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
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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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