuine innovation will come from the creative ambition of its players. It's comforting in a way, because with that you feel that you share your struggles with a larger community, but there's still the nagging feeling Cities: Skylines lacks a magic of its own.
Cities: Skylines is the best experience for a gamer who wants to play a modern city builder that has a solid set of mechanics and manages to avoid all the traps that have sunk the reboot of SimCity created by Maxis and Electronic Arts.
Cities: Skylines is the city-building game we all wanted, but never got -- until now.
Cities: Skylines definitely scratches that city-building itch that has been left in a void for too long. If you decide that being a mayor of a city is the path for you, be prepared to have the hours zing by as you delve into a deep experience that will reward you for your efforts. If SimCity 2013 disappointed you, look into Cities: Skylines for that band-aid.
Skylines opens up the genre to players old and new with a user-friendly interface, intricately designed mechanics and enormous maps for maximum player creativity. One of the best.
Cities: Skylines successfully caters for the audience left disappointed by SimCity with a level of accessibility tailored for casual city builders, combined with enough substance to delight veterans of the genre.
Cities: Skylines isn't perfect, but it's an excellent city builder and a great launch for developer Colossal Order. There a few control issues, a lack of key features explanations for new players, and the building currently lack the complexity found in SimCity 4 or SimCity (2013), but I still sunk hours into the game and will sink many more. With a strong mod community, I'm sure Cities: Skylines will look great for years to come.
Colossal Order's 'Cities: Skylines' is an entertaining city building game on a scale like no other, and it may be a perfect replacement for 'SimCity'.
Smart attention to details like zoning and policy decisions make Cities: Skyline the most authentic city-builder you can play.
Cities: Skylines is a great, solid city builder and while it could still use a bit of polishing off, I will be spending hours playing around with it. A lot of hard work has clearly gone into focusing on small details to make a real complex, challenging and fun experience.
Cities: Skylines is absolutely the best city-builder I've played since SimCity 4. From macro to micro, from the sprawling transport networks and city-wide policies to the fine-tuned districts and street-level detail, it impresses. Its size and flexibility creates a fertile space for experimentation, making each new map, or even each new plot, a place to try out new plans for a hyper-efficient green utopia, filthy industrial powerhouse or anything in between.
You're going to love it.
There's already a decent roster of maps, ready-made cities, building designs and more to download, and the game's not even hit the shelves yet. It's a sign that Colossal Order cottons on to the reason people like these city-building games; they want freedom, not restriction, streamlined, easy to use systems, not needless complexity. In that sense, Cities: Skylines is a resounding success. In summary - here's the city-builder you've been waiting for. Enjoy.
From the moment you start building your city, you'll have to renounce the next few hours of your life to this game. Cities: Skylines allows it's players to create any city they want - whether it's a utopia or a dystopia is really up to you.
It's time for us to finally move on from SimCity, as Colossal Order have taken the familiar aspects of city building simulators and given it enough of their own spin to make it fresh. It's certainly not a flawless attempt, and will definitely need some post-launch patching, but the fun factor is there alongside the addictive gameplay. I guess you could even say that, for a first attempt, the foundations are solid as a rock.
The city builder is back! Colossal Order has succeeded where others have failed. Cities: Skylines is a brilliant game.
A handful of flaws, but this fun and addictive city-builder still climbs high.
