I know what you’re thinking, and I thought it too. Another city sim game has hit the market with the memory of Sim City still in our minds with their constant internet connection amongst other things. But guess what, it’s great and such a fresh take on how city builders should work.

Cities: Skylines takes off where Sim City left off by improving on it’s model. There are huge similarities. Cities: Skylines is Sim City with more micromanagement options such as one-way roads or creating districts but more on this later.

Your first city is generally in the centre of the map. The road coming in connects to the highway which you need to connect to. Once done you can start mapping out your city.

Cities: Skylines relies on three types of zoning: residential, commercial and industrial. Along side this you can split your map up into districts where you can set area specialisations and also industrial focuses such as ore mining or agricultural. Each district you create within a map can have its own political laws.

Water and power now rely on powerlines and pipes to be built around your city which is a great feature. It enables you to think about item placement rather than just one factory in the corner of the map.

The game ares is split up even further you to purchase more land. It’s great for aiming for more than one specialisation. A great improvement on Sim City’s limited areas.

The biggest problem I found and one that reoccurs with every city sim is traffic management. With the extra road options you have to carefully plan where your roads are going to do and what type of street they’re going to be. A few times houses and factories burned down due to roads being congested.

Cities: Skylines seems to pick up the faults from other city sims and improve upon them which is superb. The game works and has been working from launch.