When you compare Cities Skylines (2015) and last SimCity (2013) there could be a question why is Cities Skylines better than SimCity? I will try to answer that in this article!
For the first: SimCity 5 is more like a mobile game and Cities Skylines has solved all problems which have players with SimCity. Some of the aspects I will show you in this article:
Maps and goals
For me, the biggest mistake which is in SimCity 5 was the square limitation. When you join the map there were some “squares” and you could select one of them. But that’s was all you have just this square and nothing more.
There is a typical map from SimCity 5. You could see that there are “hubs” from squares. But you cant build outside them. And they aren’t connected at all!
In Cities Skylines you have one square. There are the same but in Cities Skylines when your city is growing you can open or buy new “tiles”. And if you use mods you could play on all maps. This is a feature that you want when you play building games. If you are limited the “funny” elements go down.
When I write about goals in SimCity was (i think) the goal to build a monument in the circle places. And one of the goals was to balance all cities in the cluster. Because if you have most peoples you can’t have in every city university.
I think that in Cities Skylines you have much more variables to goals as I wrote in the article about them.
Economy, services
In SimCity were some economy specializations which make sense to me. And SimCity has casinos but I think that economy is more complex in Cities Skylines (and if you think that no there are DLC industries) and when you want to play a tycoon strategy builder game you want complexity.
Some people say that the “learning curve” is much funnier in Cities Skylines and much smoother. I can’t compare it because it’s 9 years from the last SimCity. And Cities Skylines I’ve to play more now.
What I like about SimCity 5 was the upgrades buildings. You should every specific building upgrade by adding more generators and specific things which modify the building…
… on the image above you could see Mayor’s mansion with some more buildings. Which affects stats. This micromanagement way I love!
Mods and community
Mods are a strong part of Cities Skylines and the community of builders loves this game. So there are a lot of tips, videos, and things that you should add to your games. Mods are easily accessible by Steam Workshop so you could easily participate and earn from the community.
When I was playing the last SimCity I can’t find anything. Yes, there were some YouTube videos and how-tos. But this game was built on community and friends. So I joined a Facebook group where people find playing buddies but in this group, nothing happens for me.
Support
I think that Paradox and Colossal Order make much better support for Cities Skylines than EA for SimCity 5. When SimCity starts we must play online on the server so there were problems with this. I think that EA doesn’t listen to us when we want bigger maps. There weren’t many big DLCs that extend the game and changed game function. Cities Skylines have to today 12 DLCs which change a lot of game features. There is a lot of expansion pack so there is the support that players could love.
My experience with these games
I bought SimCity (2013) when It come but I played just the first month. The parcels for cities were small so you were limited on what to build. So I was limited in the building. But there were some “social” elements when you could play with your friends on one map with two cities and I just thinking about how to collaborate.
But Cities Skylines (2015) are much better! You aren’t limited by the size of the map. The infrastructure is much better and you have a lot of things to do. For me, Cities Skylines have everything that I expected from the latest SimCity.
What to buy and play?
For me, it’s Cities Skylines!
But wait in 2022 came to a new project Highrise City which should be the new best game…
… but now is in “early access” so we must wait until this game will be rateable.
In the end, there is some funny video that compares Cities Skylines and SimCity.
