Is Cities: Skylines One Of The Top 50 Games Of 2015?

It’s hard to believe that 2015 is rapidly approaching its end. With the holiday shopping season kicking off in prudent this weekend, we’re looking at some of games of 2015 and debating whether or not they belong in our year-end list of the top 50 games. This time, we’re putting Colossal Order’s Cities: Skylines. When I reviewed the game earlier this year, I felt it was a pretty good representation of what fans wanted with EA and Maxis’ lackluster 2013 SimCity. To see what others think, I challenged fellow editor Matt Bertz to play several hours of Cities: Skylines and report back with his thoughts.

Brian: What was your interest level and history with city building sims going in?

Bertz: SimCity 2000 was one of my favorite games as a kid. I spent countless hours building up gorgeous cityscapes, only to inevitably unleash tornadoes and monster attacks on my populace. But over time my interests drifted elsewhere. I skipped SimCity 3000, SimCity 4, Societies, and the troubled 2013 reboot. Given my time away from the genre, I’m curious to see how much it has evolved. What makes you think this game is a good Top 50 candidate?

Brian: I really feel this game gave fans of the genre everything they’ve been wanting for years. EA and Maxis failed to do a good job of carrying on the iconic SimCity name with the 2013 release, and Cities: Skylines excels where that game failed. You can build on a massive plot, the traffic A.I. is excellent thanks to Colossal Order’s history with traffic sim games, and best of all, there’s no need to be constantly connected to the internet. It has a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of things and have several failed cities under your belt, it’s super satisfying to sustain your first sprawling metropolis.

Bertz: Having not played a game from this genre in some time, I was surprised by how little has changed, while at the same time feeling like I have more options than ever to make whatever kind of city I want. As you mentioned earlier, it takes a couple games to relearn the basic rules for city building (and the game offers minimal suggestions), but after those false starts I finally started seeing progress. The progression system does a nice job of parsing out new building types at the appropriate time and refilling the city coffers. I also like the city policies, which in addition to the budget financing for the various utilities allows you to massage critical services to work overtime when you’re cash-strapped and can’t immediately add a new power plant or water pumping station to meet demand.

Traffic plays a much more critical role than in previous citybuilders I have played; making sure the roads stay unclogged is essential to keeping your city services working appropriately. To do so without simply scrapping the city and starting anew, I had to get creative, creating one-ways to keep traffic flowing through congested areas and building overpasses. 

Cities: Skylines definitely scratches that SimCity itch, but it does have room for improvement. I wish I could sign up for notifications that could make me aware of potential problems before they start affecting the populace. like informing me of potential brownouts or overflowing landfills. This would make the faux Twitter “Chirper” feature so much more useful than seeing the repetitive “OMG this city tries to conserve power” message that dominate the feed. 

I also wish I had more freedom to build away from roads and around pre-established dwellings without having to bulldoze the entire property. If I see an empty stretch of yard and want to put a walking path there so I can build a park for the nearby residents, the game should allow me to do so. 

Brian: I totally get that. When I was playing, there were certainly times when I didn’t realize something was wrong until it was too late. I often chalked that up to the decreased handholding. You’re right, it would have been nice to have some kind of early warning system beyond the little bit of help the fake in-game Twitter provides. 

I do have to say that some of the failures, while frustrating, can be absolutely hilarious. I built an ambitious dam to try on a river and ended up drying up my first successful city’s most precious natural resource, sending its entire ecosystem into a cataclysmic downward spiral. While those can be frustrating, as I look back at my time with Cities: Skylines, those are the moments that have stuck with me more than my actual successes). Did you have any funny or memorable mishaps come out of your own misunderstanding of the way the game works?

Bertz: Let’s just say I won’t be applying for a job on the water commission any time soon. In my first city, I wasn’t paying attention to the flow of the river when I built my water pumps. Everything seemed fine until a few minutes later I noticed everyone was getting sick and my population dropped precipitously. Probably a viral plague I have no control over, right? Nope. Turns out my sewage was pumping directly into my fresh water supply, circulating body waste into the drinking water! 

Brian: Remind me to never accept a drink of water from you ever again. As much of a bummer as that probably was, were the rewarding successes and humorous failures enough fun for you to agree that Cities: Skylines has earned a spot on our Top 50 Games of 2015 list?

Bertz's Verdict: I agree with your original premise that Cities: Skylines is a more-than-adequate replacement for the beloved SimCity franchise, the legacy of which EA has tarnished just like it did with Ultima, Command & Conquer, and many other games born in the early PC gaming scene. Is that enough to earn it a spot on the Top 50 list? I guess that comes down to the rest of the competition. It was a great year for games, and I could see myself arguing for it, but some good games won’t make the cut, too. Pragmatism doesn’t make for an entertaining conclusion, but once we have a better grasp of the landscape I’ll have a better idea of whether or not it fits.