Game/Publisher/Developer
Cities: Skylines, Paradox Interactive, Colossal Order
The Trailer
My Reaction
Even with a sequel now out there wearing the name, the original still feels like the definitive version of this game. Years of DLC and mods have turned it into something the follow-up hasn’t come close to matching.
Overview
Cities: Skylines is a city-building simulation game developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive, released in 2015 for PC. Players design and manage a growing city, balancing zoning, traffic, utilities, budgets and public services while contending with the knock-on effects of every decision. Steam Workshop support opened the door to an enormous library of community mods and assets, and years of official DLC steadily expanded the base game’s scope well beyond its original release.
What I Liked
- Years of DLC and mod support have deepened the simulation far beyond what shipped in 2015.
- The city-building tools still feel more refined and rewarding than its own sequel’s.
- Visually, it holds up better than the follow-up despite being the older game.
- The modding scene alone gives it near-endless replay value.
What I Didn’t Like
- Traffic AI can still fall apart in larger, more complex cities, even with mods trying to patch around it.
Verdict
The sequel has dented the brand, but the original Cities: Skylines still holds up as a genuinely impressive city builder, one that years of DLC and community mods have only made stronger. It outclasses its own successor in nearly every respect, including how it looks. For anyone with the itch to play modern urban planner, this remains the best option out there, and that doesn’t look like it’s changing anytime soon.
Rating
81/100