Cities: Skylines

 PC
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2115 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,829 out of 2115
  2. Mixed: 202 out of 2115
  3. Negative: 84 out of 2115
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  1. andygoyap
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Cities: Skylines, everything that SimCity should have been.

    Maximum Buildable Map Size: 36km² - 100km² (Mod): ✓ Full Modding Support: ✓ Map Editor: ✓ Asset Editor: ✓ Steam Workshop Integration: ✓ District & Policies: ✓ Offline Mode: ✓ Real Population: ✓ 1,000,000 Agents: ✓ Working Traffic System: ✓ Power Lines & Water Pipes (SimCity 4 Style): ✓ Hydroelectric Power (Damns):    Cities: Skylines, everything that SimCity should have been.

    Maximum Buildable Map Size: 36km² - 100km² (Mod): ✓
    Full Modding Support: ✓
    Map Editor: ✓
    Asset Editor: ✓
    Steam Workshop Integration: ✓
    District & Policies: ✓
    Offline Mode: ✓
    Real Population: ✓
    1,000,000 Agents: ✓
    Working Traffic System: ✓
    Power Lines & Water Pipes (SimCity 4 Style): ✓
    Hydroelectric Power (Damns): ✓
    Tsunami: ✓
    Natural Resources: ✓
    64-bit Game: ✓
    OS - Linux, Windows, OS X: ✓
    Under $30: ✓    … Expand
  2. Guardian1996
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Truly beautiful game and an experience that is fully appreciated from my point of view. The next Sim City 4 deluxemade by Paradox. Thank you, I am sincerely grateful!
  3. ErwinRuggy
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    I can finally say that we no longer need to play SimCity 4

    The 5 things where this game is outstanding: 1.- The size 2.- Full mod support, there are already hundreds of mods in the workshop. 3.- An in-game asset editor to build custom parks, buildings, etc. 4.- A World editor where importing the geography of real cities is very easy, or just build a volcanic island. 5.- The    I can finally say that we no longer need to play SimCity 4

    The 5 things where this game is outstanding:

    1.- The size
    2.- Full mod support, there are already hundreds of mods in the workshop.
    3.- An in-game asset editor to build custom parks, buildings, etc.
    4.- A World editor where importing the geography of real cities is very easy, or just build a volcanic island.
    5.- The transportation, both advanced roads, and mass transit like subways, buses, trains, ships, airports etc.    … Expand
  4. frlncr799
    Mar 10, 2015
    9
    After 2013’s debacle that was Sim City it was time some new devs stepped to the table. Cities XXL was a huge miss as Focus Interactive did nothing to improve their terrible running and clunky game so the question is, did Colossal Order (a Paradox dev responsible for Cities in Motion) deliver? Yes, oh my god Yes!

    Cities Skylines is another game in the long list of city building and    After 2013’s debacle that was Sim City it was time some new devs stepped to the table. Cities XXL was a huge miss as Focus Interactive did nothing to improve their terrible running and clunky game so the question is, did Colossal Order (a Paradox dev responsible for Cities in Motion) deliver? Yes, oh my god Yes!

    Cities Skylines is another game in the long list of city building and managing simulators that have been trying to succeed in the shoes of what was Sim City 4; released more than 12 years ago. From the dev that created Cities in Motion, Colossal Order does something that no other city sim has done and make a truly great game that brings back the feel of Sim City 4 and my favorite of the series, Sim City 3000. They brought it back to its basics which included zones, different building types like electrical, water, fire, police, medical, fun and even the unique landmark buildings.

    When you start creating your city you start in a small 2km x 2km square that can expand as your city gets bigger and you annex other areas to a possible 25 tile, 100km2 area (with the support of a mod that is already in the steam workshop). The game also locks different building, zones, etc. behind population goals so that it isn’t too overwhelming however there are mods that allow you to unlock everything to start if you wish along with unlimited money. The game will also allow for steam workshop when it releases for people to create their own user content to add to the game which could include more buildings, new modes, user made cities and much more.

    Along with the buildings and zones there are also the financial and policies that make a city sim a true city sim. They are simple enough and not as annoying as was the advisors in sim city 3000 but they change things greatly including outlawing private traffic in certain zones forcing people to take mass transit instead. What those policies and other specific buildings do is increase the happiness of the people in the commercial, residential and industrial zones. As your happiness increases they are more likely to accept higher taxes and recommend more people to move in causing an increase in desire for residential and other financial zones. I can also say that Colossal Order certainly know how to make their transport lines work and work well because every form of transportation was easy to create and maintain.

    That being said the roads themselves were difficult to make sure they were right especially having off ramps connect to highways. When I bought my first annex there was a highway running through it. I thought it would have been easy enough to figure out how to implement a overpass/rounded off ramp to have access to the other side of the highway however I had to do a lot of work to get a new one working. First I had to delete the existing off ramps and highway to make way for a 4 way off ramp. On top of that in order to make sure a one way road/highway continues to go one way, instead of detecting which way automatically the roads go you to build the road in the same direction traffic would flow. Took me about 15 minutes to realize this. Hopefully it’ll be something they patch after release because I can imagine it’ll be something some people will complain about.

    One other complaint, and maybe it is something I’m not used to due to the simplicity of zones in Sim City 3000, I don’t like the way zones sit for “squares” off the road for each road you make. I’m more of a fan of dragging and dropping to make a zone like it was in SC 3000. That is just a personal preference. However all you can do with the roads is quite impressive and though I did play this game quite a bit I wasn’t able to play it enough to truly design a city that looked great.

    Now this game looks quite impressive and the buildings are quite varied enough to make the cities and areas look unique. Mod support and steam workshop is only going to improve the variety of buildings after release. The engine runs smooth, however capped at 60 fps (not that you really need more since this isn’t a action moving game), and looks great. The UI is clean and they actually made a change to it as I was playing my review copy in the last week.

    The sound isn’t anything spectacular, however it is there and does work well with what the game is. If you zoom in to roads you can hear cars going by, if you do the same for various areas you hear what you would expect to hear if you were walking on the street. The ambient music also makes it nice to listen to while you are designing away. So nothing over the top but fits quite well.

    Overall, Cities Skylines, I feel, is truly the best city sim game since Sim City 4 and in fact is better than 4. It has everything that you could want in a city building game; large building areas, variety in design and buildings, unique challenges in building and managing and a great looking engine.    … Expand
  5. alanjuio
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    What SimCity should have been but never was.
    This game is much better than SimCity, with more features.
    I spent hours playing on this and never got bored, and the best part is it's only $30 at launch.
    This could have been easily $70 game like simcity because this game is more polished, less buggy, full mod support, and most importantly so much fun!
  6. Lyrande
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Really a great game, everything we have hoped for since SimCity 4. A shame that it took that many years to have a game resembling the good old city builder times.
  7. FurballHer0
    Mar 10, 2015
    9
    I want to congratulate the Dev team on bringing back the city building experience.

    After the blunder that was Sim City, Cities in motion is exactly what we all wanted from Sim City in the first place.

    Losing 1 point due to no Multi-Player.
  8. Nadz_
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    At last a city builder worth my time. Cityskylines has a huge amount to offer in creativity, simulation and scale. With details ranging from individual citizens walking their dog as part of there persistent simulation all the way up to gigantic traffic systems and death epidemics.

    There may be some rough edges (if you go looking) or certain elements some may dislike, But the best thing    At last a city builder worth my time. Cityskylines has a huge amount to offer in creativity, simulation and scale. With details ranging from individual citizens walking their dog as part of there persistent simulation all the way up to gigantic traffic systems and death epidemics.

    There may be some rough edges (if you go looking) or certain elements some may dislike, But the best thing this game offers has the potential to resolve all issues.. It has been built to support Mods! Mods give a game the potential to not only fix or tailor elements of the game to the players liking but can also provide more content! I am yet to see the scope available in terms of how deep mods can go but the fact that certain options like 'unlimited money' and 'all unlock's are included as packed in mods, it certainly seems like modding has been on the developers mind for quite some time.    … Expand
  9. Junambo
    Apr 21, 2015
    6
    I will start by saying this is much better than the latest Sim City, as the map size is thankfully large enough to build your city the way you want to, and there are no immediately recognizable bugs like the traffic bugs in Sim City. Cities: Skylines is great for a relaxing time while watching your city slowly expand while building a few roads here and there.

    Much of the fun kind of    I will start by saying this is much better than the latest Sim City, as the map size is thankfully large enough to build your city the way you want to, and there are no immediately recognizable bugs like the traffic bugs in Sim City. Cities: Skylines is great for a relaxing time while watching your city slowly expand while building a few roads here and there.

    Much of the fun kind of stops there, though, as there are not any real obstacles to overcome. Crime, fires, health issues, and even economic problems, which would normally be fairly decent threats and the main source of difficulty in city-builders, simply don't pose as an issue.

