Recent reviews by No Dread

So, if one was to take this game by itself, I'd say it's a solid 4/5. It's Cities XL with a bit more here, a bit less there. But, There are two things that truly set this game apart:

First, the company making it knows their stuff, and the publisher is one of the best at building good games that will last you years of on and off play through reasonably priced DLC plus continuous free Quality of Life feature updates with them: Paradox. If there's a company out there who makes games for gamers, it's Paradox, and a city builder by them is bound to be worth every penny of 50$, much less the 30$ the game is at present (without any steam sales).

Second, and most importantly, this game is moddable. I mean REALLY moddable. The only reason there's not more modded for it yet is the modding community is still growing. Being built on Unity3D engine and having unprotected source code means this game can have anything you can imagine modded into it. Heck, it's possible even to make it multiplayer, though that would take work, it's 100% possible.

The only complaint I have at present is that the intersections in the base game can't be controlled; you can't control which lanes go where, or switch an intersection between street lights and stop signs even. But there are mods for that, and much more too. With the first DLC announced of 'Night Life', it looks like they are adding more depth to the game in ways that would take more work for modders, and leaving the detail features to modders, which is the best thing they can possibly do! This really is 'what the new Sim City should have been', all around. If you like Sim City, you will like this game.

So, I bought this game expecting it to be kindof underwhelming, even as someone who likes management games. Unfortunately, it didn't even match my lowered expectations.

Initially, I thought I could have input into the skyscraper's design; fiddle with floorplans and construction methods and so forth. What I got was 3 arbitrary choices for sky scraper design and 4 slider bars to tweak quality/quantity/type of rooms in the building, and the number of floors. That's it.

At this point I thought 'oh well, maybe they make up for this with complex and engaging mechanics in management of the actual construction. I could dig that.' What I expected now was a game with plenty of 'make sure this resource is managed well' and 'hire/fire staff as needed', but also a game with slightly complex decisions like choosing companies to contract with, or buying resource sources. Also random events, and a solid progression as described of 'start with multistory houses, and work up to mega skyscrapers'. What I got was a game of 'hire/fire people as needed. that's it.'

By the time I finished the tutorial/learning process (completed one skyscraper), I decided I'd build another. I maxed the speed the whole time, and found myself entirely and utterly bored. This isn't really a game so much as an add-on for some other, non-existant game with the other 90% of the process. I am generally not critical of games, but this game is only worth a dollar or two as it stands. These simulator games seem to be turning out to be a money grab, rather than a genuine simulator. Much less a fun game.