“The perfect package for the environmentally-conscious city builder.”
Cities: Skylines is a game which has always had a special place my heart. This is a fact I have made no secret of at all. It is a game which has been consistently outstanding in my eyes since its launch. It overhauled the city builder genre, essentially handing fans a gracious gift on the shiniest of silver platters. Since launch, its numerous content updates and DLC packages have added to this experience. Some of these have been more fruitful than others, of course, but not one has been a failure on the part of the developers at Colossal Order. They have continued to out-do themselves time and again. That is, until now…
You may be thinking that I must be unimpressed with the latest DLC, then, given the nature of that last sentence. On the contrary, I am more flabbergasted than floundered. As a Geography graduate with a human geography specialism, it is no surprise that this game has a special place in my heart, as I have said. However, if the developers only had my love alone before, their new Green Cities DLC has earned them my respect. When I say they have outdone themselves until now, then, it is not because we have reached the end of the line. It is more a case of we have jumped off the rails onto a new, bigger, more intricate and exciting line that we, the players, had not even realised existed.
I have rather shown my hand in terms of what I feel about the Green Cities DLC now, so let’s get down to the details here. Green Cities, as you may have deduced, introduces a variety of new, environmentally-friendly concepts and constructions into your cities. These range from new types of roads to the means to provide cleaner energy solutions to your citizens, and much more as well. Naturally, there are also a wealth of new skins for general buildings and some additional unique buildings too, with the Green Cities package boasting an offering of 350 new assets to the game to green-up your megalopolis. New policies and levelled specialisations help you to diversify or overhaul your city’s green policies too, working alongside updated systems for air and noise pollution to deepen the game’s immersion yet again. Of course, there are also some new scenarios to ponder too, if that takes your fancy, and it wouldn’t be a proper DLC without new hats for Chirper thrown in the mix.
All of the content and systems added with Green Cities falls naturally into the existing structure of Cities: Skylines; an ongoing strength of the development team. These additions make good sense within the existing model, and improve upon it in clear and meaningful ways. The Green Cities DLC also feels like it has been filled to the very brim with content; significantly more so than some of those which have come before it. It is a complete environmental sustainability package that players like myself have been waiting for, with no holds barred. That being said, players who haven’t been outright perching on the edge of their collective seats for this moment will no doubt appreciate both the quality and quantity of the content on offer this time around. That all-important value for money factor has been hit right on the bullseye here, which is something which some fans have found issue with before.
You may call me biased, and yes, on some level that I am. I am both a fan boy and an academic in the area which this game focusses on. However, here is the crucial, unbiased fact that I think seals the deal for what makes this DLC in particular special. All of the additional content for Cities Skylines has been good, but if a new player was choosing just one package to go in on as their first addition to the game, this is the one I would point to. The level of additional content is the greatest. There is barely a tab you can click on now where the DLC’s presence cannot be felt. More so than just that, the concepts that are covered in this DLC are more natural (insert laughter here), fitting and arguably important to the overall structure of what this game is about.
So, what are you waiting for? Go be green!
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