    Another huge issue is that the sound quality is terrible. When zoomed out enough to actually see the majority of your city, an extremely annoying wind sound plays endlessly. The music is also sub-par, which is not what you want in a game in which you spend most of your time watching things build up. Essentially this game is best played on mute while Pandora plays in the background.

    Overall, the game is nice for a glorified ant farm, but in the end its true value lies almost entirely in the fact that is a much-improved version of Sim City. Those who are really interested in city builders will be pleased, but most other gamers might want to set this one aside at least until it goes on sale.    … Expand
  10. captainkane
    Jun 19, 2017
    5
    Cities: Skylines is barely a decent game. Comparatively EA’s 2013 Sim City was a disaster, and that’s one reason Cities has done so well. However, I don’t think it will replace Sim City 4 Deluxe on my shelf anytime soon. Cities has a solid foundation, but its limitations are glaring. Without mod support and DLC, Cities is an average experience with no innovation.

    Cities looks fantastic    Cities: Skylines is barely a decent game. Comparatively EA’s 2013 Sim City was a disaster, and that’s one reason Cities has done so well. However, I don’t think it will replace Sim City 4 Deluxe on my shelf anytime soon. Cities has a solid foundation, but its limitations are glaring. Without mod support and DLC, Cities is an average experience with no innovation.

    Cities looks fantastic and runs smoothly. While zoomed in, I see bustling sidewalks and speedy cars zipping around my tidy neighborhoods. There’s enough detail to feel immersive, but not so much as to overwhelm older (or weaker) hardware. Load times can be a bit long tho. At first, city building is not all that different from Sim City. Players need to connect to an external highway, build roads, run utilities, designate zones, and watch as their cities come to life. Once populations reach certain points, players get access to more buildings and services. Each citizen has a name, address, education level, age etc. Players can select an icon above a citizen or car to automatically follow them around.

    Unfortunately, once towns hit 30,000 or so citizens, Cities’ shortcomings become apparent. Foremost, Cities lacks variety. All buildings look similar. Players can’t build space centers or towering skyscrapers. No army bases or national parks. No private schools or hockey rinks. Towns look generic. Players can’t micromanage stats either. Socioeconomic policies are rudimentary and have negligible impact. Tax revenues are too generous. City building merely entails constructing some roads and zoning for residential and business. That’s about it. What a startling lack of innovation. Cities is so featureless that players debate its merits over Sim City 4, a game which launched 12 years earlier.

    Town services are horrid. Landfills pile up insanely quick. There’s no sewage processing, so all sewage is pumped directly into waterways that become polluted within a few hours of play. Creative players will find ways around this. I’ve used in game assets to create my own sewage processing facility (no mods), but doing that ate up massive swaths of valuable real estate and tax revenues. Power stations are anemic. At early levels, the better stations are heavy polluters and resource hungry. And even little towns will need multiple stations or acres of wind turbines. Players will need to build dozens of cemeteries, police/fire stations, schools to service relatively small footprints. Players can’t connect multiple towns together. That was a fan favorite feature in Sim City. So each town must be self-sufficient. The game automatically exports/imports goods to and from imaginary neighboring towns. Players can’t arrange trade agreements. Cities tries to offset this limitation by providing players a larger sandbox. But it’s just not the same as linking a mining town to a farming community or a suburb to a technology hub.

    As towns grow larger, Cities devolves into a traffic manager simulation. Unexperienced players will likely rage over this. The Cities’ AI is laughably stupid. Vehicles always travel the shortest route regardless of obstructions or traffic. By default, they will not take detours or travel alternate routes. I’ve seen dozens of big rigs pile up on a dirt road but ignore a 6 lane highway one red light away because the route was 1 or 2 miles longer. Bus stops can have a dozen or more buses piled up and blocking traffic for 10 blocks. Train stations, docks, and airports will be flooded with unbearable congestion. The worst part about traffic is how early it wrecks towns. New players will need to commit hours of trial and error to fix traffic problems in even the smallest, most basic towns. Not managing traffic will shut towns down completely. Businesses won’t receive deliveries. Power plants won’t receive fuel.

    Traffic can be managed, but not effectively. I’ve built towns with 300,000+ citizens and spent half my time rerouting roads. The process resulted in the destruction of meticulously zoned sections. Without mods, traffic is helplessly broken even with the latest DLC.

    Players can’t send tornadoes ripping the suburbs nor can they summon earthquakes. That requires DLC. Want to see your town at night? DLC. Like snow? DLC. Cities is a barebones package without DLC. Unfortunately, the DLC’s have their own shortcomings. The other deficits—and there are plenty—require mods to fix. Thankfully, the mod community for Cities is robust, and many of its shortcomings are addressed by dedicated fans at no charge. Without those, I wouldn’t be playing Cities at all. Thanks to its fans, Cities can be fun.

    Cities: Traffic Manager Simulator should only be purchased on sale. It’s an incomplete package that requires DLC, mods, and tweaking to make it a decent experience. Sim City 4 Deluxe might be showing its age, but it’s considered the gold standard by many gamers for good reason.    … Expand
  11. redrik
    Sep 28, 2015
    5
    Cities Skylines is a traffic simulator dressed up like a city builder with basic budget.
    The new dlc " CS AfterDark" is a nonsense, the industry works day and night, the children go to school the day and night, ect ect ^^
  12. denwer
    Apr 3, 2018
    6
    I agree with captainkane and Junambo, at first games looks great, especially in comparison with last Sim City from EA. This joy lasts about 6-10 hours, and then you realize, that game lacks variety and challenges(at least interesting), like no pandemics, fires or organized crime. And also I agree that when you get large city (30 000 - 40 000 ), you understand that the most of your time youI agree with captainkane and Junambo, at first games looks great, especially in comparison with last Sim City from EA. This joy lasts about 6-10 hours, and then you realize, that game lacks variety and challenges(at least interesting), like no pandemics, fires or organized crime. And also I agree that when you get large city (30 000 - 40 000 ), you understand that the most of your time you spent by planning and building roads and handle the traffic.

    Sure it is a good game, but it lacks the depth like SimCity 4 and variety.
    Also, I didn't like the gameplay idea that you could not upgrade any buildings(except roads and pipes), you should demolish the old building(fire department or police) and build the new one when a city grows.    … Expand
  13. BenHazelden
    Sep 7, 2015
    5
    A good City Builder game, however I discovered it to be quite boring after a very little amount of time. The upgrade system is good, as are the graphics and general layout, but it was far too slow-paced for myself.
  14. NotBanMePLZ
    Nov 22, 2018
    9
    Лучшая стратегия в своем роде. Лучший городостроитель который вообще существует. Убивает SimCity даже не стреляя. Как же круто дополняет игру даже такая мелочь как переименование улиц, зданий и т.д., с этим можно очень весело побаловаться. Например улица (Фамилия вашего бест френда) или "улица разбитых фонарей". Крч веселая игрушка, всем рекомендую)Лучшая стратегия в своем роде. Лучший городостроитель который вообще существует. Убивает SimCity даже не стреляя. Как же круто дополняет игру даже такая мелочь как переименование улиц, зданий и т.д., с этим можно очень весело побаловаться. Например улица (Фамилия вашего бест френда) или "улица разбитых фонарей". Крч веселая игрушка, всем рекомендую)
  15. kveldby
    May 7, 2019
    8
    игра класс, но оптимизации нет, и аи не очень
  16. Tomaso
    Jan 31, 2020
    7
    Great city builder, FAR better than bugged unfinished SimCity.

