Fasionably Late Review
Cities XL 2011
By Jorge Figueiredo - April 8th, 2011
When Monte Cristo’s Cities XL for the PC hit the scene, it showed that SimCity wasn’t necessarily the king of city-building games. With fantastic graphics and some unique game-play options (curved roads!), it rekindled the dreams that many had of being mayor of a (hopefully) successful major metropolis. Sadly, Monte Cristo is now no more, and Focus Home Interactive is the driving force behind Cities XL 2011*. Is the new edition a worthy successor to its genre-rejuvenating predecessor? I believe that the answer to that question is “yes”.
Cities XL 2011 is a very accessible city-building game. The tutorial is very detailed and can be revisited at any time; those of you who have played the previous iteration, or who like to muck about (and happen to be good at picking up things relatively quickly) can probably skip the tutorial, which only holds real value to those who are truly new to the genre. All commands are within handy reach and the game implements an accessibility lock on buildings (the bigger your city gets, the more buildings become unlocked for your use); again, this is something that can be turned off for those expert city-builders who don’t mind having a plethora of options at their fingertips.
“Hey Rio! I caught a fish this big!”
There have been obvious production improvements to the original game. In terms of graphics, there seem to be a few tweaks; I’m not sure if its my imagination, but things look better, and the flow is a bit smoother. Zooming down to street level and checking your city out from the ground (you can attach the camera to any person or vehicle) is a pretty cool experience, even if there seem to be more cars than people. Sound is still decent, with ambient noise playing the lead role in terms of the audible. The background music can become a bit tedious at times (I tend to keep that particular element’s volume slider at a minimum); but other than that everything is great (and very scalable in terms of your computer’s horsepower).
“Packs” are something new in CXL2011; these are essentially “themes” for your cities that allow you to change the appearance of your cities (think different styles of architecture as well as some famous landmarks). Transportation is also a bit different this time around: you can create bus and metro lines that allow you to alleviate any traffic density problems that you may be having. As someone who was addicted to Transport Tycoon, I enjoyed the game even more because of this improvement.
Somewhere in this city there is a rat who can cook a mean dish.
The game-play has changed significantly in terms of scope. The premise of the original CXL was to give you plots of land in a large online multi-player environment. You were able to interact with other players by means of trade; you were also able to walk around in their cities as a guest. This part of the game has been removed, leaving you with a single-player mode only; I would use the word “confined” in terms of what you are left with, were it not for the fact that the single-player mode is actually large and to some, engaging (also, there is no monthly subscription fee anymore).
As with the former multi-player experience, the single-player mode (which also existed in the original CXL) gives you a planet with a number of places to build cities; each area has advantages and disadvantages. On top of being able to build multiple cities, you are able to establish trade between them all! This is a fantastic feature that allows you to use the resources of one city to support another.
Cities XL 2011 boasts some pretty awesome graphics.
With all of the great features that CXL2011 has going for it, there are also some unfortunate bits. Achievement announcements, for instance, become really annoying: firstly, there is a significant delay between achieving something and receiving the notification for it; secondly, the thing takes up the top half of your view (which sucks when you’re trying to do something) and they tend to repeat for no reason.
I think the biggest beef that I have with this game is the lack of goals. SimCity had it right when it introduced scenarios that challenged you. There were also moments when you learned exactly why you needed things like fire stations. CXL2011 does not appear to have anything to challenge you other than people leaving your city. Maybe I just haven’t pushed it enough; but really, there are not really too many negative consequences that I have seen for letting your garbage dumps go, or building too few hospitals. For those who like to dodge or catch monkey wrenches, this game might not be for you.
“I think I can! I think I can!”
Personally, I like the fact that I can just keep building a city (or a number of cities) without worrying about aliens attacking or Godzilla rising from the ocean to snack on my landmarks. The pacing is great; you can build as fast or as slowly as you want (allowing you to come up with some really great city designs). The feedback from your “advisors” -while slightly delayed- is quite informative; there are even hints that help you along if you choose to have that window open. Reporting on the various aspects of your city is also detailed: clicking on a house or a business will give you complete statistics, even indicating commuting patterns of the people that work or live there. CXL2011 is a game that will allow you to have fun without having to worry too much about the negative; in a world full of negative, this is a nice feature.
In short, Cities XL 2011 is an accessible, casual city-building game with as much detail as you care for. With a powerful set of building tools, a deep tutorial, great graphics, decent sound and addictive game-play, this title will keep you busy for much longer than you anticipated. The best part is, you won’t mind at all because you will feel very productive!
