Cities XL is an ambitious, competent, and beautiful city builder that combines many familiar elements of the genre with a few new multiplayer and social-gaming twists.
City-building and other sandbox-style management/building games (Roller Coaster Tycoon, Sim City, etc.) is a genre that hasn't seen a lot of groundbreaking achievements in recent years, but Cities XL manages to breathe some new life and interesting features into the relatively quiet genre.
Cities XL's basic formula is simple to grasp but difficult to master. Your objective is to build a thriving, successful, profitable city. In order to do that, you must carefully build up your infrastructure, attract and retain workers, manage taxation and economics, and reconcile all the needs of your populace with your city's budget. Like other city managing games, you have to zone various areas for housing, commerce, and industry, as well as provide city functions like hospitals, fire departments, parks, entertainment, and everything in between.
It's a relatively old but complex, sandbox- style building, and management game. And Cities XL does an excellent job of wrapping it all in an easy-to-manage user interface -- arguably one of the most important aspects for a game of this type. You'll definitely want to play through some of the tutorials to get the basics down, although you'll have to endure reading through dialog boxes that attempt to be cute but fail.
If you want to jump into the deep end, just play the first tutorial or two, and then you can start a game and turn off all the 'locked' content to make it available from the beginning of the game. (You might want to sit through more unfunny tutorials before you do that, however.) Just be warned that most of the locked content wouldn't normally be available until your city population reaches 5000, so none of it is really crucial (and may screw your budget if you jump into building it too soon) if you aren't careful.
Breaking the mold
Graphically, Cities XL excels as well. It's a gorgeous game to look at, and the 3D engine allows you zoom in far enough to be eye-to-eye with members of your city as they go about their daily tasks, or high enough in the clouds to view the beautiful vistas and landscapes. It's definitely one of the best-looking city builders ever released.
Where Cities XL breaks the mold is that it adds a social gaming and multiplayer (MMOG-like) element, because you can play online and build your city on a planet populated by other players and their cities. You can even trade with other cities, and take your custom-built avatar to other cities for a visit. The trade system is a huge step for this genre of game, although the implementation of it in Cities XL could definitely use some streamlining. As long as both players are online, establishing a trade with another player is fairly simple -- but if the other player is offline, it's a headache of clicking to find them, and a headache for them to accept the trade the next time they log in to their Cities XL account. Regardless, it's still an innovative feature that hasn't been implemented in other city builders before. Once established, a trade will remain in effect for five days.
The downside to all this is that the subscription fee for the game's online multiplayer component is about $9 per month. I'm not really sure I'd be willing to spend that on this type of game, if for no other reason than multiplayer just isn't that important to me in a city-builder. I'm not sure, but I suspect free online play supported by micro-transactions may be a better revenue model. Monte Cristo is planning on releasing small game expansion packs in the months ahead (for a small fee, of course) that will allow you to add specialized services to your city -- like a Ski Resort, for example. These additional businesses will also create resources you can trade with other cities.
It's a novel idea, and maybe some folks are really into it -- but I found that it added little to the game. Perhaps it's just my play style, or maybe it's the nature of city-building games in general, but unless there's a war to be fought, I really don't have much interest in building my simulated city in an online world with other players and cities. I find, if anything, that the chat-box chatter only served as a distraction from the more interesting management aspects of the game.
Regardless, for the most part I enjoyed the game, but at the same time felt like 'something' was missing, even though I couldn't quite put my finger on it. What I finally decided upon is that the game lacks 'charm' for lack of a better word. It's very dry and even feels a little 'clinical' in its presentation and execution, but then again I'm the kind of guy that wanted to have a Giant Monster or UFO Attack button.
Regardless, it's beautiful to look at, it's fairly easy to learn, and the strategy and complexity are deep enough to make a compelling game -- particularly if you don't mind paying the subscription fee for the multiplayer elements.
Overall
Cities XL brings a lot of new elements to the city building genre, and it easily boasts the best visual of any city building game ever. It's a capable, well-executed and competent game. The multiplayer subscription fee may or may not be worth the money, but that's ultimately a decision that rests with each consumer. If you're a fan of this genre of game, Cities XL is well worth taking the time to check out.
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