Cities: Skylines Review (s@un@cl@us)
It's an immersive game but there are many things I wish I had known when I started with 0 hours. The experience is largely incomplete without DLCs and mods - see the list at the end of this review.
As with many games, you learn by trial and error plus some research. You might have to start completely over as you grow in your role of a city builder and realize your past mistakes.
During my first 100 hours or so I scrapped a few cities. After each of them, there was a long break of not playing but eventually I always returned. Now, at the time of writing this, I have built my biggest city ever and still have a lot to achieve. This time, though, I'm confident that this city is worth sticking with until the end as all the major big-picture mistakes were done in my previous saves.
This game gives you that "one more thing before I quit" feeling quite regularly. You can always make your city better, whether it's practical optimizing or aesthetic details you're willing to work on. A big chuck of the former revolves around traffic and logistics.
DLCs I've chosen:
- Mass Transit
- After Dark
- Campus
- Industries
- Sunset Harbor
You can get all of these for a low price by buying activation keys. I'd recommend getting them pretty soon but they're not a must for getting the feel for the game.
More importantly, I couldn't live without these mods:
- Traffic Manager: President Edition
- Precision Engineering
- Network Extensions 2
- Harmony
- Chirpy Exterminator (optional)
I want to emphasize that these simply let you do things you'd expect to be able to do in vanilla but you can't. Please, do yourself a favor, and install them right off the bat.