Most people I know probably know that I am a big fan of city buildings games. Way back in the day I used to play the old Sim City 2000 religiously and it was not only one of my three most favorite PS1 games, but also probably one of my top 20 games of all time. I also liked some of the other Sim City games that were for mobile consoles like Sim City Creator and Sim City DS.

But eventually, I started growing tired of city games when it came to consoles and PC. I tried playin Sim City 4 and I just wasn’t really a fan of it. I also played games like Cities in Motion 2 and this New York City based building game but neither of them brought the same level of fun that I got from the older games.

Then about two years ago I started playing Cities: Skylines on PS4 and then on Switch later on and I started realizing that it pretty much had all the things that you should expect from a city building game and that it even had more than what you would have wanted from one. As a result, I poured lots of hours into the game and while it never became as good as Sim City 2000, it quickly became one of my most favorite city building games.

GRAPHICS: 8/10

You know how when you’re in a plane at night and you look down at a city and you see all the lights and business of whatever city you’re flying over? Well that’s kind of what it looks like in Cities: Skylines. It’s really full of detail to the point where if you build a bustling city and you zoom out to the point where you can see your entire city in one shot, that’s exactly what it will look like.

You know, other than the obvious game feel, it’s pretty much going to look exactly like what you would expect from a real city. The environment can look pretty realistic at times and the bigger a house or building is, the more detail is put into each one. When you build a tall building, it’s going to actually look like a tall building.

Plus it’s a nice touch when you can see hundreds of cars on the streets actually moving around. There were a couple times where I would actually pick a random car and just follow it around to see what it does and where it goes. You even get to see people walking around as well as animals. This gives the way the game looks a more realistic feel and helps the overall style of the game. For me, graphics gets an 8 out of 10.

SOUND: 7/10

For me, the sound of Cities: Skylines is something that I’m not a fan of. I think it can use a lot of work and it’s something that I just generally don’t like, especially if you go around building bigs cities because the generic sounds of the city just seem like a mess to me.

First of all, there’s going to be so many noises, and in most cases you’re just going to hear the same noises over and over again. If there’s a section of your city that has lots of streets, cars, and buildings, it can become a nightmare to listen to at times. You’re going to hear lots of generic conversation sounds over and over. You will hear construction sounds, and dogs, and birds almost all the time. If there’s crime you’re going to hear sirens and if there’s a lot of crime in one area you’re going to hear multiple sirens going off at the same time for the longest.

The same thing goes if your city has a bad health system and you can hear dozens of ambulances blaring non stop while you’re playing. The worst part is that it’s so freaking loud. No matter how you play, it’s just going to be screaming 100 different sounds at you. I took a couple short video clips of one of my small towns to demonstrate how loud and obnoxious the game can be, and the scary part is that in the games settings, I changed the overall volume all the way down to 60%.

Half the time, these sounds will be drowning out the music too. If you’re playing, the best thing you can do is turn off all of the sounds or make them as low as you like in the settings because they will quickly give you a headache. My grade for overall sound is going to be a 7 out of 10.



ADDICTIVENESS: 10/10

If you are a big fan of city building games like I am or have experience with any of the Sim City games, then you’re probably going to love Cities Skylines and you’ll end up finding so much to do. Even if you are not a fan of these kinds of games, you might be occasionally interested in playing when you have nothing else to do because the building and management aspects of the game can take you away from the real world for hours at a time.

Sure, the only thing you can do in Cities Skylines is city building, but there are so many ways to do so. Plus, this game has the same amount of replayability as a game like Minecraft. Maybe you’ve spent 100 hours in one world on Minecraft and you got bored so you ended up creating a brand new world, and even though you’ve probably started a new world dozens of times, it feels fresh and fun each time you do it.

The same thing applies in Cities Skylines. Maybe you spent 30 hours on one city, building a massive metropolis with a ton of people. But then maybe you want to try something new so you pick a new piece of land, maybe you build a different type of city or town, maybe you manage your money, buildings, and people differently. Every time you start creating a new city, there are hundreds of ways for each city to be different from the last one that you’ve built.

You also get to deal with every single aspect of your city, which would make it a real treat for fans of simulation games. You don’t only deal with the basics of running a city like taxes, crime, hospitals, fire, and schools, no, there’s so much more. You get to create your own policies, decide where all your money goes, view so many different aspects of your city, and so much more.

Heck, if you got bored of a city and you didn’t want to start a new one just yet, you could simply destroy it and see what happens. Simply destroy buildings, especially the important ones like police stations and hospitals. Destroy roads, cut funding to every major service, cut access to power and water, and even raises taxes, or even fill your city with pollution or other stuff that could make your citizens unhappy.

If you’re unhappy with your city or just bored and want to try something new, just try one of those things and watch your city burn to the ground in chaos and destruction. It’s so much fun and because of that, addictiveness gets a perfect 10 out of 10.

STORY: 0

There’s no story at all when it comes to Cities Skylines. It’s just a sandbox game where you get to create your own city in any way that you like. When you start a new city, you just pick the kind of place you want to build and whether or not you want to start with unlimited money and then you start the game. I guess starting with a limited amount of money and seeing what you can do from scratch is a nice challenge but other than that, there’s no story.

DEPTH: 10/10

There’s so much to do when it comes to city building. I already mentioned many of the things that you can do over in the addictiveness section, but there’s probably a bunch of things that I left out. In the story section, I mentioned how you can start with unlimited money and if you do that, the entire world becomes your playground because there would be no limited to what you can build.

You’d be able to use hundreds of different building and item options to build the city of your dreams and when it comes to buildings, citizens, taxes, and other areas, there are dozens if not hundreds of things that you have to pay attention to, making this one of the most fully fledged and detail oriented city building games that you could play. There’s just so much to do and depth gets another perfect 10 out of 10.

DIFFICULTY: 2

The game is too easy, especially if you are playing with unlimited money. If you are rich, you can just build whatever you want wherever you want and you could probably build an entire city in just a couple hours. The only thing that you would have to worry about at that point would be things like services and citizen happiness, which would all be fixed by building more things with your unlimited money, it’s just too easy.

If you are playing with a restricted amount of money, then you have to be more careful. But as long as you pace yourself and don’t overspend while focusing on what your city needs, then you can slowly build your city for hours at a time without running into any major problems. Pretty much as long as you know what you’re doing and you’re happy with the plans you make, then the game will be incredibly easy, no matter how you choose to play.


OVERALL: 8.8 out of 10

Overall, Cities Skylines is an amazing game and will be the perfect option for anyone who enjoys city building games. All you have to do is play with no audio or with the volume very low and you will love it. The game costs $40 in the eshop and I would definitely not suggest paying that because it wouldn’t be worth it for that price. But the game is constantly on sale for $20 and sometimes even less. If you can get it for $20 or less then you should because it would be a steal and you can easily get at least 30 hours out of it.

But again, if you are already a big fan of these kinds of games, then it’s very likely that you’ll go a long time before getting bored and someone like you could probably get more than 100 hours out it it. Overall, I think the game is great and gets an 8.8 out of 10 from me. However, if you play the game with the volume off or with only music on, then I might push it to a solid 9 out of 10.