izigame.me

So, With the release of this games successor and conclusion of official content from Paradox Interactive on this title I think it's time to give my impressions.
PROLOGUE
So, as I've said in my review of C:S2, I've played city simulators since about 2008. Starting out with SimCity 4 moving to the much maligned SimCity 2013 and later Cities XL (2011). When this game released in 2015 I was a freshman in college with aspirations of becoming a civil engineer. Almost 10 years have passed since this games release. I have graduated with my B.S. in Civil Engineering, I work a full-time job as a Project Engineer for my local municipality. I get to do some of what I can do in this title in reality! A dream come true?
One thing has not changed in almost 10 years; C:S1 is still KING! Yes, C:S2 is out, and yes its still a mess...
So, why review now?
Well... No good reason honestly. I thought I did already but, I must've forgotten... Long story short, it takes retrospective (and the release of a worse version *cough* *cough*...) to look at a title that still provides me with joy. It's time to reform my opinion. That, and I think I have enough play time to spare a few moments formulating my thoughts for the internet.
THE MEAT & POTATOES
Cities Skylines released on March 10, 2015 to great acclaim. Standards and expectations were low in 2015 coming off the failure of SimCity 2013. This game promised modding support out the gate, expansive maps, in-depth analytics and logistics. Boy! Did it deliver! From day one I was hooked. Running this game on my (for the time) decent Samsung Laptop I'd bought used in high school in 2013. Pushing that meager 4GB of RAM and dual core AMD APU to the limits until I bought my own (albeit old and used) HP Pavilion a year later. As the years would go by I'd upgrade that old HP Pavilion (i5-3470, 16GB DDR3 RAM, GTX 750ti later AMD RX 480). In 2017 I'd out right replace it with my last rig (i7-4790k, 32GB DDR3 RAM and for a time X-Fire RX480/580 then later SLI 2 GTX 1070s) This game had me hooked and what a ride it was! I built my last computer around making this game as playable as possible (for a system confined to DDR3 RAM). I've done the same thing with C:S2 and my latest rig (i9-12900k, 32GB DDR5, RTX 3080ti) but, somethings different about this new release...
I digress...
What Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive did for this niche of the gaming world was phenomenal! It seemed like over night this game launched a complete revitalization of this series of games.
That's not to say this game was perfect. Cities of small sizes in vanilla game are harder to manage then large cities. The traffic AI is finicky at best without mods and the overall base game experience is pretty lacking originally on release, with basic roads and tools to get you started. Most of these issues were later addressed by Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive so, a lot of my first day annoyances are gone! Where this game succeeded where SimCity 2013 and frankly, C:S2 failed was not having mod support from day one. The community was basically all-hands-on-deck from day one which made this game such a success. Without this core function, this game is just okay a solid B- experience. It's modding that corrected this games more finicky mechanics the developers left unattended; improving on a good foundation left laid out by the developers. It's modders of all kinds that brought us a wealth of content that keeps this game alive. It's active, happy players that have sunk WAY too many hours into making their perfect city (myself included). With save files spanning LITERAL YEARS before finally calling that project complete. SO THANK YOU MODDERS, ASSET CREATORS, CONTENT CREATORS AND DEVELOPERS FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK!
On to the features. The core mechanics of this game are familiar to those who have played the likes of Cities XL, SimCity and etc... You zone residential, commercial, industrial and offices here. You zone based on demand and your city grows (or fails) due to how much and where you place those zones. This title also shipped with districts which allows the player to customize exactly what buildings should spawn and where they spawn. City policies, can do everything from lower water/power consumption, increase the use of public transportation, funding for ammenties and quickly raise and lower taxes for the enclosed area(s) just to name a few functions. From the factory, ploppable buildings were limited to special monuments, statues or other structures of significance. Roads are the veins and arteries of a city and the traffic simulation in this title is set to mimic natural movement of people and goods up to a certain point. This game provides overlays, graphs so you, as the mayor can determine the best use of your limited money and resources (if you are playing without unlimited money, or resources). This makes for an engaging experience that keeps the player drawn into one of many aspects of city management (minus the politics..). No matter your specialty IRL, you will find something enjoyable here.
The added DLC over the last 8.5 years has generally been pretty good. Yes, some packs were lacking but I've been very satisfied with the added content creator packs, music packs and expansion packs. Most notably the bulk of these updates provided free add-ons that came with each successive update allowing all players to experience something new.
Where C:S1 falls short is in some of the details. As mentioned, no ploppable ZONED buildings out of the box. That's a minor inconvenience that was resolved with a mod. A BIG emphasis on the movement of goods over the movement of people which has and still to this day, leads to outrageous congestion in industrial areas while bustling commercial/residential/office areas are empty. Some poor implementation of transportation service overlays and views (buses, tram, trolley-bus, metro and etc...) without mods to fix the granularity needed to accurately setup and manage and maintain those services. POOR vanilla support of district creation, which has to been done before loading a save game or new game. POOR implementation of mods and assets in the custom content menu and, equally poor organization of that content regardless if its mods, or assets, and etc... This was later *mostly* corrected by mods. No uniformity to fit ploppable assets to the games grid structure to make them blend in more seamlessly. Poor asset scaling versus zoned buildings yes, even for the vanilla buildings. Uneven learning curve; and equally uneven demand fluctuations (anyone remember death waves? I do...). Overly sensitive collision, manipulation and bending settings for network, nodes, segments and assets which made developing a "realistic" city nearly impossible without mods. No access to the wealth of props the game naturally has (originally without mods) and no way to search or filter assets. No way to way to manipulate props, assets or networks after they are placed without mods.
But these are minor in the grand scheme of things...
SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS
What makes this game still better than its successor?
It's the support from the community! Like I said, without the community this is a B- game. Play the console experience and you'll know were I'm coming from. Not having the tools we have here on this platform really limits what you can do. Honestly it may make you a more creative player to hurdle those obstacles... With mods, assets, editors and the rest of us is what makes this an A+ title! Yes, that includes you too! You, reading this is what makes this game great! Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order can only lay the foundation for their games success. They are in full control of the bones. This title clearly demonstrates what strong, hardy and resilient foundations can do for a title; make it stand the test of time!
So... Why isn't C:S2? More on that over in that review. Go check it out. You made it this far...