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CITIES XL

EMAIL PRINT pc

4.2 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 25 critic reviews
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Based on 85 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Monte Cristo

Developer: Monte Cristo

Genre(s): City-Building, Simulation

Players: Thousands

ESRB Rating: RP (Rating Pending)

Release Date: October 9, 2009

Summary

CITIES XL allows gamers to develop cities on realistic 3D maps using an incredible collection of unique structures and monuments based on American, Asian and European-influenced architectural styles. The maps feature a variety of environments: mountains, hills, canyons, beaches and islands, all set in different climates from tropical to desert, Mediterranean to temperate. Players must create the right combinations of social services, leisure activities, special events and other job opportunities within their cities in order to feed, clothe, employ and entertain their citizens. Be it planning and building a new zoo, public park, residential neighborhood or transit system - there's always a fresh and exciting challenge for would-be city managers and mayors in CITIES XL. The game's online features and services allow players to create interconnected cities on virtual and persistent planets. Mayors can share and trade with one another, specialize their economy and team up with befriended cities to create sprawling metropolises. Life on the planet is punctuated by events and competitions - a concert held in one town may, for example, be attended by visitors from other areas who can also enjoy a walk around the city to admire the urban creations of multiple players. By combining a fantastic single-player game with the social and multiplayer aspects of an MMO, CITIES XL shapes the future of the genre by offering more variety, bigger cities and multiple gameplay layers. [Monte Cristo]

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Multiplayer.it

Cities XL is a fresh and innovative game. It is graphically beautiful and full of interesting features that set it to the top of the genre. Unfortunately there are some issues with the online.

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GamesNation

Cities XL fills in the void left by SimCity, since it turned more attention towards human interaction. Its building and management systems are incredibly varied and complex, giving the player complete control over the city’s growth. And the possibility to share online the whole town with other players in an interactive manner guarantees longevity to the gameplay.

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IGN

Its friendlier learning curve as compared to the SimCity series will rope in new players, while its greater city design freedom will keep vets interested. However, even with multiplayer trading and resource balance and management, Cities XL is still not as hardcore as the SimCity series, and the subscription cost is questionably worth the arguably shallow multiplayer content.

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Cynamite

Finally a worthy city building successor to SimCity 4! The prices for playing online are quite high, though.

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Everyeye.it

Cities XL is the spiritual sequel of Sim City. In the city builder's scene is the real dominator with it's well balanced gameplay and a full 3D graphics.

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NZGamer

And while I found the avatars to be quite hideous looking (I opted for a red-afroed freak in grey boots and a red mini skirt), they have little actual bearing on the rest of the game, which looks and feels excellent.

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GamingXP

Monte Cristo made nearly everything right what you can expect from a city simulation. A lot of different buildings and styles will entertain you and many other people in the world for hours!

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Gamers.at

The city-building simulation Cities XL in solo mode certainly makes a lot of fun and motivates to build even larger and more sophisticated cities. The announced features for the online mode are sometimes not available, and also do not always work as they should. A solid game for solo players, fans of the multiplayer mode should still wait for improvements.

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Strategy Informer

On the one hand, it’s a fun, addictive little game that’s a good homage to a classic genre. On the other hand, as of publication there are still quite a few bugs and entire features that just haven’t been implemented yet. Coupled with the lack of a truly competitive element this game will probably only entertain hardcore fans of the genre.

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Gamer Limit

Cities XL suffers from too many preventable faults to be considered a success. It's a shame, since under the surface hides a powerful and creative beast.

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PC Games (Germany)

Although enjoyable and graphically superb, Cities XL is a derivative, bug-flawed, expensive construction site of a game.

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Total PC Gaming

If you've got plenty of time to dig in the virtual earth, Cities XL will reward you. [Issue#26, p.52]

AceGamez

There's work that clearly needs to be done, and if Monte Cristo pull out all the stops over the next few weeks Cities XL might approach something closer to it's true potential than what is currently on offer. As it stands, in it's current state, there's still not enough that justifies repeated visits once the free 7 day trail expires.

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Gameplanet

Cities XL may appear at the outset to be a detailed and engaging new Sim title, however scratch the surface and you'll discover that it lacks the type of addictive gameplay so necessary in this genre. It might be wise to wait for a content patch before investing too much time in this one.

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GameFocus

This game has amazing potential, but sadly at the moment all that they have offered is a shell of what could be, I hope they finish what they started.

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PC Zone UK

More medium than XL. [Christmas 2009, p.77]

ImpulseGamer

Kudos for Monte Cristo for aiming high, however unfortunately they missed that elusive mark with their latest city building game. It does feature some cool micromanagement and even some online features, however it feels like this game should have been something more.

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GameStar

Cities XL plays like Sim City from 1988 of City Life from 2006: Building streets and industrial, residential and commercial areas. But once you start building, you realize that a lot of things don't seem to work - because they only will after you've bought playtime. And only then you will be able to buy extra packages. To be fair, one month is included already.

