1. If you are going to register on XLNation, please make sure you do not use a proxy server.
    If you use a proxy server your registration will most likely get blocked due to spammers and hackers using proxy servers to hide their real IP address.

    If your using your home or work IP address and have not received your registration email, check your spam folder.
    PLEASE DO NOT ASK TO HAVE YOUR ACCOUNT DELETED IF YOU HAVE POSTED IN THE FORUM! If so we do not delete accounts due to the mess it can make on the forum.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Please see the following thread for more information
    XLN's future is looking bad

Alex24's Cities: Skylines Review

Discussion in 'General Forums' started by Alex24, Mar 15, 2015.

  1. Alex24

    Alex24 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2014
    Messages:
    310
    Likes Received:
    178
    After playing 26 hours of Skylines I want to sum up my experience in this review:

    1. Introduction
    2. Gameplay
    a) Roads
    b) Zones
    b) Districts and Policies
    c) Public Transport
    d) Education, Health, Secrurity
    e) Water, Waste and Energy
    f) Parks and Decoration
    g) Economy and Resources
    h) Milestons and Areas
    i) Info View and Statistics​
    3. Graphics
    4. Music and Sound
    5. Modding and Customization

    1. Introduction

    Cities: Skylines was developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive. Colossal Order is mostly famous for the transport simulations Cities in Motion and Cities in Motion 2. Thus they have some experience needed for the development of a city simulation. You can clearly see that in the simulation of traffic. But you can also see in many ways that Sim City was a big inspiration for the developers. However Colossal Order did their job a lot better than Maxis. Although there doesn't seem to be much influence from Cities XL. You will find a lot of comparisons to other games in this review

    screen1.jpg


    2. Gameplay

    The Gameply is where Skylines is best at. They considered the most important aspects for a city simulation and added some great features you won't find in other similar games. The simulation is balanced and makes an overall good impression, though there are still some bugs to be solved.

    a) Roads

    Placing roads is pure amusment! There are 3 different methods to place roads. The first one is the straight road. Pretty straight forward... straight... NOT. E.g. if you want to make a exit the game supports you by making it a bit curvy. On the one hand this is helping you a lot, on the other hand it's no 100 % straight mode.

    screen2.jpg


    The next options are curved roads and free-form roads. They are easy to handle and make some really nice results.

    screen3.png


    You can decide between small roads, medium roads, large roads and highways. Every road got a pure concrete version, another one with grass and a tree version. Small and large roads have one-way roads. They highway is placed in seperate lanes and got a version with sound barriers. Sadly there are no exit lanes.

    Of course the capacity, speed limits and costs differ from road to road.

    Placing bridges is easy though you cannot set a custom height, it's done by steps.

    All regular roads do have parking lots. Additionally buildings got their own parking lots.

    screen 4.jpg


    b) Zones

    Again this is relatively simply. You have 3 different core zones: Residential, Commercial and Industrial.
    Residential and commerical zones are split into low-rise and high-rise. There is only one zone for industry. An office zone is also available.

    All regular roads have up to 4 cells on each side. This doesn't look too well when placing curvy roads.

    screen 5.jpg


    more coming soon... (that's a lot of work actually :p)

     
  2. themp3dj

    themp3dj Unskilled Worker

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2014
    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    15
    .....yeah, but ALL items join the entire curbing so there is no awkward "straight line connection with empty space between curb and edge of the tile as in CXL and others....at least it fills in automatically so buildings on curved or wavy roads ("free-from roads" look much better and more realistic....

    P.S. -- anybody found any simple tricks in laying down the curves or free-form roads....unlike CXL and SimCity, when you connect to two opposite stubs with a curve or free-form road, they don't snap into place causing you to really work at a smoother connection....maybe I'm missing something but I figured that would be a given....
     
  3. royb 98

    royb 98 Elite

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2014
    Messages:
    389
    Likes Received:
    150
    What about custom buildings? Can you change which buildings will be built when zoning?
     
  4. Destin Faroda

    Destin Faroda Unskilled Worker

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2015
    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    6
    No. The only thing you can influence is the prohibition of skyscrapers via a regulation.
     
  5. Rene

    Rene Executive

    Joined:
    Sep 6, 2014
    Messages:
    165
    Likes Received:
    89
    Nice review and good pics, thanks Alex.
     
  6. signum_temporis

    signum_temporis Skilled Worker

    Joined:
    Aug 30, 2014
    Messages:
    18
    Likes Received:
    26
    I'm curious about next parts of review - as I'm really interested what other CXL users think about CSL.
     
    Rene likes this.
  7. The Funky Monk

    The Funky Monk Moderator
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2014
    Messages:
    632
    Likes Received:
    565
    I've played about 18 hours so far and I think it's a lot of fun. The road placement isn't as good as CXL and the repetitive buildings is annoying as is the traffic AI. I'd say it will be around for a long time like SC4.

    The devs have already announced a new update and by te sounds of it they will continue to support this game.

    Cities XXL is by far the best looking city builder. If you want total control of where buildings will be and superior graphics then CXXL is you'd game.

    If you want to have fun and watch your city grow then C:SL is for you. It's nice watching firemen put out building fire and cops and ambos race around the city. C:SL feels more alive.
     
    Sabertooth, Drazicdesign and Dreian like this.
  8. Dreian

    Dreian Moderator
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2014
    Messages:
    188
    Likes Received:
    87
    Totally agree with Funky.

    I really dislike the fact that there is no real grid with some snapping options for roads like in CXL... so for example it's difficult to make 45/135 degrees junctions of roads. Hope it can be added later by mods or devs.

    I can't manage to create something beautiful for the moment, not like i like usually to do in cxl

    I hope an expert mod can be added some day, cause i don't like this stages to accomplish... If you are building very slowly in order to create a beautiful landscape, then you will have to add a tonn of garbage piles before you get the 16 000 pop mark & unblock the incineration plant... This is pretty annoying then to wait a quite important amount of time to empty the garbage stockage...

    There are no Monty, Aitortilla, & XLN modding gods mods till now!:p
     
    Drazicdesign likes this.
  9. nicko2u

    nicko2u Governor

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2014
    Messages:
    742
    Likes Received:
    1,108
    wow just looked on steam there is currently:

    3,323 maps
    142 Mods

    Assets
    Building: 5,463
    Intersection: 5463
    etc
    etc

    wtf? why so many is such a short time? seems any donkey can create a map or asset :)
    Who the hell is going to browse through all that crud? thank god for this site! might buy the game one day.
     
    msFiorentina likes this.
  10. themp3dj

    themp3dj Unskilled Worker

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2014
    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    15
    It's like the old SimCity daze....the editor is very easy to use and to learn for the basic mods and so many of what is posted is simple variations and workarounds of other "stuff"....

    I'm still awaiting the high-end buildings that the artists of this site are capable of bringing to the game...and yes, there is a ton o' crud to weed through....I quit looking about a week ago and peruse XLN constantly for the "good stuff"....
     
  11. Sabertooth

    Sabertooth Skilled Worker

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2014
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    13
    Ouch! At least I'm glad you didn't use the word 'monkey'.
     
    kipate likes this.
  12. Destin Faroda

    Destin Faroda Unskilled Worker

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2015
    Messages:
    12
    Likes Received:
    6
    He said the M-word!

    RIP Terry Pratchett.

    Yeah, easy mod tools can have a negative effect on the quality of mods. Reminds me of all the nude patches in Skyrim.
    If the tools, on the other hand, require at least some effort, it mostly attracts serious-minded people.
     

Share This Page