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. Hiro016
    Sep 2, 2023
    5
    É um bom jogo pra vc que já se divertiu com Simcity e ainda espera uma continuação(e que saia das garras da EA)
    Mas temos um grande problema,Eles Lançam um jogo e faz ele durar um bom tempo só com dlcs(que normalmente não mudam muita coisa,como por exemplo,ficar de noite)
  2. Bigwillyhaver69
    Jul 21, 2023
    5
    This game is very fun.Its cool seeing you town grow.But to play this game for the full experience you need to buy dlc's, so expect to spend a extra 80 usd on the game
  3. bar0yka
    Mar 7, 2023
    6
    eşcinseller için çok detaylı bir simülasyon oyunu özellikle 3 puan alıp okuduğunuz üniversitede ders çalışmak yerine arkada zorhun zayaalple oynayabilirsiniz...
  4. Marinusf
    Sep 3, 2022
    6
    You do the same things over and over again, there is no in depth politics system and the game is mostly about optimizing things. New discoveries are only done in the beginning; later on it gets repetitive.
  5. reviewslol
    Sep 18, 2021
    7
    Alright game, keeps you entertained for a while. (Keep in mind I played it without any expansion packs and barely any mods)
  6. Littleminer_200
    May 16, 2021
    7
    Just just... LIIIIKKKEEE IT! the sim city is a sit when you play this game.
  7. Setsudo
    Dec 27, 2020
    5
    None intuitive game... Didn't know how to start and on this kind of game, it"s too bad... You must build roads to evolve your cities??

    In despite of this, it seems quite beautiful...
  8. Bloodnes
    Nov 13, 2020
    6
    После симсити не пошло, графика вырвиглазная и слабая, очень много заморочек в плане отопления, канализации и т.п. зачем мне прокладывать трубы ? Почему я не могу автоматом указать районы или дома которые отапливаются ? Экономика сложная, порой приходится переигрывать. В целом для фанатов, но не фанатов сим сити. Слабо! 6/10После симсити не пошло, графика вырвиглазная и слабая, очень много заморочек в плане отопления, канализации и т.п. зачем мне прокладывать трубы ? Почему я не могу автоматом указать районы или дома которые отапливаются ? Экономика сложная, порой приходится переигрывать. В целом для фанатов, но не фанатов сим сити. Слабо! 6/10
  9. BlackWidow
    Nov 8, 2020
    6
    When Skylines when on sale, I picked it up with some of the DLC. I played it for about 12 hours. Here is my personal view on the Good and Bad...

    ----- THE GOOD Full Weather Effects Night/Day Cycle Tons of Mods ----- THE BAD Lags at points, even on top end systems. Repetitive Buildings (same over and over). Can't zoom to ground level without a mod. The AI traffic is    When Skylines when on sale, I picked it up with some of the DLC. I played it for about 12 hours. Here is my personal view on the Good and Bad...

    -----

    THE GOOD

    Full Weather Effects
    Night/Day Cycle
    Tons of Mods

    -----

    THE BAD

    Lags at points, even on top end systems.
    Repetitive Buildings (same over and over).
    Can't zoom to ground level without a mod.
    The AI traffic is not very good.
    Only a few of the DLC's are note worthy.
    Graphics are not very good for 2015.
    The music could have been better.
    Citizens can actually teleport.

