14 DAY TRIAL // There are few city simulator franchises in the gaming industry that do things right and Cities XL is one of those. Now imagine that you take a good city builder you can easily pour hundreds of hours into, and double, triple or quadruple its content and features.
Well, that’s Focus Home Interactive’s new city builder, which takes this genre to a whole new level. Cities XXL is much bigger and better than the previous installment in the series.
To prove that, the list of new additions includes no less than 1000 buildings, more than 70 maps with new landscapes and environments, as well as ecological features. Yes, you heard that right, Cities XXL comes with eco features, possibly making it the first “green” game yet.
Just like the previous game, Cities XXL allows players to build and design their megalopolis using the many features at their disposal. You get to choose from many landscapes and maps with different resources, such as oil or fertile farm land, so your citizens will be happy and will continue to be productive while building your metropolis.
Access to low-level city management mechanics make Cities XXL even more interesting
The eco features promised by Focus, among other things, should differentiate the game from other city builders. Make your city greener by adding park and ride, bike hire options, or upgrade some of the industrial buildings in order to reduce pollution.
Cities XXL has low-level city management mechanics, so players will need to pay attention to local air and noise pollution levels. Players can make their cities “greener” by building hot-spots suitable for short walks or even for holiday locations that will boost your financial resources.
Cities XXL goes so deep as to allow players to track a citizen’s route to work in order to best manage transport from sea, underground and over-ground rail, or air. This way, players will be able to streamline the citizens’ transport routes for maximum efficiency.
Another feature that will certainly make fans happy is full Steam Workshop support. Cities XXL will allow players to create custom content and share it with the community in a very easy way through Steam.
The level of detail has been upped a notch, with multiple sky-boxes to choose from and dynamic time of day. A street-level view will also be available and is supposed to offer “unprecedented detail for the genre.”
Focus Home Interactive has yet to announce when Cities XXL launches, so until we get more news on that matter, take a look at the teaser trailer and the screenshots below.
