CitiesXL

CitiesXL is obviously a large-scale project. It has some real depth as a city-building simulator that incorporates new ideas of mass-multiplay in to its systems of resource management, trade and socialization. However, what it establishes as a hardcore and well-developed sim entirely emphasizes the lack of real attention given to integrating these ambitious multiplayer aspects. In the end, Cities just feels like a hulking mass of glitch-ridden lack of foresight and would have better off as a single-player experience.

CitiesXL Review : from a famousblueraincoat
Played 20+ hours on PC
Available for PC- ESRB: T
"A Pretty Shitty City"

Developed by Monte Cristo, CitiesXL is a new take on the old idea of city-building. In a market dominated by EA and the Sim franchise, Cities feels fresh as it incorporates new interfaces and resource aspects in city management. It feels more mature, in a way that older simulation games were more relentless in their difficulty. Overcoming those difficulties then, becomes extremely rewarding when you can eventually hit a stride of growth.

The city itself builds organically and takes on its own kind of character with neighborhoods, corporate sectors and park-lands. You start small on a plot of land and construct your main transportation route connecting your city to the rest of the world off-map. Starting with simple city utilities like a Town Hall and Facility to produce electricity, you strategically place your zone sectors in combination with what industries are built, and what resources come naturally to your environment.

Heavy Industry requires Unqualified workers, Corporate Office requires Qualified Workers and other industries like Manufacturing, Agriculture or Retail require a mixture of both. At the outset, this seems complicated but understandable. Cities forces a nice slow progression of growth by 'locking' certain building types before a certain population capacity. This allows you the player to slowly manage the demands of your population with the growth of your industries. For example, early on your citizens will not demand things like Healthcare or Education, as these are more expensive utilities to provide, and as you progress slowly through the tiers of population growth, these demands are met with the availability of these utilities.

As one progresses, the variables grow exponentially. Hotels increase interest in the Corporate sector, and require some Unqualified Workers which may or may not take away from Heavy Industry depending on the reputation of your City. The management of resources that are unnatural to your environment (ie. Water in Desert areas, or Fertile Farmland in Mountain areas) becomes more and more difficult to manage.

Cities becomes a kind of complex resource manager on top of the simulation of city planning. Not only must you increase production of say Food to sell off in trade for Oil compensation, but you also have to consider what kind of environmental or social variables effect the production of those resources like bad weather or reputation.

Talking about this game makes me excited to play it more, but playing it makes me want to never touch it again. Cities walks a fine line between complex and challenging, to random and punishing. A large part of this game is reliant on a 'slowburn' process of slowly and painstakingly building up your resource management while meticulously listening to the concerns of your population. It may be the case that I'm personally not patient enough for this game, but I can't see how or why I should spend nearly 2 hours of play time in order to build up my City to a productive level, only to then want to quit out of frustration and start over in another area or with another strategy in mind.

One of the most fulfilling things about Cities is the infrastructure creation. The road networking, coupled with the options of plotting residential, industrial or commercial sectors makes for really interesting city designs. The anticipation of an endgame with illustrious Holiday Resorts and Elite housing units perched on coastal cliffs or mountain tops seems somewhat exciting to build up to, but we hardly get to play this game at a level of growth. The problems that your cities face take trial and error to rectify, and this game is not built for trial and error. I found if I began losing money, or made bad decisions in new developments, I essentially ruined my entire experience.

If you're not the kind of person to sit and scroll through your city wringing your hands with admiration and anticipation of that larger capacity stadium or hospital you can finally afford, you won't enjoy CitiesXL. Once the shine wears off, there is very little to keep you interested in coming back to it. The multiplayer is laughable and seems to have been attached as an afterthought. Although interesting to trade city resources with neighbouring cities run by real people, the "feature" of running your avatar around a friend's city a la "Second Life" is by no means interesting or well established as a playable element