I don’t think it’s some big secret that Sim City was a disappointing entry into the series for many, many Sim City fans, yours truly included. The always online mechanic, the tiny city plots, the system of resource gathering, the required synergy between the various player’s cities. The game just wasn’t what a lot of people were looking for.
Enter Cities: Skyline
This, going by the previews I’ve watched nd what I’ve read of it, appears to be what Sim City fans wanted all along. It’s definitely a return to the classic Sim City experience, but with modern UI sensibilities and graphics. It also features gigantic areas to build on! You start with a single square, about the size of what you had in the new Sim City (although according to quill - video below - the building models are a bit smaller so it feels like more space), but you can buy up adjacent areas, up to 9 of them! So you can have huge areas 9 times the size of Simcity for your growing metropolis!
The game also tracks the full coming and goings of ALL it’s citizens. Click on one mr Kinthalis Thornblade of La Mancha and you’ll get his full details as he is actually being tracked in real time by the game, he is one of the 30,000, 75,000, etc, citizens of your city, contributing to pollution, happiness, crime, traffic, etc (just like the real me!). In the quill video below he actually shows one citizen with a pet dog, which he is able to rename, and forever more that particular dog will always be known as he chose.
I’ve been following this closely. I’m so stoked. Although they’re just publishing, Paradox is one of those companies that I absolutely trust.
What I like about what I’ve heard with this one is there’s full mod support. I’ve heard the devs say multiple times, “if you want to try that mod it in there. If it’s good we’ll probably put it on our website.”
I know right now the region is locked at a million. But the devs had said that that’s just what they know what’ll happen. Should someone mod that out, then who knows.
Interesting. The last cities I played (XL 2011) felt kind of… sterile to me. Seems like they’re trying to fix that, which I approve of. I’ll give this one a closer look.
You can create an account with Paradox and “Sign the Petition” (if you’re logged in, you’ll see a “sign the Petition” button – you just click the button) so you’ll receive DLC for a zen garden, koi pond and cherry trees when the game launches. Cherry trees have yet to unlock but I’m sure they’ll make the push before the 10th. I assume they’ll do it via Steam key for the DLC.
I’m not a huge city sim player but I’m interested to see if this becomes the new one to play after the multiple disappointments of the past few years.
Coincidentally, the makers of Cities XL did recently publish a sequel, Cities XXL, which was a huge disappointment for people who thought it might actually improve upon XL. The reaction to it was pretty savage.
Cities: Skylines is by Paradox who presumably knows something about simulations. [Edit: I see above that Paradox is just publishing, not developing]
I watched the video. Looks really promising. I like how big the cities can be, and that they’ve clearly learned lessons from the most recent Sim City about what doesn’t work (resource mining, ugh).
I really like how the 1 to 1 simulation creates organic issues with traffic. And I also really like that you can create regions/neighborhoods within your city that you can then name, see stats on and apply various ordinances too. I hated that city ordinances in Sim City were always for the whole city. It makes sense to have different policies for different neighborhoods.
According to the developers, the DLC release will follow the model set by Paradox’s own strategy games like Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis 4. There’ll be major DLC releases that add to gameplay in some way. Each DLC release will be accompanied by a free patch that fixes/changes the game for everyone. In most if not all cases you can simply choose not to purchase DLC unless you happen to want that one thing the DLC adds. There may also be minor DLC that add small cosmetic items to the game. (If CKII is any indication, there may be a lot of minor DLC.)
I dont trust them. After the disaster that was Hearts of Iron 3 and the way they dont release a whole game but nickle and dime you with extensions (DLC) that should have been part of the original game, I think that I am through with them.
I think the measure of a modern game studio is more in post-release support, these days. It’s an unfortunate reality that even the biggest companies release buggy games and then patch them afterwards. Paradox supported HoI3 really well after the launch and fixed a lot of what ailed it. That was also, what, six years ago? They’ve put out CKII and EUIV since then.
As for the DLC, that’s another industry problem rather than a Paradox problem. At least with Paradox you know that patience will guarantee you an opportunity to pick up the game and expansions at ludicrously low prices. EA is still charging 20 bucks a pop for Sims 3 expansion packs.
I really like Paradox. My only problem with them is that they could stand to hire some better writers for flavor text and so on in their games.
I watched a few different streamers for a couple hours yesterday – no major bugs or problems and they all really liked the game. It seems they didn’t just give the game to paid reviewers who always give good reviews – they gave it to popular streamers who would share their actual experience with the game live for all to see.
Interesting side note: Maxis, the developer of SimCity has shut down.
