I love simulation games. I use to lose many hours on my PC into Flight Simulator, Rollercoaster Tycoon (This was probably my favourite out of the lot), Train Simulator just to name a few. Over the past few week, I`ve had the chance to indulge into Cohen Valley, my world, my creation, as I was about to step into Cities: Skyline, the PC hit released back in 2015 and has recently been brought over to the Xbox One. How would this sort of game far however on a different console rather than PC? Well, I think it`s made a very good change over, and I`m loving it so far.
Cities: Skyline was developed by Colossal Order for Xbox One and is published by Paradox Interactive. You are going to jump into your own world and creation, and across two modes (Either you can play the correct way and work your way through building a city and playing to correct financial management and is more of a challenge based mode, or you can do what I did, and do on every single simulation game I play, and that`s jump into Sandbox mode, turning on unlimited funds (I know, I know, I can hear you) and you can turn on unlimited Milestones, but I`ll talk about that in a bit). I had the chance to play across both modes, and depending on what you`re wanting to get out of the game, will really determine which mode to go for. If you want a challenge and play to the financial restrictions, hitting the milestones the right way, then you`d play without the mod features on (Financial gain and no milestones), or if like me, you like to jump straight in, and not worry about finances, then make sure you play with the unlimited finances option on.
Firstly, you`re going to have to choose from a range of lands where you`re going to want to start your city. You`re going to want to make sure that you have a water supply nearby, in the form of a river that you can set up water stations and towers and pumps to feed from and into (Not very environmentally friendly, I know) and each area will either have good resources or no resources at all. You`ll be able to choose and once you`ve done that, you`ll be ready to start building your way around.
Just like every other simulation game, you have got complete control of how you want to build your city. You`re going to need to make sure that you set out zones that you are going to have as residential, commercial or industrial estates, and you can set these zones out. Over time, you`ll notice that buildings will start to appear and be built in the zones that you`ve initiated. You`re going to need to make sure that everywhere has a supply of water and electricity by building coal stations and electricity lines, or going the way I did and using green technology by installing wind turbines. Of course, you`ll need to make sure you keep an eye on your finances (If you`re playing the challenging way) as you`ll need to generate income to be able to either expand your current buildings or to develop new ones. You`ll be able to decide whether you`re going to be charging tax to your residents and businesses, and how much tax you`re going to charge. You`ll also be able to decide your budgets for the game and what is being spent into what area. For example, you could be running at 100% of budget for Buildings (The higher percentage the faster and better that area will become, and you can decide to run at 150% max) but decide to only spend 50% into Transport or Hospitals (In contradiction, the lower the percentage the worse that service is). You`re going to be tasked with making sure that you are making enough money through income to budget and balance out with your expenditure.
Throughout the game, you`ll be given a range of milestones, and these are population targets. The more people that you get living in the city, the more that will become unlocked to you. So effectively, the bigger your city gets in terms of its residential and worker population, the more buildings and other things you can unlock. You`ll be able to unlock hospitals, Level 2 commercial buildings, transport systems and locations such as Airports, and more importantly, you`ll be able to unlock new areas for you to expand your city into. The last milestone is set at a population of 80,000, but based on what I have played so far, you`re going to be playing for a while before you hit anywhere near that population. Just to give you an idea, I have been creating my city for around 4 and half hours and I`m at a population of just under 3,500. Of course, you can turn the option off so you have everything at your disposal from the off (And combined with the no finances option, you`re in for a proper sandbox experience but with not too much challenge) so it`s completely down to you.
It`s a game that`s going to become addictive, just like any other simulation game, as you`ll be busy creating away and working out how beautiful and attractive your city is going to look. It is a game that`s going to take some time, as you do play at a slow pace, and it sims at a slow pace, without no option to sort of fast-track your way through, which at times, can make the game feel a bit slow and drag out. Perhaps that`s why after 4 hours of game play I`m on a smallish population, when you look at the biggest milestone of 80,000. It`s a game that can swing either two ways. You`ll need to spend a lot of time if you`re going to play through the challenging way getting to the high milestones, but if you`re someone who`s prepared to just pick up and play at your freedom leisure, you`ll want to make sure you play with everything off from the start. Perhaps it won’t feel so much of a long time then.
I really can`t criticise the game in any shape of form other than what I`ve said about the time, and even then, that`s not a criticism. It`s a game that you`re going to get a lot of fun and enjoyment out of, regardless of which game mode you really decide to go for. You`ll have the city at your hands, and it`s something that`s probably quite a decent play with the kids working on a city together. But either way, I think that Colossal Order have done a cracking job with this, and I think the transition from PC to console has been a fantastic one, and they really have a cracking game and addition to the Xbox One family.
A huge thank you to XCN for supplying us with a review copy of Cities: Skyline.
Developer: Colossal Order
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Website: Cities: Skylines
Twitter: @ColossalOrder / @PdxInteractive / @Cities_PDX