CITIES: SkyLines its existence is largely owed to the successful position of stars. When Simcity Disappointed, Tropico stagnant, a CITies XL I buried even deeper into myself, it was enough to say: “We are making a game about cities, without constant online and with an area of more than two square kilometers”, so that you are loved by everyone.
“We have long asked Paradox to finance the urban planning simulator, but the doubts remained to the last,” said Gamery ” Marina Hallikainen , CEO Colossal Order CEO. – And here – such an opportunity ".
Real cities
When Colossal Order began working on the simulator of the city transport network CITIES in Motion, There were only nine people in the studio. “We always wanted to make a full -scale urban planning simulator, but then we had neither strength nor resources. I had to narrow the focus, ”says Marina.
But, despite the specific orientation, both CITIES in Motion have always been games not about transport, but still about cities. About the cities that live their lives, the city Jackpot Charm Casino where everything is connected with everything and the reason is for everything. Why no one wants to ride our trams? Why are our minibuses constantly getting stuck in traffic jams? Why at the same stops the apple has nowhere to fall, while others are empty? Everything is simple: because you did not understand the specifics and did not follow the conjuncture. In your city, everyone is simulated to a single detail, and not taken from the air – this is a real living ecosystem, which you need to delve into.
Now the same approach was applied to SkyLines. The impression of the latter Simcity greatly spoiled that every visible citizen of the city is a statist living in order to hatch at point A, follow to point B and dissolve in the abroad of despair. There is no such thing here.
► The city begins with a square size just with an built -up area from the last Simcity. As the city will grow, we can expand by eight of the same.
I deliberately sat on the tail of one of my citizens in order to make sure of this. Shinji Ikari, a citizen of literally founded village of Urban type Tokyo-3, lives a simple life: work-house-work-hawk, alternating hiking with driving on a scooter parked near the house. Lives simple, but lives.
Streams of happiness
“True, for the signs of the simulation, we had to limit the population of a million people,” Marina notes with a slight disorder in his voice. But if you think about it, this is not only a million, but a whole million real pissing men who come to your city in search of a good life, occupy jobs, form traffic jams and crowds near universities, spend money on public transport, arrange fires and die from time to time. Not the worst indicator.
In addition, the idea of “everything is connected with everything” extends far beyond the life of the townspeople. For example, c SkyLines The current river plays the role: Put a water intake station below the drain structures – and get the city poisoned by your feces. The water tries to behave really and even fills the pipelines not instantly, but slowly. And if, say, to make it with the position of dams, you can flood the whole city.
► to drop huge robots on cities, spitting saucers, as in Simcity 4 , We cannot yet. We believe and hope that it would occur to someone to make the right modification.
And so with everything. Taxes do not come from nowhere, the houses do not empty just like that, the buses do not pay off without prerequisites (after CITIES in Motion neglect the details of transport networks criminal). Everything is as it should be – this is a town -planning simulator, not a catalog of road surfaces.
For people
The main problem CITIES in Motion there was an interface and a generally high entry threshold. U SkyLines This is much better with this: the game opens up new opportunities with the speed that is needed so as not to get lost (in any case, throughout the first hour), and the interface is neat and given.
The Finns hired a specially trained person to work on management, and this is clearly noticeable, especially in the little things. All the necessary information (like the demand for new housing and jobs) is always in sight. Pay roads – the game will show at what distance from them will be built. Resolutions like a decree on water saving or a ban on smoking are collected on a separate window, and it is immediately clear that they are doing. Deposits, taxes, profit and costs – also at hand, in a simple and affordable form.
► Breeding the city into quarters, you can set separate laws, tax rates and so on each. A very convenient tool.
It is also possible to divide the city into quarters with a stroke of the brush- this is a local feature that allows you to separate the fashionable areas from slums, agriculture from heavy industry, to establish specific tax indicators and existing rules for each area, and at the same time use the prerogative and call a piece of your Tokio- 3 with a small arman.
The Colossal Order built a working self -sufficient system in order to increase it for an endlessly long time – just as Paradox do with their global strategies. All the foundations that you expect from the urban planning simulator, there are: transport systems, controlling pollution, crime and healthcare systems, water supply and electrification (from chickenpox to nuclear power plants), dividing the territory into residential, commercial and industrial zones. And they work.
► the spirit of the time as it is. Once in Simcity 4 From the point of view of its inhabitants, we learned about the city from the news. Now it is responsible for this like "Twitter".
Something in the release version, of course, will not be. Let's say tunnels – they will appear with the first free DLC. Then there will probably be natural disasters, a deeper specialization of quarters and so on. The rest will be able to add with modifications: integration with Steam Workshop is implied as if by itself.
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CITIES: SkyLines It seems correct in everything: from the approach to modeling the city to attitude to third -party content. Of course, it is unlikely to immediately turn out to be large enough to satisfy all the mayor’s ambitions: Colossal Order work in the sweat of the face, and there are not nine, but thirteen, but this is still a very small team. And not close to maxis.
I was told that something about fifteen hours will take to achieve the peak of the development of the city-which is relatively little. However, such games usually do not end there, but SkyLines promises to become flexible enough to invent new and new classes.
Success factors
Risk factors
- good urban planning simulator against the backdrop of an unsuccessful performance of competitors;
- convincing simulation of everything;
- neat interface and measured progression;
- hope for long -term support;
- Modifications with Moomi Dol, the attic of Carlson and Equestria are unlikely to force themselves to wait long.
- not too much content at the start;
- Simulation can lead to enormous glitches.
We will wait?
A little Finnish studio makes Simcity Better than Maxis coped with this. For happiness, you need nothing.
Waiting rating: 90%