    -----

    So, Skylines is not a horrible game, but it's not a great game either. SimCity 4 with Rush Hour is much better. Even SimCity Societies is a little better. So, I'm not sure what all the hype is about Skylines. All I know is, it's not for me. I give it a 6.    … Expand
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. Simoners
    Feb 2, 2020
    7
    Without dlc's it's a really medicore game nevertheless it's still enjoyable
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. jnorth5834
    Sep 3, 2018
    7
    This is one of those games that you can spend hours designing and maintaining a society in your image, but the game itself is what seems to limit your imagination. Once you get so far, unlock everything, you'll begin to realize that there's no chance of failing, which unfortunately kills the challenge of the game altogether.
    I feel that this game starts strong, but becomes disposable as    This is one of those games that you can spend hours designing and maintaining a society in your image, but the game itself is what seems to limit your imagination. Once you get so far, unlock everything, you'll begin to realize that there's no chance of failing, which unfortunately kills the challenge of the game altogether.
    I feel that this game starts strong, but becomes disposable as the societies that you can effortlessly allow to collapse without any drawbacks. This game seems to be inconsistent due to this flaw.    … Expand
  18. susej79
    May 7, 2018
    6
    This is a really honest review. I think Cities:Skllines's biggest problem is that it is too addictive. 2~3 hours just fly away if I play the game. The degree of addictiveness was so immense so I had to uninstall and delete the game. This game is suitable for really old people who has nothing but only plenty of time. Conclusion: Great game for killing time. Harzadous game for ordinary people.
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. Arod_
    May 21, 2017
    5
    This game contains very little possibilities to adjust and tune up anything at all.
    In Sim City 3000 over 25 years ago, you have much more options to make impact in game.
    There is very little or nothing fine tune in game and most of blocks seems to just live "their own life" without any players interaction. After 4-5 maps this game became very repetitive and very boring. There is just    This game contains very little possibilities to adjust and tune up anything at all.
    In Sim City 3000 over 25 years ago, you have much more options to make impact in game.
    There is very little or nothing fine tune in game and most of blocks seems to just live "their own life" without any players interaction.
    After 4-5 maps this game became very repetitive and very boring. There is just not enough content in this "basic version" of game.
    Probably idea was to sell more of content in those DLC / expansion set.    … Expand
  22. Carewolf
    Jan 10, 2016
    7
    It is a fine city building game, and a superb successor of SimCity games of old, but maybe I have become too used to goal oriented or compaign based city building games. I really missed having to deal with real emergencies or a changing world. The worst that happens is if you mess up something yourself by poisoning your citizens by pumping poluted water, or flooding parts of city with aIt is a fine city building game, and a superb successor of SimCity games of old, but maybe I have become too used to goal oriented or compaign based city building games. I really missed having to deal with real emergencies or a changing world. The worst that happens is if you mess up something yourself by poisoning your citizens by pumping poluted water, or flooding parts of city with a misplaces damn. And the single progression there is of unlocking based on city size, is a progression you have to go through every time you start a new city, which just feels like such a let down after having had access to all those options in your last game.

    Still a good game though.    … Expand
  23. ScubaDude
    Jan 8, 2016
    6
    I assume that you have read other reviews, played the game, or watched videos of the game, so I won't get into what the game is or how to play it.

    As a fan of Sim City, SC 2000 and SC 3000 I am very impressed with CS' take on the genre. It's the game Sim City wanted to be but couldn't, due to the limits of the technology of the time. It gets an A+ for bringing the genre into the 21st    I assume that you have read other reviews, played the game, or watched videos of the game, so I won't get into what the game is or how to play it.

    As a fan of Sim City, SC 2000 and SC 3000 I am very impressed with CS' take on the genre. It's the game Sim City wanted to be but couldn't, due to the limits of the technology of the time. It gets an A+ for bringing the genre into the 21st century and for designing the game with mods in mind. Colossal Order also seems to be spending a lot of effort responding to players' issues and working to improve the game.

    Now for the cons.

    After playing for months, starting over at least a dozen times, and reading countless articles and watching videos detailing traffic strategy, I still have lots of traffic jams. I have highways branching into big roads then medium roads then small roads; I've analyzed where my Cims are coming from and where they're going to; I've re-zoned and de-zoned and moved buildings; I've added, deleted, re-routed, upgraded and downgraded roads; I've added buses, subways, trains, taxis, walking paths, bike lanes and airports, just to see my traffic problems move from one area of the city to another. I know that it shouldn't be easy but I've paid my dues and should be a traffic expert at this point. Oddly, I can have miles of traffic jams, hundreds of people standing for hours at bus stops, and a "happiness" rating of 92-95%.

    It takes time to empty landfills and graveyards (do they empty graveyards in real life? I'm pretty sure grandma is still in the same place we buried her thirty years ago.) In my current city, at about 120,000 Cims, I had to run an elevated passenger train from the north to the rail line on the south. I paused the game, as I was going to be demolishing and moving lots of roads and buildings and it would upset my Cims. After finishing, I started to run the train tracks. I discovered I couldn't run the tracks over my graveyard (I didn't try raising the tracks more, but it's too late now in any case). I had to un-pause the game to let the graveyard empty (or I could have demolished another north-south corridor and had a bigger mess to clean up). My Cims became very unhappy, crime and fire soared due to areas being cut off from services, and my population and tax revenue dropped.

    My next con is also related to the same train track addition. On the roads that had to be demolished were two metro stations, so they had to be moved. I didn't discover for ten game-years that the subway tracks and routes didn't move with them; I spent ten years with a non-functioning subway system. I also had to re-do a dozen bus routes, as they were designed to bring people from neighborhoods to metro stations. A simple north-south train line took me two weeks (real life weeks) to complete. There were tons of little problems to deal with after I thought the job was done. It was all work and no play, and at the end I felt like I'd been mugged by Mike Tyson. I know it's probably not feasible without re-writing the game from scratch, but the mayor shouldn't be doing the same tasks at 100,000 Cims as he was doing at 1000. There should be a way to delegate tasks to the AI as a city grows. If the game play could transition from building roads and laying water pipes in small towns to handling issues of economics and politics in big cities, THAT would be awesome.

