SimmedUp Magazine - Issue 14 - October 21

information overlays available.
64
Shall we take a closer look at one of my
suburbs? Now, I admit that I am a total
noob when it comes to building in this
game, all my cities look exactly the same.
They are all based on the square blocks.
This is because these blocks make planning
easier, there is a reason, after all, that most
American cities are laid out like this after all.
The game has a real element of progression
to it, as only basic buildings are available to
you at the start of the game, elementary
(or primary schools), small medical clinics
and firehouses, basic low-density
residential, commercial and office buildings.
One of the most amazing things about this
game for me as a Sims player is that each
home is lived in by an actual family and you
can find out a lot of bits of information
about your cims (as they are called in this
game).
This car, for
example,
belongs to
Kathleen
Williams, and
you can see
that she is an
educated teen,
on her way to
her high school.
By clicking on
the blue text
you can see which high school she is
travelling to (if you have more than one)
and her home, shall we go take a look
where she lives?
This is Kathleen’s home, and by clicking on
it you can see how many cims live there
currently, their ages, education level and
the population density of the home. The
higher the population density, the more cims
can live here and the less area you will need
to house more cims in your cities. There are
very vague objectives about how you can
increase the population density of each
home, Kathleen’s home, for example, needs
more educated cims to inhabit it before it
will increase in density. The homes in this
game look fabulous and can provide some
awesome inspiration if you are stuck for
what to build next in your Sims game
You also have the ubiquitous budget to
worry about, after all, it takes money to run
a city, even a city as small and crappy as
mine
Here is the
economy
tab, it
shows what
your
budget is
for each
type of
service,
from road
maintenance to power and water, right
through to how much you spend on your
education budget. You can also change the
budget for the time of day, for example,
your schools function mainly during the day,
so by lowering the amount you budget for
them at night, you free up funds to spend
elsewhere.
I absolutely adore this game and would
thoroughly recommend it to anyone who
enjoys city management games. It is in-depth
without being completely overwhelming.
Cities: Skylines is available on the Steam
store.