Cities XL (PC) Review
If you build it, they will come.
It’s been a good few years since a Sim City game last graced the release schedules. In the meantime, Monte Cristo, probably best known for their strategy games, created a Sim City style game called City Life. Now, they’ve brought out a game which is essentially the successor to that game, Cities XL.
Cities XL is a city building game, in which you, surprisingly, build a city from the ground up. You basically start with three main types of building class, these being Residential, Industrial and Commercial. These three are split into Low, Medium and High density, and these are split further still into 4 worker classes, Unqualified, Qualified, Executive and Elite.
Cities XL on the Low Graphic Level
There are also various other categories of specialist places to build, including leisure facilities, schools, hospitals and security services. However, you don’t start with all of this. You are broken in gently, with just a selection of a few building types, and you can build a larger selection as the population of your city increases. This does slightly limit your freedom initially, but it also means that you aren’t going to build any service buildings before you have the finances to properly support them. But if you really want to be able to build a hospital in a small village, you can choose to play in ‘Expert Mode’, where everything is unlocked right from the start.
If at some point in the game, you have an excess of goods and resources, such as fuel or food, you can sell off your excess using the trade function. This will open up a list of all nearby mayors who require certain goods and resources, and you can sell to anyone who wants it. You can also buy in resources if you’re in need of them.
Cities XL as it would look on a decent rig
One of the big things being promoted in Cities XL is the online Planet Mode. This is a persistent online MMO style world. Just like the offline world, you build a city and choose what kind of terrain you wish to build it in. However, only a certain number of cities can exist in each terrain, so if the terrain you want is full, you’ll have to build on a different terrain.
The Planet Mode gives you the ability to trade online with other players, and combine to trade blueprints and build Megastuctures. You can also talk to other people and take part in events, although there have been no events that I’ve noticed in reviewing this game. The trading aspect was a bit problematic on release, although recent patches have fixed some of the problems. You can also visit other players cities and look ar0und their cities, although you can’t actually interact with anything. The Planet Mode is also set to include exclusive new buildings and discounts on future expansions. You have to pay a monthly subscription to use the service. The prices range from £6.95 for one month, to £11.95 for 3 months. You do get a 7 day trial included with the game, so you can decide for yourself whether you think it’s worth it.
The game looks quite good, with some good detail put into the graphics. There isn’t much in the way of graphics options, though. You basically choose a graphics detail level, from Very Low up to High. There aren’t any scalable options. Higher end graphics do look very impressive, but there’s still quite a bit of detail in the lower graphic options. You can’t see people going around in lower settings, and oddly, cars are represented by moving black blocks when you zoom in, which doesn’t look right. And also, there aren’t any people moving around your city.
Some nice shops for your citizens to spend their hard earned cash
The interface itself is very clean and crisp, although some things you want to build can be buried under a tree of about 4 different clicks, and some buildings are not where you’d expect them to be. You also have to remember to click options again to remove them from the screen, as they won’t disappear when you click something else. On lower resolutions, the screen can get a bit cluttered if you have more than a couple of windows open.
The music and sound of the game is pretty generic, but nice and relaxing, allowing you to chill out. The sounds of the city do get louder and more bustling as your city grows bigger, which adds a sense of realism to your city and pulls you in.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Cities XL is a very good city building sim, and if you’re a fan of Sim City, this game will be, pardon the pun, right up your street. The game is simple and intuitive enough that new players will be up and running quite easily, but there’s plenty of buildings and options to satisfy city building veterans as well. Cities XL does lack the depth and micromanagement of the Sim City series. Basically, you can only really set taxes for residents and shops and trade with others, and it’s questionable as to whether the amount of multiplayer content you get is worth the asking price for the subscription, but even if the online mode is not for you, the solo mode will keep you going for many an hour.
Minimum Spec – Intel Pentium 4 – 2.5GHz (or AMD Equivalent), 1GB RAM (XP) 1.5GB RAM (Vista), 256 MB nVidia GeForce 6600 GT / ATI Radeon X1600 or higher
Spec Used – AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+, 2GB RAM (Vista), 256MB ATI Radeon X1550
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30 Oct 2009, 3:43 pm
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