    My final con is the dreaded "DEATH WAVE" (I'm going to add the dreaded "NOT ENOUGH WORKERS" wave in with this). It's one issue I find totally inexcusable. It should never have made it past beta testing. After fighting the game for two weeks on my train track addition, my first death wave hit. My city went from 120,000 cims to 80,000. ONE THIRD of my population died. I have tons of hospitals, a clean water supply and nobody lives on polluted land. Then it passed... for a while. Since the initial wave I've been getting mini-death waves every year for the last TWENTY-FIVE game-years. I've been going from death wave to death wave to death wave. I've had no demand for any new zoned areas and haven't grown my city at all. All I'm doing is building crematoriums during waves to handle the bodies, turning them off after the wave to save money in my budget, just to have to turn them all on again to handle the next wave. That is ALL I've been doing for the last (have I mentioned it before?) TWENTY-FIVE YEARS! I'm so peaceful I make Gandhi look like Attila the Hun, but I'm ready to punch my monitor, set my PC on fire, and drop-kick my dog just for good measure.

    Would I recommend this game to a friend? As much as I'd like to say "yes", I can't. Hopefully, Colossal Order will fix the issues keeping this game from being totally awesome, but the game as it is today (01/08/2016) is more headache than fun. I'll probably continue playing, but now it's personal... I refuse to let the game beat me and I'm going to fill a map from border to border if it kills me (but I promise not to kick my dog).    … Expand
  24. 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
  25. Luizzrz
    Oct 4, 2015
    6
    Alright, listen up:

    I've created like 6 cities so far, all of them are now completely screwed, most of them have no power or water, some are flooded and others are complete fail.

    I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME, IT DOESN'T HAS A TUTORIAL, I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO PLAY IT.

    halp
  26. 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 ^^
  27. 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
  28. 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.
  29. clansfear
    Jun 23, 2015
    5
    Dissapointed. Just like all latest city-games it focuses so much on roads and traffic. I was hoping for a chance to create large pedestrian paths in the suburbs. Nope.
  30. tsakiym
    May 14, 2015
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I do not have to say anything more. But i need to write one hundred and fifty characters. i think my score can describe it............................… Expand
  31. 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
  32. daddyaddy95
    Apr 11, 2015
    7
    As a big fan of Sim City 4 Deluxe, this game proved to be a much more in depth take on the city building genre. The complex blend of ways to utilize nearly every facet of the games core, from trash and waste removal to roadway efficiency really took the game to a whole new level of detail never achieved by any of the genre's predecessors. I'll try my best to sum up the highs and lows asAs a big fan of Sim City 4 Deluxe, this game proved to be a much more in depth take on the city building genre. The complex blend of ways to utilize nearly every facet of the games core, from trash and waste removal to roadway efficiency really took the game to a whole new level of detail never achieved by any of the genre's predecessors. I'll try my best to sum up the highs and lows as quickly as possible.

    Highs: The greatest part about the game came from the overall challenge presented to the player. To build a successful city, strategic planning of roadway infrastructure and municipal utilities must be planned out way in advance to optimize their efficiency and improve the city's bottom line. A lot of development went in to the dynamics of the entire system, and there are always ways to make the city better. Furthermore, problems that arose frequently needed a well thought out solution that pushed the player's wit instead of using temporary solutions to fix them to simply keep a positive budget. These features made the game fun and continued to make the game more interesting.

    Lows: With all the complexity that the game presents, the balance of all these components is terribly skewed. One example is the facilitation of deceased citizens needing a final resting place (i.e. cemetery), which albeit a true complication in real life, was way too exaggerated in the gameplay. Often times the city required more cemeteries and crematoriums than landfills and incinerators, and the problem never ceased to pester the overall success of the city. On the other hand, power grids and total power output never seemed to be a problem, and the solutions, like whether to use renewable energy or fossil fuels, fell more towards the former whose benefits were greatly exaggerated and whose limits severely undermined. The overall balance of the game forced the player to focus too greatly on too many points that were moot at best when compared to the real world, and focused too little on real world scenarios that would add a meaningful transparency between the real world and simulation.

    Conclusion: Despite its balancing and lack of practicality, this is still a really good game. Many of these issues can be fixed in updates and certainly will with time. But the overall character of the game was much less than what I was expecting, and perhaps even scores par or slightly worse than Sim City 4 even with SC4's lack of complexity. For players looking for a very challenging and diverse mayor simulation, this is the game for you. For players looking to be the god of their city, you may want to keep your wallet closed.

