The wintry Alpine Villages scenario is based on establishing a transit system, still a part of the design that I don’t particularly enjoy. Some of them focus on the more annoying aspects of the game, too.
#CITIES SKYLINES NATURAL DISASTERS FULL#
There’s clearly real potential here to expand the focus of the game with these custom scenarios, but right now, the included ones don't make full use of that potential.
#CITIES SKYLINES NATURAL DISASTERS UPDATE#
Such a small sample size does little more than show off the new scenario editor released as part of a free update at the same time this expansion launched. My one real disappointment with Natural Disasters is the limited number of new goal-oriented management scenarios. Seeing cars and trucks swept along like toys reminded me just how helpless we all are against Mother Nature-as did the dramatic declines in my city population every time a disaster came through. Even floods have an impact-the gradual approach of water may be the least cinematic of the disasters, but it’s relentless and scary in the way it gathers up all in its path. Fires encroach on cities gradually, and before you know it, you’re sitting in a circle of hell with flames consuming everything you spent hours building. Meteorites hit like A-bombs, making whole districts of cities vanish in a flash. Tornadoes carve through your cities and hurl cars into the air. While the heart of Cities: Skylines remains a little on the antiseptic side, with mostly bland blocks and buildings slapped together like something out of an Ikea box, the actual disasters are awfully frightening. Disasters feel like an organic part of the game that’s been there all along, not some tossed-in and tossed-off gimmick geared to do little more than blow everything up at the most inopportune times.Įverything looks suitably apocalyptic, too.
It's a welcome contrast to what I expected other city builders tend to turn similar earth-shattering moments into a form of punishment for building a happy, functional municipality, or to artificially increase the difficulty.Īll of these options add an appreciable new layer to Cities: Skylines planning, in both regular games (you can toggle disasters on or off, adjust the frequency in which they occur, or even call them down on demand like Zeus moonlighting as a municipal politician) and in five scenarios structured around specific disasters and goals. Shelters provide homes for citizens during and immediately after crises, while you clear away the ruins and rebuild.Īs with everything else in Cities: Skylines, the need to prepare for disasters feels realistic. Emergency response centers bolster the existing rosters of police, fire, and medical structures and allow first responders to get out to disaster sites. Radio towers can be set up to let the populace know that something bad is on the way. Buoys are available to detect tsunamis, and radar dishes can watch for meteorites. Just like in real life, you mitigate the impact of disasters via early warning systems and buildings designed to help recover when the worst happens. How Natural Disasters handles these tragedies elevates it above the “disasters as punishment” gimmick seen in so many other city builders. The end result is greater tactical depth and tension in the virtual mayor’s office, since you know that screwing up here could cost you absolutely everything. Every doomsday is worked into the serious nature of the game as threats that need to be managed through careful preparation.
But even though these Biblical catastrophes are always suitably apocalyptic, they’re also realistic. The new Natural Disasters expansion charges up the businesslike concept of the original game with random events like tornadoes, meteorite strikes, forest fires, earthquakes, sinkholes, and tidal waves that result in citywide floods. Throwing in regular outings from Godzilla just didn’t seem necessary or appropriate. This is one of the most authentic city management simulations of all time due to a focus on things like zoning, which makes the game feel awfully close to my everyday job as the mayor of a town in Canada. Dealing with rampaging extraterrestrials, Armageddon-instigating asteroids, and visits from giant lizards have long been a hallmark of the SimCity line, but Colossal Order’s city builder seemed too buttoned-down for such outlandish developments. I never missed catastrophes in Cities: Skylines.
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