Cities Skylines is a real time strategy and management game set around a life-like world simulation. The basic goal of the game is to build a wealthy and happy community while having to manage your economy, the happiness of your population, and the infrastructure of you various districts, all within you large but not unlimited patch of land. I have not been playing Cities Skylines for very long, I bought it a few days ago on sale, but I already am falling in loves with its vast stores of game play.
The first thing to stand out me when opening Cities Skylines for the first time was its graphics. The bright colors and intricate detail combined with the amazing but simple physics and light engines, gives a visually appealing, but never distracting set of visuals that quickly fade into the game play in a seamless experience.
And boy is the game play enjoyable. It is amazingly absorbing to meticulously place roads, houses, shops, factory's, and power generators. All while trying to build your city to a Chicago level metropolis. The easy controls give the game an illusion of ease, but mastering the game and achieving a stable and thriving large city is proving fairly difficult. And the pace is kept constant by always needing to supply more power, water, money. If the the game at any point starts to get boring, it quickly will set you back a distance by throwing a fair sized natural disaster for you to deal with. If I had to name one thing I didn't like about the game play, it would probably be how easy it is to lose track of time and get lost within the game. The intense focus that sets in I can best relate performing music, a steady focus on exactly whats happening and slightly looking forward to make sure I don't mess up. This focus on the present and only the very near future makes some of my experience with the game seem almost meditative.
The finishing touch that makes Cities Skylines a masterpiece is its perfectly crafted soundtrack. The bright and cheery chords and computer generated notes matches perfectly with the game play and is quickly forgotten and taken for granted, but when disabled is sorely missed. And when disasters strike, the music turns dark and adds a bigger sense of urgency and panic. Though I would never listen to the music on its own, no other series of tracks could be paired with the game in any way that would come out better.
In conclusion, Cities Skylines is a visually beautiful, game play rich, and well paced masterpiece I am sure I will slowly but surely sink hours of time into. It's rich and rewarding progression make it a great choice for new and/or casual gamers.
