Cities skylines

I don't particularly enjoy most computer games. I don't enjoy games which involve hand-eye coordination. When I played Pac-Man in my teens, those stupid ghosts always got me. I prefer games that move at a slower pace, and involve simulated action. I enjoy sports management games, which involve strategy and finances and putting a team together, and seeing how your plans bear fruit.

In that same genre I truly enjoy city builder games as well. I remember playing SimCity fondly, with its ability to show how much damage a small godzilla attack can create. Because of these fond memories I purchased the newly released city builder game from Paradox Interactive, Cities Skylines. (Full disclosure my brother works at Paradox.)

I have only played a few hours but already I am enjoying the game play. The graphics are unbelievable in their detail, and the menus are super helpful. The goal is to progress along to certain milestone as you grow your city from hamlet to village to town to metropolis. As with most of these sorts of games, the main temptation to always to build too fast. This overwhelms your infrastructure and leads to all sorts of problems. Through trial and error, you realize what needs to be done. (Like don't put your water tower in an industrial zone! The citizens don't like brown water.)

One of more interesting, fun and sometimes unbelievably frustrating aspects of the game is how to deal with traffic. I am sure it is a problem real life city planners face. You build a city area, which is suitably served by normal roads, but then as the city grows the traffic becomes a nightmare. Then you need to figure out a plan to fix it, which often involves a lot of demolition to build wider roads, roundabouts, off-ramps, etc. I am still trying to get the hang of dealing with traffic, and if things don't work (which happens to me a lot), you re-load the city and start again. And the traffic nightmares lead to other problems. The trash is not picked up efficiently so it piles up. When someone dies they cannot be taken to the cemetery quickly so the neighbours complain. And the fire department has trouble answering calls.

The game is good about telling you what the problems are, and you get a lot of good game play out of trying to fix things. I look forward to many hours of fun, as I try, once more, to solve the traffic nightmare that is downtown Michaeltown!