Disasters feel like an organic part of the game that’s been there all along, not some tossed-in and tossed-off gimmick geared to do little more than blow everything up at the most inopportune times.Įverything looks suitably apocalyptic, too. It's a welcome contrast to what I expected other city builders tend to turn similar earth-shattering moments into a form of punishment for building a happy, functional municipality, or to artificially increase the difficulty.Īll of these options add an appreciable new layer to Cities: Skylines planning, in both regular games (you can toggle disasters on or off, adjust the frequency in which they occur, or even call them down on demand like Zeus moonlighting as a municipal politician) and in five scenarios structured around specific disasters and goals. Shelters provide homes for citizens during and immediately after crises, while you clear away the ruins and rebuild.Īs with everything else in Cities: Skylines, the need to prepare for disasters feels realistic. Emergency response centers bolster the existing rosters of police, fire, and medical structures and allow first responders to get out to disaster sites. Radio towers can be set up to let the populace know that something bad is on the way. Buoys are available to detect tsunamis, and radar dishes can watch for meteorites. Just like in real life, you mitigate the impact of disasters via early warning systems and buildings designed to help recover when the worst happens. How Natural Disasters handles these tragedies elevates it above the “disasters as punishment” gimmick seen in so many other city builders. The end result is greater tactical depth and tension in the virtual mayor’s office, since you know that screwing up here could cost you absolutely everything. Every doomsday is worked into the serious nature of the game as threats that need to be managed through careful preparation. But even though these Biblical catastrophes are always suitably apocalyptic, they’re also realistic. The new Natural Disasters expansion charges up the businesslike concept of the original game with random events like tornadoes, meteorite strikes, forest fires, earthquakes, sinkholes, and tidal waves that result in citywide floods. Throwing in regular outings from Godzilla just didn’t seem necessary or appropriate.
This is one of the most authentic city management simulations of all time due to a focus on things like zoning, which makes the game feel awfully close to my everyday job as the mayor of a town in Canada.
Dealing with rampaging extraterrestrials, Armageddon-instigating asteroids, and visits from giant lizards have long been a hallmark of the SimCity line, but Colossal Order’s city builder seemed too buttoned-down for such outlandish developments. I never missed catastrophes in Cities: Skylines.