    Interesting, but selectively unique: (7.4/10)    … Expand
  33. exotikras
    Mar 28, 2015
    7
    Amazing game and no EA :)
    But there is one annoying thing with road system. .. for some idiotic reason, you can't disable right turn where you want... that's frustrating and really bad for traffic.
  34. 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
  35. cervan
    Mar 21, 2015
    7
    Really enjoyed making my city in the game so far. Nice work! Love the traffic simulation aspects and the way the system clogs up over time. Not the bets looking game in the world but thats ok.
  36. ror
    Mar 20, 2015
    7
    I have played this for about 2 days. If you just want to build pretty towns and cities then this game is for you, but that's it. I broke the 1 million dollar mark within a day and when that happens the challenge has gone and it gets repetitive quickly, the unlocks along the way are relatively boring. Most of all it needs REAL LIFE to flesh it out....There's no media, newspapers radio orI have played this for about 2 days. If you just want to build pretty towns and cities then this game is for you, but that's it. I broke the 1 million dollar mark within a day and when that happens the challenge has gone and it gets repetitive quickly, the unlocks along the way are relatively boring. Most of all it needs REAL LIFE to flesh it out....There's no media, newspapers radio or TV. People don't do much other than drive and walk around or complain on "twitter" instead of vandalism, crime, riot, disease. No animals, no pets. Nothing seems to age (apart from abandoned buildings). The people don't react to fire or floods. I'm not talking about "the sims", just some more dynamic features to engage the brain. Anyway I gave it a seven because of the modding capability, I will probably come back to this game when it has more developments from the community… Expand
  37. RaZeLSKi
    Mar 18, 2015
    7
    In my opinion this game is good but not great. I thought that after such stunning reviews and scores I would be knocked on my knees, but no. Cities Skylines has many great features like hard at first but very complex roads, districts, huge space for city building, cemeteries, water physics, content editor and Steam Workshop. But still there is a lack of human character in these littleIn my opinion this game is good but not great. I thought that after such stunning reviews and scores I would be knocked on my knees, but no. Cities Skylines has many great features like hard at first but very complex roads, districts, huge space for city building, cemeteries, water physics, content editor and Steam Workshop. But still there is a lack of human character in these little people that populate the city. Nothing seems to bother them. Hours spent on train platform waiting in huge crowd for a train, too few schools, slow traffic - not a problem. It makes a game too easy. They do some things but it does not make the city alive like in Sim City. This ruins for me a purpose to build really big and great city just to watch my little residents struggle with life. There aren't also many service buildings and zones buildings models. Also descriptions in unique buildings menu are meaningless. Sim City has a great system with improving buildings the way it is needed at a time what give a lot more design choices. Whole content in Cities Skylines after seeing so many roads at the beginning is small and seems like developers thought that community will do the rest. Of course I will not compare Sim City Complete Edition and Cities Skylines Deluxe Edition, but they could do more. I hope for a big DLC loaded with new content from CO and maybe then I will be able to say, yes it is a great game. I think that really great game should have all whats good from Sim City and Cities Skylines. For now seven, but I wait for developers to prove me wrong.… Expand
  38. Phear
    Mar 17, 2015
    5
    Game crashes to a white screen at random times. Sometimes after 5 mins and other times it takes 90 mins. -3 for that.

    There is no autosave. That combined with the above crashing is very frustrating. -1 for that. Once they fix these issues, which I have full confidence that will they will that makes the game a solid 7. Why? There isn't anything new here to engage the player.    Game crashes to a white screen at random times. Sometimes after 5 mins and other times it takes 90 mins. -3 for that.

    There is no autosave. That combined with the above crashing is very frustrating. -1 for that.

    Once they fix these issues, which I have full confidence that will they will that makes the game a solid 7.

    Why?

    There isn't anything new here to engage the player. With proper planning you will never fail. It is a bit easy even on hard mode. This game needs scenarios or objectives to accomplish. Like having a tourism city, or Vegas like city. Currently everything is just generic. Sure it is better than SimCity 3000 but that wasn't that hard to do.

    I think Paradox is a great company though and they should be able to the fix issues with a big DLC or the next version.    … Expand
  39. 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.
  40. 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
  41. runeb80
    Mar 13, 2015
    7
    Not sure why everyone is so over the top with their scoring of this game. It has what SimCity lacked - true. But it also lacks what SimCity had - polish, especially in the 2D graphics and texture department. Luckily these are things that are more easily fixed than a broken game engine like SimCity's glassbox, and so I have hope for Skylines. But it's not the ultimate city builder - atNot sure why everyone is so over the top with their scoring of this game. It has what SimCity lacked - true. But it also lacks what SimCity had - polish, especially in the 2D graphics and texture department. Luckily these are things that are more easily fixed than a broken game engine like SimCity's glassbox, and so I have hope for Skylines. But it's not the ultimate city builder - at least not yet.… Expand
  42. 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
  43. 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
  44. 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
  45. DavidCastro
    Mar 11, 2015
    7
    Thanks to how the developers take fan feedback seriously, most of the core features you would expect from a city builder are present and delivered gracefully. But the game can be uneventful - there is not even a day and night cycle. It still has a lot of potential for improvement. Nonetheless, Cities: Skylines is a great and very welcome addition to the genre.

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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