Let’s get one thing straight though, I absolutely loved (and abjectly hated) that game. Sure, there are a billion things Maxis did wrong, and the tragic oversight of fondness for offline gaming aside, I (like many others) still plumbed around 60-70 hours into various little estates, crafting each separate metropolis with care and attention. I can hum the theme tune to this very day, and now that’s back in my head, I’ll probably pay my lonely citizens and their carefully routed poop pumps a quick visit after writing this.
 |
| Expect more building variety on release |
As initially interesting as the Maxis brand of state-wide co-op interplay was, the complete separation of specialist city roles drew long-term ire from almost everybody. As such, on first viewing of the Cities: Skylines demo, I was slightly concerned to be greeted with yet another small plot of land walled with a dotted line. The anxiety quickly passed however, as Colossal Order’s Mariina Hallikainen and Karoliina Korppoo immediately addressed the elephant in the room by shifting the camera up to the heavens.
Cities:Skylines territory is indeed carved into separate sections, but each of those is stitched into one huge map that can be ruined with concrete, wood and exhaust fumes at will. The visible boundary lines come into gameplay on a more structural basis (you can select around 9-10 of the zones in total to build on, which is a gigantic area), but there are no other limitations in place here. If you can see it, you can potentially build on it, and that can happen whether your LAN cable is connected to your PC or not.
Placing down zones in Cities: Skylines is as easy as drawing roads and attaching traditional industrial, residential or commercial blocks nearby (curved roads feature prominently, while zoning tools are gracefully implemented in either brush or drag-and-select format). From there, gameplay boils down to meeting the needs of your citizens and industries via the usual mix of taxation, education, transport, public services, sanitation, garbage, tourism, trade and pretty much every other element of city planning you can think of.
 |
| Zoning tools are excellent |
Although the huge map should eventually contain a vast amount of urban sprawl with a quality of life and bottom-line to delicately balance, Colossal Order is also keenly aware of the need for Maxis-style specialist hubs for industry, trade, leisure and housing. Players will also be able to draw up their own districts on the map, name them, and treat them as entirely separate entities; almost as if they were a separate city within a city.
As an example, a quiet residential area in our city is zoned out quickly, and the district tool then overlayed on top to draw boundary lines that designate the freshly laid turf as its own region. After naming duties are completed, taxes were set individually for that area, and further micro-management customisations were completed. Drawing up those boundaries should allow players to drive population towards specific areas of the landscape as required. Industrial areas will thrive with lower taxes and fewer regulations, or perhaps expensive housing could be generated with lower density planning, a higher tax rate and better environmental stimulus.
It’s a neat concept, and instantly translatable to real-world experience. The visuals (although perhaps a little dry at times) do a lot to sell the experience on realism. The map is rendered to an impressive level of fidelity even this early in development, while a proper fluid dynamics system allows tinkerers to create rivers and lakes by raising or digging terrain as they choose, with polluted water clearly visible and requiring careful siphoning away from populated areas. A suite of statistical overlays allow for quick visibility of key variables, drawing the colour out of the screen and presenting overlayed information in a clear, concise fashion.
 |
| Water is modelled dynamically |
It’s also heartening to know that almost every aspect of Cities:Skylines should be open to modding from release. The developers eagerly chatted about the possibilities of the terrain editor and potential Steamworks support for adding buildings, vehicles, decorations and pretty much anything else you could think of, and again, although it’s hard to resist sticking the boot into last year’s SimCity, you can’t help but be impressed by the level of community and creativity that Colossal Order is intent on fostering from the offset.
There’s undeniably a gap in the market here, and Cities: Skylines looks intent on filling it with an experience forged entirely from the feedback of a growing legion of miffed city-building fans. There’s little in the way of new thinking on show throughout our demo, but even solid familiarity and high production standards were comforting in the wake of last year’s disappointing release. With mods hopefully stepping up to pad out the weird-and-wonderful quotient, Skylines could be the game we were all waiting for.
