Cities: Skylines, a city-building game from Colossal Entertainment, has been a great city-building title on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and now this game has arrived on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S almost 6 years later as Cities: Skylines – Remastered.
If you even remotely enjoy strategy, simulation, or city-building games, chances are that you already own City Skylines and can enjoy the free Remastered edition. Cities Skylines aimed to stick to what made the genre so famous in the first place by providing a fun and captivating game about developing cities, in contrast to other games that concentrated on topics like trade, rival nations, or politics.
The PC and Xbox One versions of the original “Cities: Skylines” were released in 2015 and 2017, respectively, yet here we are with the next-gen “Cities Skylines: Remastered” roughly 6 years later. As a longtime fan of city builders, Cities: Skylines is a fantastically expansive entry in the genre. Let’s see the changes this “Remastered” version of the game brings for us.
What you should know
Cities: Skylines is a critically acclaimed city-building game that is available on PC and consoles. Cities: Skylines Remastered was announced by Colossal Entertainment and Paradox Interactive on Wednesday for Xbox Series X /Series S and the PlayStation 5.
The current-generation optimized edition will include UI and UX enhancements, graphical improvements, and support for much larger cities. The buildable tiles in the game have gone up to 25 in this new version of the game. It will be released as a separate edition on February 15, 2023, and will be given to current Cities: Skylines console owners for free on their respective consoles.
Also read: 32 Games Like World Of Warcraft That Will Get You Hooked.
Control the city of your dreams.
We’re all undoubtedly somewhat familiar with the video game Cities: Skylines. The game’s title is probably one you’ve seen whether or not you’ve played it. To make use of their increased capability and provide even more capabilities to your system, it has been totally updated for the most recent Xbox systems.
Cities: Skylines Remastered includes a plethora of changes in addition to the 25 buildable tiles that we have highlighted. A rapid selection tool, precise placement and distance indicators, and snapping choices are just a few of the new features. Also, you can experiment with the new environment painting tool and the control panels that let you change the time of day.
This is good since you can now switch things around to capture the greatest images of your city in-game at dawn, dusk, midnight, or any other time of day. Moreover, you may manage climatic conditions like rain, fog, and more by adjusting the environment. All this goes great with the graphic overhaul you get with the performance of the newer consoles.
The user experience (UX) has been updated and feels fresher, with a more simple front-end, and there is also the addition of a new quick select tool. In addition, there have been the expected graphical upgrades, making cities look sharper and more detailed.
There is a noticeable pop-in for building textures if you suddenly zoom all the way in, but we’re talking about a transition from an overview of about 6 full tiles to zooming in to street level, so having a few roof plants and cladding textures pop in is more than acceptable, given that it’s otherwise seamless, with no stutters, and the actual game remains smooth, even with a large city packed with over one hundred thousand inhabitants.
Games like Planet Coaster (and their infamous constraints) really continue to highlight how well Paradox and Colossal Order have done with this remake because there is no way older consoles could handle this much activity.
While working on your city, there is a broad selection of music, and while some additional music packs will cost, these are still good value, as you can typically add a new “Station” with 16 tracks for a cheap additional fee. The impressive performance continues.
There is a lot of DLC for Cities Skylines, so it’s worth going over everything again. Knowing what’s among the radio packs, content packs, map packs, and DLCs might be a little perplexing.
Several of the aforementioned packs are available in Season Pass 1, Season Pass 2, and Season Pass 3 (also known as the Cities Expansion Bundle); however, it’s crucial to stress that NONE of these are important.
The first two season passes for Cities Skylines were added for free along with the release of these major DLC packs, so while I’m sure those who really enjoy the game will happily start to add a few of the DLC packs, people who don’t aren’t at a major loss. Sure, I think certain packs are a great addition, but going from this “Vanilla” experience to playing Cities Skylines after the first two season passes didn’t feel like I was missing out on major features.
“Remastered”
I think we’re stretching the term “Remastered” a little too far, and it might build expectations for a big change in the game that is not there. Only a few features were added, and the jump in graphics is seen, but I guess they had to distinguish it in some way. This primarily brings the console version closer to the experience that PC players have had all along. The user interface and the increased map size stand out more than the presentation’s overall enhancements, mainly because they were already of such excellent caliber.
The PC version still has one advantage over the console port, which is mod support, but mods have been a PC feature from the beginning, and console gamers will just have to accept that. The remastered version will be free to anyone who owns the Cities: Skylines PS4 or Xbox One version as long as they upgrade from their respective platform. It is difficult to argue with getting games for free.
History of Cities: Skylines
Cities: Skylines took up where EA left off with the 2013 version of SimCity and ran with it. It has received a steady stream of expansions and updates since its initial release in 2015, keeping it relevant. Personally, I still use it frequently. Some are calling for the release of a true sequel, but I’m not sure if I can count this as a sequel with so minimal changes. Let’s see what is next for this game series to come. It’s quite extensive.
Cities: Skylines Release Date and Pricing
This addition to Cities: Skylines now makes now the game available on the latest consoles and the PC. Cities: Skylines – Remastered released on February 15, 2023, for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S.
It’s a free upgrade for PS4 and Xbox One owners, including all DLC and expansions up to and including Cities: Skylines Airports, which was released this time last year. Cities: Skylines remastered’s remaining DLC will be released in the coming months. If you’re new to the game, it’ll set you back $39.99. If you are trying to play this new addition on Xbox, you can also get this for free through Game Pass.
Our Verdict
Cities: Skylines has long been one of the best city management simulations for Windows PCs, and its console port was truly outstanding. The game is now free of the constraints of the previous generation and will be able to take advantage of the increased power of the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles. For many, this is enough to propel the game back to the top of the best Xbox games available right now.
Novice players will discover an enormously immersive game that has been painstakingly created over the last 8 years, to what is very much a next-gen release at an amazing price, while devoted fans will discover that their favorite city builder has gotten even better. Even the most ardent fans won’t feel like they’re missing anything because the game is compatible with an incredible 10 of the total 11 DLCs available at launch, and the most recent Plaza and Promenade DLC will undoubtedly be added before you’ve even begun to play those enlarged 25 titles.
The gameplay and graphics of this new version are enough to make this a Must-Have in my collection, the overall rating this game deserves right now is a 4 out of 5, saying “Cities: Skyline is still the king of City Building Simulators ” keeping the Engagement, sound, value, and gameplay in mind.
Our Rating: 4/5
Also read: PlayStation Plus Free Games in Fall 2021
