Should I buy this game?

[Mystrelia 57]

I never played SC2013 so I don't have a base for comparison. One thing I do know is that so far I like this game better than SC4. I had a love-hate relationship going on with SC4's region play because I hated the fact that as soon as I put in a road Sims would start commuting to other cities for work leaving the jobs they had in the map I was playing. That drove me insane. Otherwise it was great fun building out on a region.

 

I actually love the graphics as they're bright and cheery. All too often I found myself not wanting to look at SC4's original buildings. I finally ended up with enough CC buildings I could put a mod in to stop them from building all together. In CS there are three different types of terrain: northern European, Boreal and Tropical. There's also a lighting setting for each one that has to be applied manually in the Options panel (you start out with a default one). I found I really like the Northern European terrain color with the Boreal lighting. (Oops! Sabretooth beat me to the punch about that feature!)

 

As for whether this game is worth $33 or not of course depends on you but to my mind it's a bargain because I can see countless hours of playability in it. I've only built parts of a single tile so far and that has already taken me the better part of two evenings. Even if all I ever do is build a single nine-tile city I will have gotten more than my money's worth because that alone will take weeks and weeks.

[simonmd 6]

Say what you like in detail but it boils down to this. It's NOT perfect and does have a few bugs to iron out but,

 

It's Twice the game as Simcity for Half the money, nuff said.

[TheTechGenius 2]

I agree, this is probably one of the best (or the best) City Building game ever created so far.

 

Did you play the latest Sim City? If so, then you will like this game way more! This has all the features as the latest Sim City, but so MUCH MORE, they take it to a whole new level. However, there is a learning curve though, not much, but just like with any new game like this, there is a learning curve (but its well worth it). There isn't much that you "can't" do in Cities Skylines, and not to mention that you have full access to the Steam Workshop. If any games NEED mods and the Steam Workshop, is City Building Games. The latest Sim City doesn't even have mods or access to the Steam Workshop (probably because its only on Origin).

 

Honestly, they could be charging way more for this game then only $30 for the standard version. Oh, and you really don't need the deluxe edition, it only comes with 5 extra in-game buildings (Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Brandenburg Gate, Arc de Triomphe, and Grand Central Terminal). If you want even better and more buildings then the Deluxe Edition, visit the Steam Workshop, you will have access to all the User Created building and other mods/content, and there is more content being added every day.

 

I bought the game today, and I am very happy that I did.

[chocolate_city 93]

Comparisons between SC4 and Cities:Sklyines will always be made, but personally I prefer to think of it as a new game entirely, one that is different and is not necessarily trying to emulate SC4. I can see touches from many different city builders in places, but it's unique in it's own ways too. Will you enjoy playing this game, well for 29€ or whatever it was here in Europe (I paid 37€ for the deluxe package) it's an absolute bargain compared to SC5 or the Cities XL series (which are all basically the same game, many I know bought them all at full price) and I can't see why anyone who likes city builders would not enjoy the experience and get value from it. For me this is the first such game since SC4 came along that is really compelling and (at least thus far), not hideously broken at launch either. The modding side is really limited at the moment, but then it would be totally unfair to pitch this head to head with SC4 as it is now, you have to really compare it to the Vanilla experience.

 

If you are one of those people who enjoys building highways the most, then the modular interchange system itself is worth the price of entry, this is what I've wanted to with RHW since I began using it, this is not possible in SC4 today, better still each section is modular and can be replaced independently of the intersection. Just imagine what 5 years of mods could do when we can make this now:

 

 

It's a great city builder overall though, so if you don't enjoy the experience, then I would guess you either aren't into city builders or have some really specific desires the game doesn't cater for. Either way for me it holds up as a great game in it's own right, one that I will play alongside SC4, I like the "arcadey" analogy here, that's how it feels, SC4 is for my hardcore perfectionist to detail, but Skylines is just so compelling and fun that I when I just want to have some relaxing game-time I would play it instead of SC4, one of the Let's Play authors summed it up better than I can, "It's a very Zen game".

