Genre: Simulation
Developer: Colossal Order
Publisher: Paradox Interactive

Cities: Skylines' "tilt-shift" vantage point turns a miniature, fake city into a... well, miniature, fake city. As scenic of vistas that such an ironic concept can create, too often the view is soiled by poor texture resolution, or unrealistically shiny looking streets. The game's user interface is sometimes "open source game" unpolished, but the robust, totally movable camera is somewhat of a game changer for the genre. Additionally, the "heat map" views for stats such as crime, or electricity usage, are "straight from 'The Witness'" surreal.

Other than the occasional bell chime, Cities: Skylines is almost totally silent from a sound effect standpoint. This aural vacuum is filled by Grand Theft Auto-style radio stations, which play a variety of utterly generic orchestral tunes, or Eric Burdon classics from the 1960s. The licensed songs are usually very short, and they grow tiresome after being heard several times over the course of a play session. Distinctive ambient noises would have gone a long way towards lending the game some much-needed character.

Cities: Skylines plays almost exactly like Will Wright's 1989 original, except that its superb control scheme, natural feeling camera, and well-designed dialogs make everything from laying roads, to zoning areas, to running power lines a cinch. The game isn't balanced to be very difficult; its city denizens aren't a picky bunch, and money flows consistently into the coffers almost no matter which decisions the player makes. At the same time, this gives the game an even more pleasantly sandbox feeling than any of the entries in the series it unapologetically apes.

As a straight-up "let's clone SimCity exactly, but do it right", this title is the best city simulator to hit real cities in years, if not decades. It doesn't come without warts though: like most modern games, it seriously lacks in personality; it simulates a bureaucratic central planner's wet dreams, rather than reality-- nothing ever backfires or gets complicated in this virtual world, despite the real world, where nearly everything does; and its constant political commentary-- complete with a pretend "social justice warrior" Twitter feed celebrating windmills and "#nomorehomeschooling"-- is not only unnecessary and creepy in a Stalinesque sort of way, but a real turn-off to sane players who don't live in "campus safe zones" with children's coloring books. Cities: Skylines is a great homage Will Wright's original, but winds up feeling more like a missed opportunity.