I will usually leave a row of empty blocks so I can run a train line through, or even extend the motorway through my city, so it can be serviced by additional exits, so the motorists don’t crowd the main street. Each new city you make will be better thought out than the previous one. Even more disturbing, some buildings had dead bodies in them, because the hearses from the cemetery couldn’t get through the traffic. At one point, my garbage trucks couldn’t get through to my residential area, so I kept receiving reports of garbage piling up, which caused people to move out. If traffic comes to a complete stop, then essential services will have trouble reaching areas of your city.Ĭities: Skylines expects you to provide adequate education, police, fire and health protection. If you zoom in, you’ll hear them blaring their horns at each other. If you have intersections too close to each other, the traffic jams will become massive. As your city grows, more and more cars will need to access your city.
Your first cities will likely be abandoned simply because of traffic congestion caused by poor planning. You can zoom out far enough that clouds can sometimes partially obscure your view (you can turn weather effects off if this bothers you), and you can zoom right in to see people moving about and cars driving along your streets, and you can click on any building or person to view information about them.Īnd you will start to notice traffic. I haven’t seen a game that has handled the transition between macro and micro view as well as this game. You can zoom out and watch the city begin to fill, or you can zoom right in and watch construction crews at work on the buildings. Your city will come alive before your eyes. One difference is that the industrial area is differentiated between factories and office buildings. Each zone has either low or high density – so you can choose where you want houses or apartment blocks, and small shops or huge malls. I appreciated that they even used the same colour as Sim City. If you’ve played Sim City, you’ll be familiar with the zones: residential, commercial, industrial. You’ll then zone the land that is accessible by road. If you forget this, your city will die before it even gets off the ground – and I have occasionally forgotten this, as I like to put my power plants away from where I’m going to build my town. Most buildings must be placed next to a road.
Your first town will be a few streets near a motorway exit, and you’ll learn how to manage electricity, water and roads very quickly. The maps contain pre-existing highways and railway lines, and it’s your job to connect your new city to that network. It’s a little more complex, but it eases you in gently.
No other simulation game captured my attention as well as Sim City 2000 did – its sequels fell a bit short in my estimation.Ĭities: Skylines is the modern update to Sim City 2000 that I’ve always wanted. There will always be a place in my heart for the simulation genre, even if it requires a lot of time and experimentation to be good at it. I’m older now, and I don’t have as much time or energy for games. I remember being called away for dinner… I wasn’t even aware that I had been playing for about nine hours continuously. I watched my money rise and fall, using each new windfall to further expand my city. My dad installed Sim City 2000 on the family computer and one morning I started building a city, carefully laying down roads and powerlines and pipes. Mine happened when I was around ten years old. "The current benchmark for city simulators."Įvery gamer has their own story of how they first became addicted to gaming.