    However this is really bad that they can't update the game with the CRUCIAL micromanagement features that modders do for free in their spare time.
    I don't like situations when for so long time, game are playable only with proper game fixing mods.
  17. Oreox4
    Aug 17, 2019
    7
    I like this game. It's good. I feel like it's just not as addicting as others say it is though. I barely ever come back to this. Building up a city is fun, then i just don't touch this game for months. It's not like i think it's bad. Like i said, it's good. I think it's stupid that a 7 is considered mixed. Anyways, good game. But not really worth the price tag for me. There are anI like this game. It's good. I feel like it's just not as addicting as others say it is though. I barely ever come back to this. Building up a city is fun, then i just don't touch this game for months. It's not like i think it's bad. Like i said, it's good. I think it's stupid that a 7 is considered mixed. Anyways, good game. But not really worth the price tag for me. There are an abundance of better games (in my opinion) that are cheaper.… Expand
  18. RomanGor
    Nov 7, 2019
    8
    Лучший градостроительный симулятор как по мне. Проще, чем последний сим сити, но в то же время более увлекательный.
  19. ZetaJiffils
    Dec 21, 2019
    7
    Muy bueno, aún sin dlcs, pero llega un momento en el que el tráfico es un problema...eso le resta puntos.
    Y también con el tiempo llega a aburrir.
  20. Alexandr_Mrz
    Jun 23, 2020
    7
    An excellent urban simulator, that's just infuriates the game so that you are immersed in the game completely, you need DLS
  21. Marco23
    Aug 4, 2020
    7
    Cities skylines (CS) es un buen juego y es un excelente sucesor de la franquicia de Sim city(SC) (digo yo que CS es lo que tuvo que ser Sim city 2013), aprovechando muchas de las mécanicas propuestas por Will Wright y su equipo en SM 3000 Y 4 y teniendo un gran mapa para construir lo que se te antoje( cosa que SM 2013 carece y hace que no se pueda hacer mucho en su pequeña zona) ; Ahora,Cities skylines (CS) es un buen juego y es un excelente sucesor de la franquicia de Sim city(SC) (digo yo que CS es lo que tuvo que ser Sim city 2013), aprovechando muchas de las mécanicas propuestas por Will Wright y su equipo en SM 3000 Y 4 y teniendo un gran mapa para construir lo que se te antoje( cosa que SM 2013 carece y hace que no se pueda hacer mucho en su pequeña zona) ; Ahora, que CS este falto de contenido en el juego base y que tengas que pagar, por ejemplo, por los desastres (cosa que en SM 2013 viene incluido en el juego) es por lo menos una falta de respeto por parte de los ejecutivos de Paradox o CO que nos ven la cara de tontos.
    Lo recomiendo si viene en bundle con otros DLCs (como masstransit, disasters, industries y university) y en descuento, ¡La van a pasar bomba!
    PD: No se compren los paquetes content creator, no valen la pena, para eso van a la workshop y se descargan un monton de temas    … Expand
  22. Fallconex
    Dec 17, 2020
    9
    The best strategy of its kind. The best city-builder there is. Brought so many new mechanics to the lovers of this genre
  23. HansSigmaringen
    Dec 29, 2020
    8
    Good game. Give it a try it has nice graphics and mod community is very big.
  24. LQSNIXT
    Jan 23, 2021
    10
    This game is milestone! I played this game +500h and only after so much time I got bored, but this is more because after exceeding 650 000 people in city it started to hang a bit and work slowly on my gaming computer. But despite this, I highly recommend the game, it develops creative thinking and the concept of world, thanks to mods you can upload cool buildings and vehicles and extendThis game is milestone! I played this game +500h and only after so much time I got bored, but this is more because after exceeding 650 000 people in city it started to hang a bit and work slowly on my gaming computer. But despite this, I highly recommend the game, it develops creative thinking and the concept of world, thanks to mods you can upload cool buildings and vehicles and extend the city to the entire map. I don't regret wasting all hours in this game. If we want extend city so much you will have at least i5 9400F and 16gb of ram, but it is worth. Recommend it to everyone… Expand
  25. omwair
    Feb 14, 2021
    9
    Great game, even better with mods. Almost everything missing in the game can be fixed with mods.
  26. fridayy
    Jan 30, 2022
    10
    Loads of stuff to do, and i like how it comes with an unlimited money mod for sandbox!
  27. ihateuselesssof
    Jan 27, 2020
    0
    5 years after release paradox interactive decided that its a good idea to release a new launcher that does absolutely nothing, steam couldnt do for years.
    Also they install their bloatware on hidden locations without asking the user for permissoin.
    Neither deleting Cities nor the launcher removes everything from it (the launcher). On top of that you cant reach their support wihout    5 years after release paradox interactive decided that its a good idea to release a new launcher that does absolutely nothing, steam couldnt do for years.
    Also they install their bloatware on hidden locations without asking the user for permissoin.
    Neither deleting Cities nor the launcher removes everything from it (the launcher).
    On top of that you cant reach their support wihout creating an account and using their confusing ticketing system.    … Expand
  28. DarkTl
    Jan 23, 2020
    0
    So Paradox decided it's a good idea to release a launcher for Skylines. Which does absolutely nothing useful but just wastes your time. And even worse, doesn't even work on linux and mac, making the game quite literally unplayable there.
  29. dadum
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    This is just everything you would want for a city-building game. Full modding support and already a thriving modding community even though the game just got released. I just have no words, this truly feels like a spiritual successor of Sim City 4. Good job Colossal Order and Paradox!
  30. Arniedadrink
    Mar 11, 2015
    9
    Very good city manager, does not seem as easy as other city games that have come out, which is great as they can get boring quite quickly. With only 5 hours under my belt so far I still have a lot to see and learn but this is looking very promising.

    Road management is a little tricky at first but as you learn to use it, it is a fairly powerful tool, especially compared to the    Very good city manager, does not seem as easy as other city games that have come out, which is great as they can get boring quite quickly. With only 5 hours under my belt so far I still have a lot to see and learn but this is looking very promising.

    Road management is a little tricky at first but as you learn to use it, it is a fairly powerful tool, especially compared to the competition.

    I also love the way they are approaching modding so hopefully they can concentrate on interesting features for DLC in the future and not wasting time on pretty hats.    … Expand
  31. ollyhinge11
    Apr 5, 2018
    9
    Absolutely superb game, I've racked up nearly 2000 hours on this. One criticism I do have is the traffic. So stubborn and will only ever use one lane, which without mods causes endless traffic problems. Thankfully, due to the 100% support and encouragement of mods by the devs, this can easily be changed. Thank you for such a wonderful game.
  32. WilliamReviews
    Oct 28, 2018
    9
    This game is fantastic and is what Simcity (2015) Should have been. Some Examples:
    1. A good map size
    2: Residents have ONE house, they go to ONE job and they come home to that same house

    Minus one point due to DLC
  33. citizen-ychoux
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    TL; DR version: Cities Skylines is the best city builder game ever made since Sim City 4. It is everything a great city builder game is supposed to be: broad, realistic, detailed, complicated, fun. It is a definite must have for anyone who likes building things.

    Long version: With the catastrophic release of Sim City 5 in 2013, I have felt being left alone, betrayed, frustrated.    TL; DR version: Cities Skylines is the best city builder game ever made since Sim City 4. It is everything a great city builder game is supposed to be: broad, realistic, detailed, complicated, fun. It is a definite must have for anyone who likes building things.

    Long version:

    With the catastrophic release of Sim City 5 in 2013, I have felt being left alone, betrayed, frustrated. Maxis and EA destroyed the Sim City licence, and got all the panning it deserved. Other developpers tried to fill the void, but without achieving greatness.

    Now meet Cities: Skylines.

    From a graphic point of view, this title has a real appeal. It looks like a toyesque feeling about buildings, vehicles and people. Some may dislike it, I personnaly love it.

    Speaking about lenght, Cities Skylines is a City builder. You can actually build BIG cities. Not towns. You start with a small area, but you can extend to other land tiles as your city grows. Up to 9 2*2km tiles, creating cities up to 1'000'000 inhabitants. Yeah, that big.

    What about the simulation side. Well, in the contrary wih Sim City, the RCI system does work, as in you actually need all of them to make your city work. You have to balance, and can't just build parks to make your citizens happy. Water, energy, crimes, health, education, amusement, everything is covered, and feels realistic.

    Complicated, this game can be. Especially when it comes to traffic management. And it is difficult to have your goods and people flow in a packed city center. Much like in any real big city around the world. But you are not without tools to achieve it. Roundabouts, highways, metros, train, buses, you can basically use everything you can to make it happen.

    I could go on for hours talking about all the good things, I'll just list some cherries on the cake: areas management, policies, and mods. Yes, real, free, endless mods. Not lousy DLCs.

    Is the game perfect? No, it's not. It lacks some endgame challenge (money is really easy to come by) and randomness events (climate calamities for example) to make it the best game ever.

    But for now, it's a deserved 10. Go get it.    … Expand
  34. Mistafreeze3
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    This is what Sim City was supposed to be. The game is beautiful, runs smooth, and is easy to mod.

    Sim City 4 can finally be retired after 12 years of loyal service, it's successor is here.
  35. justinxfan
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    This game is simply wonderful in every aspect! There are some features such as day/night cycles that people complain about, but they'll probably be added by mods. The core game is well furnished and I encountered very few, if none, bugs. Overall, the dev team has finally made a way for me to stop playing SimCity 4!
  36. xannepan
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Ever since simcity-4, city simulation has become more a hobby for me than just occasional game play. Over the years I have created many custom buildings (mainly Paris and medieval themes) and mods (amongst other the Jupiter (weather) and the Aurora mods) for simcity-4. Simcity 2013 was a major disappointment on all accounts.

    I have been fortunate to have been invited to test Cities    Ever since simcity-4, city simulation has become more a hobby for me than just occasional game play. Over the years I have created many custom buildings (mainly Paris and medieval themes) and mods (amongst other the Jupiter (weather) and the Aurora mods) for simcity-4. Simcity 2013 was a major disappointment on all accounts.

    I have been fortunate to have been invited to test Cities Skylines' modding tools during the beta phase for the past couple of months. And during that time I have also been able to play the game. Cities Skylines exceeds my expectations. The potential that can be unlocked by the community and by DLCs provided by CO is unbelievable. I am absolutely overwhelmed by how great this game is.