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PC PowerPlay

Intriguing idea but in terms of execution: this ain't no SimCity! [Christmas 2009, p.60]

Eurogamer Italy

At the present time Cities XL is an ambitious but incomplete product that will surely need further work from Monte Cristo to reach proper quality standards. The game experience is in fact fun and challenging but also limited in many ways, proving unable to create real commitment from the players.

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Boomtown

The main success of Cities XL is that it has the basics right. The developer has created a solid city builder that's addictive and enjoyable. It's only hampered by the numerous bugs/crashes and the over-priced planet offer that mainly promises more than it delivers.

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GameSpot

Cities XL tries to expand the city-building genre with new ideas, but the solo game is generic, and the online features aren't ready for a ground-breaking ceremony.

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Eurogamer

I've enjoyed myself here, but Cities XL does not live up to its ambitions. The solo city-builder is a well-paced project for those who like to plot boulevards, but the appeal of the larger game remains unresolved.

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Gameplayer Sweden

Cities XL isn’t SimCity, nor is it a revolution for the city building sub-genre, despite Monte Cristo's efforts with the online feature. But Cities XL is a good game for everyone who enjoy these kind of strategy games. Nothing more and nothing less.

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Gaming Nexus

This is a solid city builder in the SimCity line with a clean interface and good underlying mechanics. The online parts, which the developer hopes to use to set it apart, require more work and thought.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 4.2 (out of 10) based on 85 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tetra Dog gave it a0:
What to say about this game. It lacks everything that made SimCity 4 a success: there's no mass transit, the game becomes boring after creating 1 city, the multiplayer options are bad, there no landscaping options, the buildings are hideous compared to the custom content nowadays created by SimCity 4 users, there's no custom content possible at the moment etc etc. There's only a long list of promises of future updates from the developer and a large bill for the monthly subscription. It's just sad.

st h gave it a4:
Very little transit options, has a lot of bugs. The company forces you to pay their dollar per month fee to use such basic features as mass transit, etc. The cities built online cannot be accessed without an internet connection and active Planet Offer account, neither can the features you paid for. I short, you pay for, let's say, busses. But you are not allowed to keep them! You can only use them as long as you pay the monthly fee. The economic system is flawed, city services unrealistically expensive. Entertainment too expensive and not offset by patronage (like, say, in Tropico, where you can profit from your entertainment venues). Lots come in only two sizes, making your zones look more like something that came from the Borg than a human designer. Graphics are awesome, though riddled with bugs. I enjoy laying out the roads, though you cannot adjust the height and width of them as promised. Roads can curve, though the practice is rendered moot by the strictly rectangular lot shapes. To sum it up...they made much the same errors as Societies - focusing too much on "realistic water" and adding features no one really asked for or wanted. Focus needs to be on city design elements. Period.

Akiba gave it a6:
Despite the many shortcomings it's still very possible to have fun with this game, however you're always left with a bitter taste that the game was intentionally released half finished to milk gamers for the "Planet Offer" (PO) which promises to add the features that should have been included out of the box. Single play is possible, although with the trading being such a vital part and the NPC agent charging 4x what he pays you on resources, you can only go so far unless you play on a balanced map. Problems bugging me the most at this point: - No public transport. Yes, there is an icon for it in the menu, but it will have no feature until content update #3, which again you only get when subscribing for the PO - High maintainance leasure buildings which keep higher-class citizens unsatisfied no matter how many you build - Terraforming being level-only. No possiblity to create rivers, seas or mountains, once you've leveled an area it's leveled for good - Often malfuctioning trade window, even offline - No inter-city trading amongst your own cities With time this game could blossom into something great, but I ain't holding my breath for it, especially not with the current attitude of having to pay extra for missing content. Apart from that the PO only offers chat and inter-player trading, which you practically only need to escape the insane prices of the NPC trader in offline mode.

gamer man gave it a0:
Graphics: 7, Gameplay: 0, logic: 0, (you can zone based on classes of people elites, workers, skilled workers. lol) fun: 0, issues: lots of them, check out the semi-official forum simtropolis , they don't even have their own forum. Personally, I think Sim City 1,2000,3000 and 4 are much much better than this, even Sim City Societies the total train wreck is better IMHO.

Quba M. gave it a4:
The game's release was rushed. Many of the advertised features are not implemented yet (for example mass transit). The game itself is plagued by bugs and feels more like a beta build than retail product. Multiplayer servers are having problems as well, with trade being either laggy or plain disabled - ruining the MMO aspect of the game. My recommendation: Don't buy now, wait and see if the game improves over time (with patches). It has a potential, but at the moment far from realized.

Samson H gave it a5:
CitiesXL is yet another unfinished product rushed into the market. Although pretentious, it is not even worthy of beta development status. The UI is awful. It freezes and crashes into main menu way too often. The multi-player mode is slow and the website is not complete.

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