Its going to take me some getting used to, but overall I like it... The road systems (like the one created in the picture above, needs some serious work  The ramp connections between road and highway are unrealistic at best reminds me too much of Sim City 2013...  Hopefully some brilliant modder can perfect it... Until then it'll sit on my hard drive.  

[bluespottedhorse 49]

I didn't read other posts but here is my take. I've played every version of SimCity with the exception of the latest which bombed horribly. I just purchased Cities skylines and cannot stop playing it. Need I say more!

 

Pros:

1. It is the SimCity or any city building game you always wanted but never got, with one exception, it even better than your dreams. My hat goes off to the developers for their incredible work.

2. Incredible graphics

3. Nice sized maps. I'm playing the 25 map mod (10x10km)

4. Very moddable (if that's what your into)

5. Incredibly seamless online/steam integration

 

Cons: I'd have to say with honesty that I'm hard pressed to find any but here goes.

1. Road merges too short need more work (not realistic)

2. No back alleys

3. No 4 or 6 lane roads without a medium

4. Maps already bigger than anything we've every played but they need to be much, much, larger to be a realistic city. Computer hardware is much further ahead than software so it's very doable.

[Turjan 1,048]

Also regarding the graphics and color balance, note that you can adjust that somewhat with the color correction override in the game options.

 

Yup, there are hundreds of possibilities. Does this look garish?

 

[mgomrjsurf 16]

Now if the Game had a Custom Building Section then like IKEA,Wal-mart,A&W we could put where we want to like in Sim City 2013 that might make you buy it. Music to Loud when Saved or new Game loading or taking to long go load like mine is know might also make you not want to buy it.

[AkemiAzula 280]

I played it for the first time today. The lack of terraforming and the small tile for building with prebuilt highways was reminiscent of SC 2013. The game seems highly unrealistic like 2013, for instance you need about a hundred schools in a square mile to satisfy demand.

Aside from the similar simulation issues ala Glassbox the graphics are rather lacklustre and are neither realistic nor stylistically pleasant and seem very odd and too colorful.

The road tool is okay but the UI is rather cluttered and counterintuitive and thr tooltips are silly and obnoxious.

The music is like 2013 and is not my cup of tea as i grew up playing simcity 2000, 3000 4 etc

The ambulances make a awful racket and it seems owing to the very short days dven on slow speed sombody dies every two milliseconds

The sims cant be seen at street level but for the low granularity appear well animated thd cars are similarly low in quality

The game lags on the lowest settings i admit on my macbook pro bought this year hardly a gamer rig but still

My main issue would be you build a modern suburb that transforms into a city there is no industrial revolution or any evolution of style and you begin with suburban density

This and the ridiculous glassbox they use which means every two blocks need their own police fire school etc

Dragging water piped was fun in sc2000 but here it seems a chore

Those animated trees are less appealing to the eye than a sc2000 pine...

It feels like a sc2013 clone. Without regions but essentially similar.

I find it extraordinary the amount of positive reviews its getting considering how many similarities with 2013 i can see

I expected better from the makers of CIM.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I played it for the first time today. The lack of terraforming and the small tile for building with prebuilt highways was reminiscent of SC 2013.

 

[helomoto 28]

I think the promise in this game that we didn't find in Sim City 2013 is the fact that it is mod-friendly and with the current amount of mods already available, I am sure we will see better ones come out in the future that will make it much more enjoyable.  Specs wise I dont think anyone should have too much of a problem.  I am playing it on my Macbook Pro 2012 with OSX and while it can get choppy and certain parts in the game (such as zooming in too quickly) it runs for the most part pretty well.  Still outperforms Sim City 2013 which was very surprising.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

I expected better from the makers of CIM.

 

I find your lack of faith disturbing...

 

Where the game falls short the mods more than rectify it. With mods we have: ingame terraforming, SAM, canals, terrain brushes, filler tiles, industrial fillers, carparks, substantial building variety, first person camera, the make historical option, two-lane highways, all 25 tiles unlockable, more MMP flora, etc...

 

And all of this just THREE weeks after the game was released.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

 for instance you need about a hundred schools in a square mile to satisfy demand.