    Additionally, I have gained the utmost respect for CO. It is unbelievable what a small team of creative people can do. Aside from developing a fantastic game, CO actually listens to the community to the best of their abilities.

    Bound by an NDA, it has been challenging for me not being able to respond to all the comments, questions, critisicm, (sometimes unjust) speculation on the forums. And I kept thinking if only you could get to play the game for half an hour and - like me - become captivated by studying the little CIMS in their daily routine, or laying out the most amazing road interchanges. Finally a game I can enjoy again without having to shoot someone.

    Off course some I do share some of the criticism that also has been shared on the forums. I could even create a list of a dozen or more features that I would like to see changed or improved. But all that is driven by my enthusiasm for this game, and there is a time a place for everything. So for now I am just giving this game a 10/10.    … Expand
  37. napalm
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    By Far the best modern day city builder on the Market. This is what SC 2013 should have been, or wished it was. Great game and it is recommended to any people that like city builders
  38. zane411
    Mar 12, 2015
    9
    Everything about this game works exactly the way you want it to, though I can list a few features I feel are missing that would bring this from a 9 to a 10.

    1. Circle roads tool
    2. Ability to 'paint' trees like you paint much everything else
    3. A brief tutorial would have been appreciated
  39. EvilTerrorizer
    Mar 25, 2015
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Expanded city twice, loving the free-design. I like the upgrade tool for roads, makes it easy to just build and upgrade later if traffic gets bad. The progressive unlock mechanism for everything is also making it easy for me to learn the game. The unlock steps are not far in-between so I find the pace descent.

    Creating your own districts (with a paint-brush) and specializing the industry there and cherry-picking specific laws that only affect that district is great. In fact it's something I've never seen in city builders but now that I use it in this game is seems so obvious... Cool idea.

    City mechanics like traffic, pollution, cash, jobs, services etc. are working well so far. I'll update later if I get the chance with more info once the game progresses.

    Update:

    After playing the game a bit there's two major comments I'd like to make.
    1. The steam workshop mods are great, and expand the game nicely
    2. The game is a bit too easy, and I find myself not really challenged at this point.    … Expand
  40. pinball123
    Mar 11, 2015
    7
    An enjoyable game but a little too simple. Works well but even as a beginner it only takes a few hours to get your city to be moving a long at a sustainable rate where you have more money than you can spend and just end up constantly expanding with out hitting any real challenges besides putting in better roads. Needs more in the form of disasters or tougher management of things likeAn enjoyable game but a little too simple. Works well but even as a beginner it only takes a few hours to get your city to be moving a long at a sustainable rate where you have more money than you can spend and just end up constantly expanding with out hitting any real challenges besides putting in better roads. Needs more in the form of disasters or tougher management of things like crime/healthcare/homelessness etc.… Expand
  41. OfekA
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Excellent game! The developers has listened to the community on every front and has delivered a game that is incredibly hard to imagine only 9 people worked on, astonishing success!
  42. PopTarts
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    Fantasitically solid. Look forward to what they could add on to make the very end game (20-50+ hours in one city) interesting. There's a ton of potential on top of the base of this game.
  43. Spaceweird
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Absolute win. After gamers taking the one-two sucker punch of Simcity and then Cities XXL to the jaw FINALLY a real city builder emerges again. Smooth, responsive, full featured, modable, large maps and it WORKS. It works on day one. That, in my book is what we've been waiting for and deserve.
  44. trimitri
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Sim city is dead, long live Cities skylines !
    What SimCity should have been but never was.
    Excellent game! The developers has listened to the community.
  45. CriseComics
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Bro: WHAT A GAME
    Really! It has everything that any city building game should have
    Fantastic game! Everything works as it should, for real, you should buy this NOW
    The best game on 2015 so far.
  46. ScorpiaBoost
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Cities Skylines takes the best things from SimCity, improves them and adds some really good new features.
    Releating to the improvement (as an example): Although you start with a 2km x 2km field you can buy during the game 9 more pieces. So at the end you have a really huge city. Just beautiful ;)
  47. MysticMTL
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    You can tell when a game is created by passionate artists and developers. This could be the SimCity 4 successor that we have been waiting all these years for. Everything that SC2k13 did wrong, Colossal Order tried to make right. City sizes are 9x bigger, and easily modded to 25x bigger than SC2k13. They didn't only make things better, they also introduced many new features such asYou can tell when a game is created by passionate artists and developers. This could be the SimCity 4 successor that we have been waiting all these years for. Everything that SC2k13 did wrong, Colossal Order tried to make right. City sizes are 9x bigger, and easily modded to 25x bigger than SC2k13. They didn't only make things better, they also introduced many new features such as districts, specialized industrial zones and dynamic water movement. Modding support is also a huge feature that is offered. The Steam Workshop has over 1000 mods, models and maps already online less than 24 hours after the release. There are a handful of requests for features that didn't make it to release, but the devs promised that they would continue working on this game to include as many new features as possible. (Such as road & highway tunnels, disasters and day/night cycles).

    This is only the first day of the launch, and the game is already extremely stable, and looks beautiful.
    I look forward to seeing what the devs and the mod community comes up with in the future!

    This game was created by a small indie development team and look at what they produced. I highly recommend this game to anyone who felt disappointed with SimCity and wants to play a genuine city simulator that has the fun of previous versions, but the new features that modern gamers want to play.    … Expand
  48. Avadon
    Mar 11, 2015
    8
    A very solid base that the community, as well as the developers, can build on.

    Negatives: No day/night cycle. No form of multiplayer. Traffic is iffy. Not a whole lot of variety in buildings. Sometimes lacks information about what is causing your city to fall apart. All those things are fixable though. With a couple of patches, DLC, as well as community mods, I am confident that    A very solid base that the community, as well as the developers, can build on.

    Negatives:
    No day/night cycle.
    No form of multiplayer.
    Traffic is iffy.
    Not a whole lot of variety in buildings.
    Sometimes lacks information about what is causing your city to fall apart.

    All those things are fixable though. With a couple of patches, DLC, as well as community mods, I am confident that a year from now this will be the best citybuilder ever released. Is it worth it RIGHT now though? If it was full price, I'd suggest you wait just a bit. But at 30$, it's a steal. Go for it.    … Expand
  49. Underpants158
    Mar 30, 2015
    9
    What is this game?!: A city building game. You have four demands that keep you ever expanding your city and those are: residential zone demand, industrial zone demand, business zone demand, and services demand (being schools, hospitals, police, electricity, water, etc.)

    Pros: -The game does a good job at encouraging expansion. You never stagnant because there is always something to    What is this game?!: A city building game. You have four demands that keep you ever expanding your city and those are: residential zone demand, industrial zone demand, business zone demand, and services demand (being schools, hospitals, police, electricity, water, etc.)

    Pros:
    -The game does a good job at encouraging expansion. You never stagnant because there is always something to build. You can take out loans so if you don't have money saved but demands for zones or services you don't have to wait.
    -Roads Roads Roads Roads Roads. Everything revolves around round. Everything must border a road to be built. You also have traffic. Creating a blueprint for your city is 90% deciding what roads to build and how to connect everything so traffic doesn't get congested. If you are like me when you are driving in a city and curse at the city planner for nonsensical/impractical design you will be humbled by this game when you realize these little simulated folks are cursing your name just as vehemently.
    -You have population milestones that expand your technologies and give you a sizable monetary bonus.

    Cons:
    -When you zoom in the graphics look blurry. Like an out of focus photo but it's not really a big deal.
    -Some buildings require a certain population level in order to unlock/build. Like a forestry industrial zone. Why do I need a certain population to cut down trees? Thankfully you can turn this feature off and be able to build everything right from the beginning so even that is hardly a negative.

    Conclusion: The best at doing what is does plus you just know we are going to get expansion packs. it's a game worth playing.    … Expand
  50. wow4201
    Mar 11, 2015
    8
    Simcity successor, though still has its limitations. They didn't cut corners on this game. It's the best city builder, but just a good game. City builders are fun for the first few hours, then you know. When you've built one city you've built them all.
  51. Hailong
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Betten than Simcity 2013, mods day one, is beautiful and nice experience. But i want day/night cycle. Good job Colossal Order and Paradox. I will spend hours and hours.
  52. fingfrenchy
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Had to leave a review for this one. Paradox did an amazing job. I've been playing off and on all day and it really has that classic SimCity feel. This is the TRUE spiritual successor to SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4, hands down.
  53. Inq
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    I usually don't get mad easily - but upon reading the (fortunately few) negative reviews of this game I personally got worked up. There is obviously some room for interpretation in a game, but to give a 1/10 or even a 2/10 to a game that is obviously the best in its genre is (regardless of whether you like it) quite simply a sign that you're mentally challenged. Stay tuned for anI usually don't get mad easily - but upon reading the (fortunately few) negative reviews of this game I personally got worked up. There is obviously some room for interpretation in a game, but to give a 1/10 or even a 2/10 to a game that is obviously the best in its genre is (regardless of whether you like it) quite simply a sign that you're mentally challenged. Stay tuned for an explanation of my stance -

    If you like city builders, chances are you played SC4 - this game has been the go-to game for city building enthusiasts for a little more than a decade. Some people tried to bask in its glory (Cities (X)XL i'm looking at you) and there's even been a sequel - and we all know how those worked out.

