Make no mistake this IS the Simcity 4 follow up we've been waiting for (opinion from a veteran city builder)

[Violins77]

First of all, I know this topic has probably been discussed to death when the game first release, but I just recently jumped on board with the game and this is a free world where I can and will express my opinion on it in the hope that this can be useful to some.

I will start by saying that I am a veteran city builder, I have been playing these games since the original Simcity. Played a lot of Simcity 2000, a little 3000, and basically Simcity 4 for over a decade. I did not jump into Simcity Societies, even if I was a fan of Tilted Mill and Children Of The Nile, I found that this approach does not really work with modern cities.

When I say I played Simcity 4 over a decade, I mean it. I tried a LOT of different mods, but in the end, mostly used only CAM and NAM, and became really good at using the somewhat clunky workarounds to build really great cities. Anyone who ever attempted to use the network override transport and puzzle pieces will understand how dedicated you had to be to make some of these things work properly. But there was nothing else like it, so there I was playing this game 10 years after release and checking tutorials on how to use the NAM additional networks and highways.

That brings us to early 2012, when Simcity 2013 was announced. I was so pumped by the announcement, I was upon the first 10 people to post on the forum the same day of the announcement. But as time went by and new information was announced, the mood changed drastically in the forums. The always online thing was definitely a bummer, but for me, the real deal breaker was really the city size and how awful it looked with bubble of cities in the region map, and the complete disengagement of anything on the topic of mods by EA, which for a PC exclusive in this genre made absolutely no sense for me seeing how Simcity 4 was STILL the reference and actively played, mostly because of mods in my opinion.

Then the game came out, and most of our concerns were sadly now a reality. Broken launch apart (because let's be honest if the game would have been awesome that could have been just a slight bummer in the grand scheme of things), the game was more like a SimTown than a hardcore Simcity experience that would make the active community embrace it as the official new city building reference. I did not buy it, but I am not saying the game was bad at all, just that it was not the Simcity 4 spiritual successor that a lot of people were hoping when it was announced, and sadly, this was really badly what I was looking for, but didn't get it.

Now, Cities Skyline gets announced less than a year later and it lists in the reveal trailer pretty much everything we (the Simcity 4 veterans) wanted to hear. The game releases to much critical praise, and it looks really nice indeed. But there was one thing missing for me that was kind of a deal breaker : The day night cycle. Watching my cities in night lights is part that I enjoy deeply, so I was really bummed that Cities Skyline did not have it. Ditto with tunnels. I decided to wait and see originally. And then, there it was, a few months later, a day night cycle was added to the game by the devs themselves! At that point, I was so pumped, I decided it was time to jump in. So there, I purchased the game and started playing, modding, and experiencing.

Now, after playing enough to get a good grasp of it, I can tell with absolute certainty, this IS the Simcity 4 follow up I was waiting for. Everything is super well designed, placing roads, tunnel, elevated rail, you name it, is an absolute breeze when coming from Simcity 4, and pretty much all gameplay parts that I found tedious in Simcity 4 are a thing of the past in Cities Skyline. Things like zoning, where in SC4 you could never quite know how the AI would place it (arrow direction on zones, and yes I know about holding CTRL, but then you are not sure about the size if it is suitable), having to place puzzle pieces to build something like a rail under highway or other modded roads, and many others, are now super fun and intuitive to do to the point where I was laughing at how cool it is to build curved tunnels and elevated rails.

And then, there is modding. Not counting the many buildings you can use, I did my modding test using a tram. I had a super nice tram in my latest city in Simcity 4, so I was eager to see how can this be achieved with CS. Sure enough, there were some mods available to modify the train tracks, and an advanced traffic and vehicle mod to modify what vehicle goes on what line. A couple tries later, I had a downloaded tram car spawning on a line I made on a track that looks like a tram track (with grass on track and so on). This is an important part to understand, because there are no tram in game, I was just basically using a different train track with a downloaded tram manually placed on this track to simulate it, but it works extremely well, and this is EXACTLY the kind of things that want to see in a city building game. This is when I decided it was time to share this topic with the world.

I also use some post fx, a LUT and a SweetFX preset I made to tune the visuals to my taste, and now the game looks awesome, on par with what I would expect for a 2015 follow up to SC4!

TLDR; This game has all Simcity 4 had (not in assets, but in features, minus a couple like regions) and does it in a far more intuitive way. It has modding, and gives you the tools to make cities just as awesome as what you expect. Any fan of Simcity 4 still on the verge out there, don't hesitate one more second, what you are looking for is there.

[Excrucian]

Well yes, you are many months late for saying all that lol. But still, I was in the exact (freaky) same boat as you except I still bought it at day 1 and never regretted it.

If I can just suggest, you might want to make your post into a review also since it's quite detailed and complete :)

[Jackrabbit]

Very well said. I'm wonder if there's anyone who's still playing Simcity 2013. I guess almost everyone now has chosen CS(or maybe Simcity 4, which is also still installed on my PC) and it's really really quiet on Simcity's online servers