Cities Skylines Review– Simcity’s much cooler younger brother

So it’s like this, you have your first child and make a ton of mistakes raising him, but you learn. You give baby too many carrots and it turns orange. Note to self, avoid carrots. Then when your next child is born, you know what? No damn carrots. This is the basic story of Cities: Skylines. Colossal Order paid close attention to the litany of complaints that were leveled against Simcity such as DRM, the cardinal sin of gaming. There are several ways Colossal Order manages to improve the city building formula and lace it with that addictive gaming slick that will keep you coming back for more. You’ll be hard pressed to find a Cities Skylines review that counters that statement.

All this being said, you can’t be a dummy and succeed at this game. Traffic congestion for instance is a real problem that will require thought and practice to get right. It’s not overly complicated, but you get the point. There is plenty of complexity to go around in the other systems, but Cities: Skylines wisely stays shallow enough for its own good in this department. You’ll create zones based on industrial, commercial and residential settings. With roads to connect in a logical manner, the buildings start popping up. You can add specific  service structure like a police station or an airport to increase the realism of the platform.

The zoning will also let you create neighborhoods or districts where certain zones can focus on particular things, such as oil or farming. As there should be, there is A LOT of tinkering to be done here. You’ll need to play dutiful creator and strike a good balance between services, amenities, road access, residential zoning and the like. If you can manage this, your building will reward you by leveling up. If you don’t manage this adequately, then well you’ll hear it from citizens on the “chirper.” The chirper is a nice feature in Cities: Skylines. Review its contents and you’ll discover questions and comments from the citizens themselves which offer a sort of barometer at times of how you’re managing your executive duties.

Speaking of your responsibilities for running the city, you’ll be tasked with things like budgeting and taxes which are blessedly less complicated than those systems in Simcity. Unless you’re a hardcore wannabe mayor, you’ll probably be okay with the level of complexity here; we’re talking slider bars and numbers that you need to fiddle with to find a sweet spot.

All in all it’s a very fun ride to creating and managing a sprawling metropolis. Whether you follow logic and create a massive city with grid streets and teeming with amenities or you opt for a smaller idyllic scene with long winding roads it’s fun. That is unless you start slacking and the corpses start piling up. So make sure you stay on top of your cities resources and services. Otherwise you’ll hear it from the people, “Give me freedom or give me death!” Or something like that.

Hope you enjoy reading our Cities Skylines Review, now get a Cities: Skyline STEAM key and see if this is the game for you for the rest of summer!