    Cities Skylines takes all of the great features of SC4, does NOT dumb them down (this is a plus if your IQ is higher than that of a potato) and expands upon them (See traffic, Colossal Order has had lots of practice with traffic-based games and this one delivers too). In my 20 hours of gameplay so far I only noticed ONE bug, there is no always-online DRM **** and the graphics, while outdated, aren't something that sticks out as a bad thing. With the huge map sizes (up to about 25 times the space you had in SC5), decent amount of features and wonderfully bugfree engine you'll have lots of fun with this.

    Anyway, to the low score reviewers: You might not like this game, this is fine - give it a 6 or 7, but if you go ahead and give a 1 or 2 to a game that is clearly the the market leader in its genre you obviously are mentally challenged. As for that matter, I'd even call people stupid who rate the newest instance of Call of Duty 1 or 2 stupid - the publisher might be greedy and the game might be ultimately the same as the last 5, but 1/10 - really? Gain some perspective.    … Expand
  54. neekz0r
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Wow.

    This game is beyond great. The attention to detail is astounding. Example? If you place a sewer line on a street, a manhole cover appears. Streets that don't have a sewer line don't get manhole covers. Game progression feels natural and unforced, you won't be spinning your wheels waiting for something to happen. Given that there are provided mods to enable a full sandbox, it's a    Wow.

    This game is beyond great. The attention to detail is astounding. Example? If you place a sewer line on a street, a manhole cover appears. Streets that don't have a sewer line don't get manhole covers. Game progression feels natural and unforced, you won't be spinning your wheels waiting for something to happen. Given that there are provided mods to enable a full sandbox, it's a done deal.

    I'm a veteran of the sim game, and this game doesn't feel crippled in anyway to me. I can look at pretty graphs and statistics. I can do whatever the hell I want. Yet, it also looks to be pretty accessible to the beginner and doesn't overwhelm them. I have NO idea how they managed to strike the perfect balance between myself and the newbie, but they did.

    There are very few bugs -- that's saying something since as of the time of this writing, it's day 1 of release. This is a good thing, because I played for five hours without realizing that I hadn't saved yet. No crashes -- and I'm on linux so their QA did their job really really well.

    The developer is going to add in some DLC, the game already feels "complete" and there is more than enough content to keep you occupied. I actually look forward to the next DLC to see what they add.

    EA can forcibly insert **** up their rectum. This game is the true successor of the franchise.    … Expand
  55. ChampionH
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    After 10 years of waiting for a good city builder, it has finally come. And it's only $30.
    All I can say is buy it. I've been playing for 12 hours straight now, and I just can't stop.
    It's my new drug.
    Care to do some Cities: Skylines with me?
  56. iampakky
    Jun 2, 2015
    3
    I can see why this game is well received among leisure players. They hate SimCity so much that they vote for Cities in which provided what they asked for. But seriously, this game inner system is quite shallow. I said this after playing over 100 hrs on both games. There are so many things that you can't really make logical senses out of the system. All transportation system, policies,I can see why this game is well received among leisure players. They hate SimCity so much that they vote for Cities in which provided what they asked for. But seriously, this game inner system is quite shallow. I said this after playing over 100 hrs on both games. There are so many things that you can't really make logical senses out of the system. All transportation system, policies, zoning are meaningless and not contributed to efficiency, wealth or growth of the city.… Expand
  57. correiajoao
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    You like SimCity4? Time to get a New game, because this one is the "next" game the gamers wanted! Buy it! And enjoy! I was wanting for this game since they announced it!
  58. kraenk
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Finally...the game that Sim City should be. Well done Paradox! No need for a new Sim City anymore since vulture EA just closed Maxis anyway. Now I just need more time
  59. Tinnesa
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Compared to Simcity this is legendary. I'm giving this a 10 user score simply because of the fact that this is how corporations SHOULD make games.
    1) Perfectly prized
    2) Awesome customer feedback + Even a personal twitch stream to promote the game
    3) Day 1 DLC isn't anything important at all or holding the game back.
    4) ???
    5) PROFIT
  60. IamDavej
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    This is what Simcity5 and Cities XXL faild to be. Much World, Such City, Wow.
    You can even build your own buildings, citizens, cars, roadmodules, and more. Amazing.
    I am one of the few who actually liked Simcity 5. But this is so much better.
  61. jakiegame
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    It lets people make custom building and MODS! Way more freedom than the other city games before. Basically this reminds me of the way PC games used to be... where they cared about the consumers and made sure to provide fun.
  62. NZ_Simplicity
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Well what can I say, Colossal Order have done what EA could never do, they have returned the "true" city builder to the fans.
    The Features, Graphics, Playability and, Smoothness along with the modders tools make this the best out of them all. :)
  63. dk3d
    Mar 11, 2015
    9
    I can't in all fairness give this game a perfect score but it comes close. SimCity2013 wasn't really even a playable game, I lost interest with SC2k13 in 15 minutes and found the graphics outdated and dull (can't understand how people thought they were great). Skylines is very very playable so far although there are a few annoyances like clicking the school icon both (a) shows the overlayI can't in all fairness give this game a perfect score but it comes close. SimCity2013 wasn't really even a playable game, I lost interest with SC2k13 in 15 minutes and found the graphics outdated and dull (can't understand how people thought they were great). Skylines is very very playable so far although there are a few annoyances like clicking the school icon both (a) shows the overlay on the map of school coverage, but (b) also picks up a school building as if to build it. So because of (b), I cannot actually click on a school to get info about it in this mode until I back out to regular map viewing mode. Kinda weird. But nothing to get upset about.

    Graphically, maybe it's me, but from a sheer "graphic" quality standpoint, Cities XL (or that series) is still the best, cleanest, Nicest AA and textures, game of the bunch. That game sucked, but that's not my point. Graphically, it was the best of these 3 with C:S coming in second. I find the lack of AA (even with it turned on) a bit rough around the edges. Moving around is just not a clean feeling, pixels in the distance flickering around, even at details maxed out. But from a "scale" and feeling like you are in fact looking at a big city with big distances, C:S gets the feeling across well.

    Despite both SC2k13 and this game using 2km grids, maybe it's the scale of the buildings of something but there is waaaay more space in THIS 2km grid than SimCity. In SC you felt your elbows bumping within 5 or 10 minutes. In This, playing several hours, I've yet to feel the need to expand yet beyond the first 2km grid although I do own another 2 to use.

    If my review sounds like I'm nitpicking, well I am because I'm giving it a 9, closer to 9.5, and basically I think by now everyone knows the good points. The "bad" points are few and mostly related to the visual presentation.

    My system is a desktop i5 with 16Gb of RAM, an Nvidia GTX 750ti, running at 1920x1080 and everything is silky smooth as far as FPS. Even Far Cry 4 with everything on runs like butter on this setup (40-50fps). But unlike FarCry, I think this game will tax both GPU and CPU equally especially more the CPU as the population grows. I can see that a laptop with onboard GPU might not be up to it.    … Expand
  64. JimCorbett
    Mar 24, 2015
    7
    I understand why people are giving this game such high scores but I still think there is a lot that could be improved. I'm not a huge fan of city-builders (the only ones i've played are this, Tropico 4, and Sim City 2000) so I can't critique the game as much as others but I will try to offer some decent criticisms. The game seems to be lacking some road functionality, Traffic often takesI understand why people are giving this game such high scores but I still think there is a lot that could be improved. I'm not a huge fan of city-builders (the only ones i've played are this, Tropico 4, and Sim City 2000) so I can't critique the game as much as others but I will try to offer some decent criticisms. The game seems to be lacking some road functionality, Traffic often takes the same lane on a 3 lane road and this ends up causing huge traffic jams. There's no way to connect a road to another and not have it create an intersection, this is especially annoying when using highway ramps or one way roads. There seems to be a lack of unique buildings. I found this glaring when trying to increase my tourism. Supposedly tourism is supposed to be a big way to get money but there's no real way to draw tourists other than making these big, unlockable, "unique buildings" which do nothing other than drawing tourists in very small numbers. There's also no way to terraform the environment. You can't make a hill or level a mountain. This becomes annoying when trying to place a large building because you have to find a place that is totally flat. Airports are my biggest grief with this. Due to the generally bland nature of the maps (almost completely flat with some trees and rivers here or there) all your cities end up looking similar. Citizens seem to die quickly and in waves. No matter how much you're growing you will come across "death waves" where hundreds, if not thousands, of your citizens will die within a few days. This is annoying and makes it hard to judge what your true growth is or if you've come across a serious problem. I'm sure there are more issues I came across but I can't think of them now. Overall the game is enjoyable and I intend on going back to it. The devs seem intent of fixing at least some of these issues and supposedly on releasing a ton of DLC. In the mean time, the game has great mod support which can fix some of these issues and make the game much more enjoyable.… Expand
  65. karmanaut
    Mar 24, 2015
    9
    Isolate yourself from society for hundreds of hours building the perfect little digital society. You'll learn more things about traffic control from this game than from any other source you've ever known.
  66. ShottyMonster
    Mar 12, 2015
    8
    Great game, really optimized (smooth as silk), huge cities, real infrastrucure. It's a true successor to SC4.