This is the first post in all the forums I read to say this. Until now, I read complaints that 1 elementary school can satisfy a whole city and that it's overpowered. I haven't built 1 school yet in my young city out of fear of losing my shops and my city is growing steady so far. I think you should play some more.

[drdru7029 52]

I'd like to echo the sentiments of Sabretooth and others, and even take it a step further. I've been playing SC4 since the beginning too, and (as an urban planner in real life) hold city sims to the highest standards possible. I'll state it clearly: Skylines currently does not have the depth, complexity and freedom to rival what SC4 has become-- but I fully believe that it will surpass even modded SC4 in the coming years. I say this because it seems to be even more mod-friendly than SC4, and Paradox has seemed to provide a solid foundation with no critical flaws. I bought the game last week and played it some, noting down all of the little things I feel are missing (and most of which are present in SC4). I don't play it very often now and don't plan to over the next few months either. But that in no way illustrates a dissatisfaction with my purchase. The game is simply young, and has a lot of  (exciting) growing up to do. Skylines is my little seedling. I've placed it in its soil, and with the water and sunlight of the community expect it to grow into a towering tree. 

[iviaarten 534]

Just picked out a few snips to reply to:

 

I played it for the first time today. The lack of terraforming and the small tile for building with prebuilt highways was reminiscent of SC 2013. The game seems highly unrealistic like 2013, for instance you need about a hundred schools in a square mile to satisfy demand.

 

 

Not really. The thing you see and most lilkely interpret as 'area of influence' for the service buildings is just the radius in which it gives a happyness / level up bonus to the buildings. The service vehicles will travel much, much farther than that actually. Also, the cims will use their car, legs or public transport to get to schools.

I found that keeping the supply of education slightly in the red, or in the yellow works best to make sure you've got a varied work force (don't want 100% of people to go to university). People closer to the schools tend to get educated first.

 

 

Aside from the similar simulation issues ala Glassbox the graphics are rather lacklustre and are neither realistic nor stylistically pleasant and seem very odd and too colorful.

 

I guess that's a matter of preference. A lot of more realistic looking buildings are already popping up on the workshop, and the colour correction LUT's can do a lot to change the atmosphere.

 

The sims cant be seen at street level but for the low granularity appear well animated thd cars are similarly low in quality

 

 

fair point, but have to remember they weren't making GTA5 here I think they did a pretty good job, especially when compared to Cities (X)XL

 

They CAN actually be seen at street level with a quick mod:

 

 

 

The game lags on the lowest settings i admit on my macbook pro bought this year hardly a gamer rig but still

 

Running on integrated intel chipset? Yep, that's going to be rough, but was to be expected and is actually mentioned as unsupported in the specs.

 

 

This and the ridiculous glassbox they use which means every two blocks need their own police fire school etc

 

not really, see above

 

 

Dragging water piped was fun in sc2000 but here it seems a chore

 

I have to agree on this. I wouldn't mind a water pipes integrated with roads mod at all.

 

 

Those animated trees are less appealing to the eye than a sc2000 pine...

 

difference between a 2D and a 3D game sadly. Complex organic forms are really hard to model nicely on a low poly budget.

 

 

I find it extraordinary the amount of positive reviews its getting considering how many similarities with 2013 i can see

 

For a city builder, the similarities are pretty much expected. The reason the reviews are positive is that this game actually works, and costs less than half of what SC2013 cost at release.

Also, even with the base 9 tiles, it's already a real CITY builder, not a village simulator.

 

 

I expected better from the makers of CIM.

 

I think they did a great job making this game a solid core platform, with a team that grew from 9 to 13 people during development. I can only imagine the game is going to get better as the time goes by.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I just want to respond properly to the OP.

I been very critical of every city builder to come out since societies and didn't touch none of them. Even when this game was announced, I was skeptical. You can see my first reaction in the announcement thread. You can always see if a game (particularly a city builder) will be good by the developer notes and game design gauging by the enjoyment with SC4 which is the heavy weight champion. I must say that I am pleasantly surprized with not only the foundation CO gave us to mod, but some in-game features.

 

What other city builder can give you the experience of clicking on any vehicle or pedestrian and go into first person to enjoy a ride through the city you built?

