Welcome to Test Tube. Not to be confused with our full reviews, these ‘two hour test’ articles cover remakes, ports, party games and other titles of interest.
Whatever happened to Sim City? The last game in the series debuted in 2003 and later ‘versions’ were basically Sim City 4 repackaged. The Cities XL franchise would seem to be its spiritual successor. I spent a few hours with the latest version of Cities XL, the 2012 edition, and this is what I think you’re likely to get out of it.
Cities XL helpfully provides a number of tutorials to introduce you to the myriad of tools and statistics available to you to build, manage and oversee your city or cities. The first thing that jumps out though, is just how beautiful this game is, even on an aging rig. You can zoom right out to get a bird’s eye view of the whole area, or dive in so close that you can see cars driving around and view advertisements on billboards! The many different buildings are beautifully detailed. The place sometime seems a little sparsely populated though. One example was an empty children’s park which looked wanting.
Cities XL is certainly a game that takes careful thought and patience. Slapping your roads down in pretty designs may be easy on the eyes, but if you haven’t considered traffic flows, and the distance between your citizens’ place of employment and residence, you’ll have a lot of unhappy people dragging your performance stats down. Traffic management is just the start of it though. You’ll need to manage your economy, look after the environment, all while planning business and residential development.
If Cities XL grabs you, it’s one of those games that will lead to the sun rising outside your window while you’re setting down the perfect road system. The cries of your citizens may drown out the cries of your wife, kids and cat, and finally while you begin to join the economies of multiple cities, your friends, families and co-workers may urge you to join Cities XL anonymous…
If you’re looking to indulge your love of facts, figures and spreadsheets, or you need an outlet for your OCD, Cities XL may be the answer.