    HOWEVER it's far too easy (even with hard mode mod)
  67. Iconium
    Mar 28, 2015
    9
    There is not much to be said than what people and critics already said. The game is good, solid, and have zero breaking bugs, just minor bugs.
    This is what was supposed to be Simcity 5. The game has all features and full 3D rendering to be the truly successor of Simcity 4. With great mod support, and seamless integration into steam workshop, it will easily be much more moddable than    There is not much to be said than what people and critics already said. The game is good, solid, and have zero breaking bugs, just minor bugs.
    This is what was supposed to be Simcity 5. The game has all features and full 3D rendering to be the truly successor of Simcity 4. With great mod support, and seamless integration into steam workshop, it will easily be much more moddable than SimCity 4 and will grown much more, much faster.
    You have basically what we wanted for Simcity 5: same ideas and mechanics of Simcity 4, with 3D graphics, improved simulation and huge plots.

    Things that i dont like much is the current low variety on buildings, but this should be soon fixed by modding community. The fact you can change several game rules by mods, enhance graphics like added SSAO and god rays is just like the final touch. Where also cities XL failed, this game will probably be the gold standard of the genre for years.    … Expand
  68. TimW001
    Dec 24, 2015
    7
    A very fun game which is the city builder you want it be. It will challenge you with traffic and waste management, to design smooth city layouts. My only complaints would be that after a time it gets a little slow, it certainly has a peek where after that point you are accomplished and have no motivation to keep managing this city... So then you start all over again!
    If a person is    A very fun game which is the city builder you want it be. It will challenge you with traffic and waste management, to design smooth city layouts. My only complaints would be that after a time it gets a little slow, it certainly has a peek where after that point you are accomplished and have no motivation to keep managing this city... So then you start all over again!
    If a person is seeking a city simulator this one is the best.    … Expand
  69. rubencristiano9
    Sep 6, 2015
    8
    Note: I have played the first version that includes no real patches for the game, so I might be listing problems that aren't there anymore because they have been fixed.

    Great graphics for a city builder, looks like a game from a triple AAA team although you can see the holes from them not being one at the time of creation, the major flaw being the lack of buildings or maps in the game.    Note: I have played the first version that includes no real patches for the game, so I might be listing problems that aren't there anymore because they have been fixed.

    Great graphics for a city builder, looks like a game from a triple AAA team although you can see the holes from them not being one at the time of creation, the major flaw being the lack of buildings or maps in the game.

    Enjoyed it for a solid 15-20 hours but ended up with a great amount of cash and the only real thing you were doing is just expanding, sounds like a weired criticism but I think were I'm trying to get to here is that it could of done with a bit more challenge in it or some events that changed the theme a bit.

    Also there was no real tutorial whatsoever and had to figure stuff out by yourself, most of it was pretty intuitive but I feel they could of tried to explain or at least have a text in the options or help section for the public transport which can get pretty complex and results in trial and error most of the time.

    You feel a bit lonely in the game because you never really hear anything from anyone, no objectives to do no nothing, only a stupid little bird on top that you couldn't remove till a future patch.

    It's ok I guess, I feel that if it wasn't for the major downfall of the Simcity game back in 2013 this game wouldn't of received half of the critical acclaim it had and still is receiving.

    Hopefully with the money they get they can create an even better game in the future and give some competitivness in the market for the genre which I will receive open handed.    … Expand
  70. Jrud05
    Sep 15, 2015
    7
    Overall I would recommend this game to others, however I feel like the game is limited in a lot of aspects.

    I hate to compare the game to SimCity at all because overall SimCity was just not very good but there are a few things that SimCity got right such as expanding onto a building, for example, adding more garages to an already existing fire department. I also love all of the    Overall I would recommend this game to others, however I feel like the game is limited in a lot of aspects.

    I hate to compare the game to SimCity at all because overall SimCity was just not very good but there are a few things that SimCity got right such as expanding onto a building, for example, adding more garages to an already existing fire department. I also love all of the specialization in SimCity that I'm having a hard time finding in Cities, such as gambling. I really liked how you could see everything actually happening in SimCity, for example, if someone went to school, you would actually see them physically go to the school (by the way there are no school buses here). However, I do understand that each and every person actually doing something in the game could cause it to run slower or use too many resources.

    I love how big the maps are in this game and overall I'd give the graphics a 7/10. Even with the graphics turned all the way up on my PC, there seems to be some fade in the corners, I suppose this helps the game run smoothly but on a top notice PC I feel like I shouldn't be seeing that.

    I'd love to see this game go to the extremes though. I mean I'd even like to see things such as cell phone towers added in and having the responsibility of maintaining coverage, as well as other things such as ISP and Cable TV contracts and things of that nature. I'd just like to see more of what really goes on in a city, in Cities: Skylines. My biggest complaint is that there just isn't enough to do in the game.    … Expand
  71. crishy
    Aug 19, 2017
    9
    By far the best city builder of this generation and since SimCity 4.

    Great graphics, fully 3d engine, and runs smoothly and with few glitches. The traffic/public transport simulation is one of the most addicting aspects of the game, it has a lot of depth and it is addicting spending time building and altering transit lines and building roads (that can be easily curved or    By far the best city builder of this generation and since SimCity 4.

    Great graphics, fully 3d engine, and runs smoothly and with few glitches. The traffic/public transport simulation is one of the most addicting aspects of the game, it has a lot of depth and it is addicting spending time building and altering transit lines and building roads (that can be easily curved or elevated/tunneled) in order to increase traffic flow.

    The variety of included buildings is decent, and there is a great variety of mods and assets - that are continuously created and updated - that drastically increase gameplay options and provide a much more personalized and enjoyable gaming experience. It is also remarkably easy to install and update them - just a matter of subscribing to them once online. No need to manually download and unpack files. Definitively a key core component of the game.

    Unfortunately I cannot give the game a perfect score because it suffers from a big, big drawback: size limitations. Yes, the allowed build-able area is much larger than SC2013, but that is really not saying much. The default 9 obtainable tiles add up to only 36 km squares, only a little more than two large SC4 (which allows for almost unlimited number of tiles at the cost of a shallower game simulation) tiles side by side.

    Now, there are mods that increase the maximum allowed number of obtainable tiles from 9 to 25 or even all 81 tiles, but then chances are (especially with the latter) that you will run into hard-coded limitations, such as 65k agents, a one million population limit, and most notably, around 32k road segments and nodes, that will halt to a stop any further growth in your city, very early on, unless you are playing in maps with lots of water and/or mountains. These limits have been imposed by the developers to maintain smooth performance across a wide range of PC configurations, with, sadly, no option for people with PCs that can handle the load to increase said limits. Because of the difficulty (or impossibility) in doing so, no mods have been released dealing with these limits, other than one increasing the number of trees. So caveat emptor.

    Also, lack of medium residential density and farming zoning - you must use ordinances to ban growth of skyscrapers or allow farms in industrial zones, tedious at best, Farming is also affected by the fact that zoning is limited to four squares deep (making them look totally out of scale, more than other things in-game other than the airports, which, for that matter, do almost nothing) beyond a road and best done in fertile areas only - basically, needlessly making it a much more complicated affair than in SC4, even with mods, as with these one is forced to manually plop/paint and decorate fields to visually simulate said farms.

    Many other minor complaints in vanilla (i.e. deathwaves, must build roadside first, etc.) that are easily fixable with mods.