 

The water system is fascinating. Not only do we have dynamic water that interacts with terrain at any height, if you get too heavy handed with water pumps, you can drain a river. What other city builder have this? And I like water pipes BTW.

 

The road system is very flexible and yields to much creativity. Tunnels are said to be coming in an upcoming patch. I hope to see some more road types in the future. BTW, the cars and trucks actually tilt on turns. There are many surprising little details in there that give it life.

 

Just look at the posts on Reddit and the CJs around here. People are doing great things with this game and it's only 3 week since launch. Some things do need some polishing but the foundation is solid. Modding is not constrained to gmax or 3ds Max alone. You can use any 3D software pipeline that can get you an FBX file. I read some even succeeded with Collada making this a very mod friendly experience. To top that off, we are not dealing with a game abandoned by the makers and new features are in the works according to interviews and announcements by CO.

 

I don't see it as a replacement for my SC4 install but the experience is very familiar to SC4 and different at the same time because it's in 3D with free camera movement including features I mentioned above.

And the price is very reasonable for something that will likely give you years of joy if you are a city builder fan. Just go for it. I think you won't regret it.

[Marc Collins 36]

 

I expected better from the makers of CIM.

 

I find your lack of faith disturbing...

 

Where the game falls short the mods more than rectify it. With mods we have: ingame terraforming, SAM, canals, terrain brushes, filler tiles, industrial fillers, carparks, substantial building variety, first person camera, the make historical option, two-lane highways, all 25 tiles unlockable, more MMP flora, etc...

 

And all of this just THREE weeks after the game was released.

 

 

Unless growable varied lot sizes from 1x1 up to whatever the largest industry and farm needs can be modded, it will remain just so close to perfection but an ultimate fail on the realism front.  Sort of like CiM2.

[AkemiAzula 280]

Well with this new information i will play some more and consider the mods. My advice is to buy it as

1 the cheap price

2 offline

3 modding already getting along

Sorry if i sounded meganegative but my first reaction to the feel of the game was simcity clone

However from further information i woukd agree its worth buying and the best city builder available

[BlakeMW 84]

I purchased the deluxe edition for the equivalent of ~28USD. I got the deluxe because it had a higher discount than standard meaning it cost basically the same. If you look around online game stores you can find discounts of 15-30% over what it costs on steam.

 

I consider the game is worth buying, if you have the PC specs to run it smoothly.

 

I have a few grizzles about the game, the first is that I feel it tends to spoon feed you a bit in the early game, in SC4 you could go full education from day 1 if you wanted to. In Skylines you don't have the choice, the game unlocks schools about when it becomes sensible to build one. Your city development is thus on rails to a larger extent. Note that after most the stuff is unlocked (~20,000cims, or a few hours gaming) it becomes rather more open.

The main challenge in the game is definitely traffic management. I would say it is the only part of the game which is hard, or has a significant learning curve. Building transportation networks is a combination of science and art. In SC4 a lot of what you did was just for flavor, in Skylines it matters a lot more how you layout your networks. There is a lot more depth.

There is not more depth in the RCI simulator though, my feeling is that there is actually less depth. I mean superficially yeah it's deeper, because you have industry specialization and stuff. But I get the feeling that in terms of gameplay it's just not as good/fun as how Simcity4 does it. Like I think the IAg/ID/IM/IHT model is actually better than what you have with skylines industries.

 

Whether it makes a more fun toy or not is debatable, but it's definitely a much better City Simulator than Simcity 4.

[Mystrelia 57]

Aside from having all those wonderful miles and miles of farmlands with all the awesome custom farm mods I had in SC4 I much prefer the way industry works in CS. I kept seeing people shouting out how there isn't high-tech industry. Imagine my surprise at finding there indeed are high-tech industries and other extremely interesting things in the Level 3 industries in CS. It just tickles my funny bone to no end that Frank finally perfected his recipe and now produces gourmet fish sticks instead of the usual variety. Then there's the gadget factory and Wayne Enterprises. I think it's pretty obvious what types of things are made at those places.

