You can customize some of the UI elements by dragging them to different places on the screen, but there is no arrangement that really feels comfortable.Ĭharts, graphs, and table widgets are also ugly and difficult to read or understand, so I rarely use them. There are buttons and widgets floating all over the screen: build icons, overlay toggles, camera control widgets, zoning sub-controls, and so on. The first thing that you'll notice is the ugly and disorganized interface. There's nothing that really single-handedly breaks the game, but there's a cacaphony of small, nagging problems that gradually wear down your resolve to play the game. The biggest deterrent to enjoying Cities XL is its UI and controls.

When compared to the much smoother and organic controls of games like Tropico 5, the modern SimCity reboot, and even older games like Caesar IV, Cities XL really starts to look bad. This is especially true in the game's interface and controls, which are very rough and full of nagging annoyances. But as I've played the game more, it's limitations and weaknesses have become much more apparent and hard to ignore. I hadn't really played any modern city-builder games since SimCity 4, and so the jump to 3-D graphics, the ability to draw curved roads, and the sheer size of the maps was enough to win me over initially. When I first started playing Cities XL a few years ago, I was really impressed with it. It's a content patch, and not even a very good one.īut on the upside, since I never got around to reviewing the original Cities XL, I can just roll them both into one review! XXL hardly deserves to be called a sequel or sold as a new game. Everything else, right down to the buildings available and the game interface, are unchanged. In my time with the game so far, I've only encountered two new features. So right off the bat, Cities XXL is not substantially different from its predecessor ( Cities XL). ** score for the original Cities XL game that averages Gameplay, Visuals, Audio, and Value, but ignores the ' Cities XXL upgrades' category. The couple new features are insignificant and superficial. Looks the same as Cities XL, plays the same as Cities XL, has the same seemingly incomplete features as Cities XL, and has the same content as Cities XL.

Lots of depth and detail in certain areas less depth in others. Some of the new music is outright irritating.Ī huge playground for building your cities. The interface is ugly, draw distance for cars is too short, and characters look like exaggerated bobble-heads.

Terrain looks great, and cities can look like a satellite photo when zoomed out. It's too bad that the interface is clumsy, streets and buildings don't always line up, and cities are tediously-easy to manage unless you go out of your way to break them. Gradual unlocking of content helps to pace your expansion.

Cities xl limited edition