    For the price, 30$ at launch, you cannot beat it though. It is a great bargain. As for the DLCs, I believe all of them are worth as well, except the disasters pack, which I do not own and cannot comment as I never cared for them in any city simulator game. But you do not require them to have an enjoyable experience, or to use user created content, for that matter (other than ones created specifically for content introduced in these DLCs).    … Expand
  72. DukeBalek
    Mar 16, 2015
    7
    A good game, well done , no bugs, nice graphics and music. But after 25 - 30 hours you will feel that there is not enough possibilities and content. Some nice ideas (water management, electricity management, transport system, laws and exceptions) but the lack of deep management kills the surprise. Too casual, too light for me for a city builder in 2015 but still it's a good game in this poor era.
  73. Wiebe
    Feb 26, 2020
    4
    Building is too non-intuitive and complex, building a pretty functional city is being hindered by non intuitive mechanics and bad UI.
  74. noelanz
    Nov 16, 2018
    9
    This is easily the greatest game I've played in a few years! It definitely has a way of wasting your time so efficiently. The workshop on steam really helps immersion.
  75. markjohnson7861
    Oct 19, 2018
    7
    Do you want to build a city?
    Yes?
    Then it's the game for you. Do you have more than 50 IQ, a few bucks to spare and free time in the evenings? Great! Sit there, and play this game! Jokes on a side, it's super casual city builder. It's ok, but nothing fancy. I hate when people evaluate games on behalf of workshop and actual work of users, not devs. Devs did good job, but maybe they    Do you want to build a city?
    Yes?
    Then it's the game for you.
    Do you have more than 50 IQ, a few bucks to spare and free time in the evenings?
    Great! Sit there, and play this game!
    Jokes on a side, it's super casual city builder. It's ok, but nothing fancy. I hate when people evaluate games on behalf of workshop and actual work of users, not devs. Devs did good job, but maybe they could do better?    … Expand
  76. AllNewSuperfake
    Mar 23, 2020
    4
    It really depends what you are looking for when you play a city builder- Cities:Skylines gives you all the tools to build a beautiful city with fantastic vistas and a shear endless pipeline of mods to make really impressive screenshots. Should you however search for something that requires strategy, planning and management, you might get bored and/or frustrated really fast.It really depends what you are looking for when you play a city builder- Cities:Skylines gives you all the tools to build a beautiful city with fantastic vistas and a shear endless pipeline of mods to make really impressive screenshots. Should you however search for something that requires strategy, planning and management, you might get bored and/or frustrated really fast.

    Unfortunately the developers focused mostly on the cosmetical aspects and added a number of DLCs and patches that more or less forgot about the simulation and instead had you plop down buildings like in the long (and rightfully) forgotten "Sim City Societies", producing large sums of money until you literally have no use for it anymore, while clogging up your streets to the point where the 5000 inhabitants of your little paradise need a network of highways and public transport like the kind of metropolis that it will never be for that very reason.

    The traffic has been a disaster since day one, and up until this day cars will calculate their path based on their goal, not the avaiable space, so you will have to use workarounds that, while not really fixing anything kill any kind of immersion or realism, which I was really looking forward to. This will slowly cause a meltdown of the whole city since most "agents" that control the simulation are dependent on traffic. But it doesn't matter anyway- people are always happy, as long as they have electricity, water and a road to wait on. And so should you: As long as the game starts - with ridiculous loading times - and you found the button to mute the subpar music, this is still the best 3D-city-builder out there.

    The development team has been riding on the wave of hate against EA and their indeed inferior Sim-City-Not-Five. Even these days people seem to think that they are dealing with an indie developer that really needs every penny since they saved the genre, but five years later they have become exactly what they swore to destroy (insert Obi-Wan screaming at Anakin here).

    If you don't care for your rights as a consumer and have too much money, you can add 2 points to my rating: I deduced one point for the terrible DLC-policy and one more for the changed license agreement that was forced onto me years after my purchase.    … Expand
  77. Verence
    Dec 8, 2019
    10
    The God/Goddes of City Builder Games.
    Its awesome to create and manage a City that looks full of life. The Game gave the freedom to build huge cities in sandbox Style or you can lost in real micro managing to create the perfect traffic system, education or whatever . A huge modder community supports you with cool mods amazing buildings and many more. But only with official dlc its massive.
  78. Simoners
    Feb 2, 2020
    7
    Without dlc's it's a really medicore game nevertheless it's still enjoyable
  79. LastMammoth
    Mar 11, 2015
    7
    Game is good. Good but not great or perfect, obviously.

    First of all - this is really one of the few games for the last days, which started and worked "from the box". No massive critical errors, crashes and bugs. Game was finished, polished and released in good condition. This game don't ask us to be a beta testers for our own money. THIS - is nice rare exception in game development    Game is good. Good but not great or perfect, obviously.

    First of all - this is really one of the few games for the last days, which started and worked "from the box". No massive critical errors, crashes and bugs. Game was finished, polished and released in good condition. This game don't ask us to be a beta testers for our own money. THIS - is nice rare exception in game development nowdays.

    I will not tell you much about "how good it is" - you can see all info about the game in pre-release trailers and notes.
    I just would say that this game considered many mistakes of last SimCity. Added many new interesting features and micromanagement abilities.

    But... Some things I don't like:

    - game is VERY easy. You can set the city fast and leave it for an hour. When you come back - it will still leave and bring money. Fire, diseases, criminal and other stuff - will not bring it down. Game don't bring any challenge.
    - it is unbalanced : little city will ask for big number of firestations (big and small), but it will be enough to set just 1-2 little hospitals and just even 1 police station.
    - pollutiondon't bring any problems. When there is a factory or trash dump on the land - it has local pollution, not spreading by the wind or any other way. If you remove this building - land becomes clean as heaven's garden in a moment.
    - there is no wind direction. You can set factory anywhere you want - polution over the wind doesn't matter.
    - there is no any option to set a grid on the land - for planning roads and city.
    - Setting road bends is very low controlled. Easy on small distances, but very problematic on big distances.( setting grid on the land could give some help with that - but there is no such option, as I already said)
    - (!!!) there are one-direction roads to set, but no exit and entrance ramps. This is most thing I don't like. If I try to connect one-way directed road like an exit or entrance ramp - it becomes to be an intersection with traffic lights. So it creates traffic jams, while rams was seted to avoid it.
    - 1 bus station can work only on 1 route. For any new route you will need new bus station = LOL
    - there is no such depth in trading, resource gaining, producing comparing to SimCIty.

    Well, there are many other such small (or big) things I don't like about this game. Game fixed, added and expanded many features from SimCity, but also ignored many other good features from it.

    So:
    release with no critical bugs and crashes - 10/10
    no freezes, stable - 10/10
    graphics and picture - 7/10
    music - 6/10
    unbalanced and too easy, brings no challenge - 5/10
    -------------
    My overall score - 7/10

    I hope developers will fix balance and add more depth in game. Will see.
    Have a good game!    … Expand
  80. WhiteNoisetrash
    Mar 13, 2015
    7
    The fact that this IS the best city builder we have seen in years, I don't think that justifies giving it a top rating.
    This is a great city builder, it has potential to become one of the best. It does distance itself from the previous king of it all (Simcity 4, In my opinion) by trying to be new and fresh like the later Simcity of 2013.
    The game plays like the 2013 version of Simcity,    The fact that this IS the best city builder we have seen in years, I don't think that justifies giving it a top rating.
    This is a great city builder, it has potential to become one of the best. It does distance itself from the previous king of it all (Simcity 4, In my opinion) by trying to be new and fresh like the later Simcity of 2013.

    The game plays like the 2013 version of Simcity, but does better - yet the overall finish of the game feels a bit clunky and not as polished as it could have been.
    The sim part itself seems fair and well made, yet it's unclear which parts are simulated, which are not and so on - and it seems very easy to get started, which may be good but it kind of lacks the challenge.

    It looks good and plays well, definitely the best city builder game seen since Simcity 4.    … Expand
  81. cardigait
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    A 12 developer team made a 30€ game that kicks all competitions in the nuts.
    It's not perfect, but just made a almost bug-free launch and has already many custom content developed through Steam Workshop.
    When the worst thing about a simulation you can say is that it's too serious and that the music is boring, well... you have a winner. Great game, great price, greatest approach to    A 12 developer team made a 30€ game that kicks all competitions in the nuts.
    It's not perfect, but just made a almost bug-free launch and has already many custom content developed through Steam Workshop.
    When the worst thing about a simulation you can say is that it's too serious and that the music is boring, well... you have a winner.

    Great game, great price, greatest approach to customer requests and feedback.    … Expand
  82. djnicey
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Its 3:30AM and I don't know where the hours since 7PM have gone, I'd still be playing until the morning if I hadn't forced myself to save and quit.

    This game is fantastic, every bit as good as SimCity 4 but more polished. It took me about 30-60 minutes to get used to the interface and since then it has been a joy to play. I'm still just getting started, my little town has grown to a    Its 3:30AM and I don't know where the hours since 7PM have gone, I'd still be playing until the morning if I hadn't forced myself to save and quit.

    This game is fantastic, every bit as good as SimCity 4 but more polished. It took me about 30-60 minutes to get used to the interface and since then it has been a joy to play. I'm still just getting started, my little town has grown to a huge city and I've only just filled 1 2km square, I've just scratched the surface so far and haven't even looked at the huge number of mods available on Steam Workshop.

    The developers have done a great job with this game and I only paid £14.99 for it which IMO is an absolute bargain. If you like city building sims you will love this game, I highly recommend it.    … Expand
  83. ND3G
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    This is what SimCity should have been before EA turned it into a steaming pile of sh*t.