 

Yeah, I am not super keen on the spoon feeding in the regular unlock play mode. I ditched that pretty quickly for the unlocked play style. I don't want endless money, but I do want to build what I want when I want to build it, providing of course the city can afford it.

[piercing_arrow 76]

I've heard several good reviews about this game, and seeing how Simtrop has embraced the game, I was wondering what your opinion on the game is.

 

I quite enjoyed SC13 (bought it after update 10), so would this (CSL) be a step up from that? Is the modding community large?

 

Thanks in advance for any opinions.

  Edited April 5, 2015 by Cyclone Boom  
Merged from here...

[iviaarten 534]

I'd say that this is a much better game than SC2013 in many aspects. And the modding community is growing by the day. Especially seeing the price, I think you can't go wrong with the purchase.

[shiggs 1]

you probably can't get better value for $30 if you like city building games.  Even if you are just a casual gamer its worth it.

 

People with powerful computers will be able to build almost limitless cities (81 continuous tiles) soon.  Its what we've all been waiting for for 13 years.

[Mymyjp 1,052]

I am a big SC4 fan..I was hesitant to by Cities Skylines...never played SC2013 or such...I bought Cities Skylines and I do not regret it. It is challenging, you feel a sense of gratification when something runs "smooth", the graphic are really beautiful and the fact you can create your own little customed items (plazas, parks, etc) is extremely useful when wanting to fill those gaps.

 

The modding community is really working hard and have provided awesome mods so far.

 

You will not regret purchasing this game.

[ibegurpard 3]

Only about 30 American dollars, seemingly limitless modding potential, small studio without millions of shareholders to pay off so they can take their huge windfalls with success of the game and put it right back into improving and expanding the game...there's no downside to getting the game.  Any drawbacks you might have heard of so far are pretty minor and will almost certainly be fixed.

[JeteTheDef 0]

I think you should. I actually ended up pirating it first and then bought it the next day. It's THAT good. Plus, the mod support is insane- you have limited access to mods if you pirate the game. That's no fun. =(

[BlakeMW 84]

The only real question is whether you should buy the game now, or buy it later after some issues have been fixed. There are no show-stoppers, the game is perfectly playable. But the traffic simulator has some warts, and some areas of the game will probably undergo some fine-tuning.

Some games, when they come out, need an expansion pack or some serious modding to become a good game. Skylines is not like that, it's a great game out of the box, but like all reasonably newly released games, will profit from a few patches.

[hristos 1]

Well after the SimCity i know there r people that they have to be sure that they dont waste their money but this is a 30$ game. U can find it 20 and then add it to steam. If u r familiar with this kind of games u must buy it yesterday!!!  if dont i cant answer. There r many videos on line see the gameplay.

[rsc204 21,866]

People with powerful computers will be able to build almost limitless cities (81 continuous tiles) soon.  Its what we've all been waiting for for 13 years.

 

How powerful I wonder, with 25 on an i7 4700 with 16GB and a 2GB GTX 750ti I have about 40fps now, I'm not sure how much further I can push it, granted the GPU is not the worlds most powerful, but the rest is pretty up to snuff even 18 months after purchase?

 

And yes you should buy this game if you like City Builders, ultimately I think most of the modders will probably be somewhere between SC4 and Skylines in the future, I'm not so familiar with SC2013 modding, but honestly it's getting crazy with Skylines, a few weeks in and tens of thousands of mods already, I think by this time next year we won't recognise the game we have now. At $30 it's a bargain, I've played 160h or so thus far, that's more than any game I've bought since SC4.

[JeteTheDef 0]

It's worth. Blows SC2013 out of the water by a long shot.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

I agree with the general consensus here.

It's a game that's not only is fun to play, but has great potential to be developed even further through modding or future updates.

 

For me, a big positive is the base game is 100% playable and enjoyable. I've spent quite a bit of time without mods, and as it should be, there's no "dependence" to use them (in that way you can be more selective). The simulation is engaging and interesting on it's own, and the additional content is a bonus. In terms of the modding, it's great the game has been opened up to the community, which is already flourishing.

 

 

Note:
To keep discussion contained & easier to follow, I've merged this with an existing thread on the same subject.