Our good friends over at Paradox gave us the chance to check out Cities in Motion ahead of its release. I was given the chance to dive in and create my own virtual city, take command and help it grow. Or in my case have residents unhappy with me and fires burning my town. I guess my dreams of being a dictator went up in smoke, unless I tack “EVIL” on to the front of that.
Ok, enough about my incinerated towns, let’s dive head first into the details of Cities in Motion. I’m sure you business sim fans want the nitty gritty. What exactly is Cities in Motion? Well it’s only the newest business sim game out from Paradox.4 different cities, Vienna, Helsinki, Berlin, and Amsterdam with a time line spanning 100 years of play from 1920 to 2020. This game is sure not to run out of things for you to do.
The graphics are all HD and just gorgeous. Take charge with Cities in Motion, watch your economic growth, meet citizen’s travel needs and keep them happy, balance the budget but the main focus of this game is the many different forms of travel for your citizens. Trams, trains, busses, planes, and boats; this game has it all. Unfortunately, I seem to be terribad at this kind of game. My poor towns had fires and upset citizens, trams that had rails to no where…
You have several tools at your disposal to monitor the different happenings within your city. Find out where your townspeople are travelling the most, underground views to better enable control and implementation of subways. Watch the ticker to see the current issues within your city. Monitor the population’s happiness, all the while trying to turn a profit. Each mode of transportation comes with several choices of vehicle. Will you choose the one that is nicer looking but breaks down more often or will you go for the one that is sturdy but uses more gas?
Ok the down side? Not much of one. I had a hard time of it with the tutorial; it’s a bit buggy in accepting some of the tasks when I did them. Every once in a while the regular game tasks wouldn’t register and I’d have to quit and reload the game. A few minor speed bumps to be sure and I’m certain that an update is probably already under way for them. It’s a gorgeous game and is so immersive you will find large chunks of your time just disappearing as you work to balance your cities growth.
Where can you find it? Cities in Motion is still in pre-order with a release date of February 22nd and a price of $19.95USD. http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/cities-in-motion