    Cities is just a better game. Buy it already, you will not regret it.
  84. scrap104
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Hate SimCity 2013? You'll love Cities: Skylines. Love SimCity 2013? You'll love Cities: Skylines a lot better. Lots to do and so much potential for future development like mods and DLC. There's a learning curve so don't expect things to work just because it worked in SimCtiy. You need a decent spec laptop or desktop to fully enjoy the game.
  85. BalzakMorgan
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    this city builder is colossal

    you can plant trees, a lot of trees
    you can releax and enjoy the view

    from small city to very large one
    from small area to very big one

    mods (assets, maps etc...), check
    graphic, check
    performence, check
    price, check

    10/10
  86. shelter
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    I hate to do the obvious comparison here but Cities: Skylines is everything SimCity 2013 wasn't, it's just so much more!
    Thank you good sirs and madams at Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive, this is how you do a game release!
  87. jesusblack
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    Cities: Skylines is easily the best city-builder since Sim-City 4. It beats sim-city 5 in almost every-way, despite being made by a development team the fraction of the size of Maxis, and it's playable on launch.
  88. thewizardmac
    Mar 10, 2015
    10
    Cities skylines is definetely recommended, even with a few hours of gameplay. It is obvious from the start that its a deep and big game. If you like city builder games you will love this one. During my first 3 hours of the game i didnt even manage to fill one tile of land. Anyone who has played SimSh!tty 2013 will know what i mean. Buy the game now and support the devs for the good work!
  89. vunacar
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    Great game. Keeps all the cool, established features of SimCity series but delivers where Maxis failed, and adds new features like a very cool dynamic water system (I flooded half of my city thanks to a poorly placed hydro plant) and district system, and land purchase system that slaps SimCity's small maps. Basically you start on a map the size of SimCity map, and then dynamically buyGreat game. Keeps all the cool, established features of SimCity series but delivers where Maxis failed, and adds new features like a very cool dynamic water system (I flooded half of my city thanks to a poorly placed hydro plant) and district system, and land purchase system that slaps SimCity's small maps. Basically you start on a map the size of SimCity map, and then dynamically buy surrounding areas as your city grows. I bought 8 SimCity sized areas that are integrated into a single map, and I haven't passed 50 000 residents, so I have no idea how large you can go. The game also has a very cool elevation system for roads and tracks, which means you can twist and turn them on several layers across each other, it's very cool.

    Overall, I think this is the best city builder that I have ever played. It's very well optimized and stable, and for now I feel I actually need help in keeping me away from my computer as I have a tendency to play it for more hours that I probably should, and ignore my commitments...    … Expand
  90. dohgeh
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    Do not get confused by the disliking of the other Cities games. This one feels like it is non related to those games. I don't know how they stepped their game up so fast, but this is the best city builder game out there.

    Cities XXL was nothing new from the meh Cities XL. Cities Skylines is a massive improvement. It's the city building game everyone has wanted for years. Sim City 2013    Do not get confused by the disliking of the other Cities games. This one feels like it is non related to those games. I don't know how they stepped their game up so fast, but this is the best city builder game out there.

    Cities XXL was nothing new from the meh Cities XL. Cities Skylines is a massive improvement. It's the city building game everyone has wanted for years. Sim City 2013 was a HUGE disappointment and Cities XXL was a money grabber. Cities Skylines is well worth the 30 dollars, even if it was priced at sixty it still is a great deal! This is the best city building game since Simcity 4.

    There is so much content in this game to keep you busy for a long time. I know people who have put 30 hours into this game and are still playing. Did I mention that it has mod support? There are over a 100 mods on the Steam Workshop already. Cool. You don't even need mods. I do recommend them though, as they add a lot to this game.

    The only thing wrong with this game is the tutorials. It doesn't explain anything very well, but I can't think of a city builder that does. A few bugs here and there. Nothing major or gamebreaking.

    Please buy this game and tell Paradox that this is what we expect next time! Do not screw us again with the Cities XXL crap!    … Expand
  91. EarlGreyDrinker
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    I played this the other day. I have some minor problems with the roads system sometimes not being perfectly straight and causing a decrease in some RCI zoning space, but it's very minor.

    For the price, this game is worth it. Bye bye SimCity and EA. I hope the community from SimCity 4 will hop over and here and populate the Steam Workshop.
  92. digitalnomad
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    Well done Paradox Interactive, well done. This is not some game still in beta wrapped with fancy packaging - it is the real deal. The Steam Workshop is already filled with awesome mods on the first day. I am very excited to see what the community creates for this awesome game.
  93. ARMORIOS
    Mar 11, 2015
    10
    I have small wish list for cities skylines: day/night loop, trams, tunnels, above road trains (like in Chicago), double level roads, culture policies ( paying money for saving commercial/apartment/industrial building in it's actual state, more terrains. Maybe some more disaster especially earthquake.

    After it will be done for me Cities Skylines will be super-mega perfect city building    I have small wish list for cities skylines: day/night loop, trams, tunnels, above road trains (like in Chicago), double level roads, culture policies ( paying money for saving commercial/apartment/industrial building in it's actual state, more terrains. Maybe some more disaster especially earthquake.

    After it will be done for me Cities Skylines will be super-mega perfect city building game, right now it is just perfect.    … Expand
  94. peterf28
    Mar 14, 2015
    6
    I love ALL city building games. In this game you can build big cities, you will spend a lot of time building roads, and water pipes. But it has somehow fewer possibilities, also there is not much economics going on. Sim City was a better city building / simulation game. This game I will not run after 1 week. With Sim City I spend more time .
    After one day I was tired of building    I love ALL city building games. In this game you can build big cities, you will spend a lot of time building roads, and water pipes. But it has somehow fewer possibilities, also there is not much economics going on. Sim City was a better city building / simulation game. This game I will not run after 1 week. With Sim City I spend more time .
    After one day I was tired of building intersections and water pipes. Repetitive game, not much challenges except roads and traffic .    … Expand
  95. Benjamin99
    Mar 16, 2015
    10
    Amazing game. The clear successor to Sim city. I haven't had so much fun since back in the sim city 4 days. I spend so many hours in this game already and I just cant stop. The best thing is they dont try to reinvent the wheel. The developers are clearly fan and former players of Sim City and it shows. Well done a must buy for any Sim city 4 fan.
  96. nitrojuice
    Mar 13, 2015
    10
    Best game of 2015 so far!
    Best $30 spent in 2015 so far!
    Well, need i say more?

    EA, lean from small devs about how o make great games, simple yet effective!!!
  97. DwarvenKing
    Mar 15, 2015
    10
    This game, this game redefines the city building genre, i mean SimCity should've been this, if it wasn't for Electronic A**holes maybe it would've been something, but we got this i swear this is the best city builder I've ever played.10/10 no h8
  98. Joped
    Mar 12, 2015
    10
    This is the game I have been searching for since Simcity 4. Good city builders are very hard to come by. Sure, there are some minor annoyances in how traffic is currently being simulated. It is however substantially better than the options in Simcity 5.

    The maps are a great size, 9 tiles is so awesome to play with. Plus mods to make it up to 25 if your system can handle it! With    This is the game I have been searching for since Simcity 4. Good city builders are very hard to come by. Sure, there are some minor annoyances in how traffic is currently being simulated. It is however substantially better than the options in Simcity 5.

    The maps are a great size, 9 tiles is so awesome to play with. Plus mods to make it up to 25 if your system can handle it!

    With the mods support and commitment from the company to fully support moders I believe this game will be around for the long haul.    … Expand
  99. deb0
    Mar 19, 2015
    10
    As a lifetime City builder fan, Cities: Skylines completely caught me by surprise. It's basically everything that SimCity has failed to be. Cities is stable, looks great, and has deep gameplay to keep you building cities for a long time. This is the best city builder game out, period, no contest.
  100. CorruptPersona
    Mar 11, 2015
    9
    A great game that could truly suck up all your free time without you even knowing it. There is plenty to do, and really renovates the city building genre the way it should be done. There a lot of micro management involved, lots to think about including pre-planning, road layouts, districts, utilities and a lot more. If you are looking to build a city quickly you better know what you'reA great game that could truly suck up all your free time without you even knowing it. There is plenty to do, and really renovates the city building genre the way it should be done. There a lot of micro management involved, lots to think about including pre-planning, road layouts, districts, utilities and a lot more. If you are looking to build a city quickly you better know what you're doing, because things can get out of hand quickly, so Cities: Skylines does take a little patience, but it's certainly worth the effort!

    Great game!    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

19
#19 Best PC Game of 2015
13
#13 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
37
#37 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 60 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 58 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 60
  3. Negative: 0 out of 60
  1. PCWorld
    Jan 21, 2016
    80
    Cities: Skylines somehow lives up to the unfair expectations heaped upon it, presenting one of the best city builders in years.
    Read full review
  2. Eurogamer Italy
    Aug 12, 2015
    80
    Cities: Skyline is the game SimCity should have been: a great game and a greater base for modders.
    Read full review
  3. DarkStation
    May 27, 2015
    100
    This game managed to be everything I had hoped it would be and then some, with all the wonderful attention to little details and customization options. Fans of the genre wont want to miss this one.
    Read full review
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