Cities: Skylines, get a new perspective

Marcus Rogers, Reporter|September 28, 2022

A pedestrian oriented street offers new ways for the game sims to interact without the need for cars. The new large glass pavilion provides a third place for the sims to relax.

In our modern world of gaming, Cities: Skylines sets the standard for city simulations and the new Plazas and Promenades DLC (downloadable content) re-centers people as the foundation of your city. Developer Colossal Order recently released the new expansion pack to the 2017 game on Sept. 14 to PC and PlayStation and is available for $14.99.

Around the world, cities have embraced car culture and in America have rejected dense living without a car. This new update rejects the premise of basing a society around cars. You can now utilize buildings in pedestrian areas rather than needing a car road.

New streets are available (left to right: cobblestone, bluestone and sandstone). (Marcus Rogers)

Some of the best new additions to the game are:

Pedestrian Streets (Sandstone, Bluestone, and Cobblestone)
Pedestrian Zones and New Policies
Pedestrian Plazas and Parks
City Service Buildings (beautiful-looking city buildings that match the area around them)
Unique Pedestrian buildings

Even for new users to the game, there is plenty to enjoy for those new to city simulation games. The game is available to buy on multiple platforms, such as Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Stadia.

One exciting new addition within streets are those that only allow buses to pass through. Prioritization of people and their pedestrian friendly paths resembles some streets found in Amsterdam.

There is plenty of room in your city to reimagine the role of other forms of transportation around the city, rather than cars. Unlike America’s solution to traffic which is just more lanes, users can re-imagine the ways people interact within the game.

A new street style only allows certain vehicle types and prioritizes people over cars. In addition to the new roads, new sets of landscapes offers more interesting views for gameplay. (Marcus Rogers)

One common complaint about Cities: Skylines is that at a certain point it’s just a traffic game to help keep your city running. Pedestrians and Plazas do not have traffic within their zones because the people rarely use their cars. You can then focus all of your time on building third places, further developing your industries, or expanding the boundaries of your city to new levels.

Colossal Order has currently 11 expansions out and you can imaginatively generate an interest in city simulations. In addition to the Pedestrians and Plazas are the Cities: Skylines – Content Creator Pack: Mid-Century Modern and Cities: Skylines – Content Creator Pack: Seaside Resorts.

The most recent update was an airline expansion pack and a train station pack, each of these all provided new methods of transportation for the simulation characters to be added to the playing experience. One might assume that there isn’t really much more that can be added to the game.

With each new update they expand the niche reach for getting new people to play the game. A major limit to the game is that people are too busy to try a new game out or they don’t have enough time in their day. As a person with ADHD, there are plenty of aspects to the game to monitor and I am easily distracted by the different views. There has not been an announcement for a Cities 2, but we shall see if they come up with something bigger and better.