70/100
Players8 ratings: 70/100
Critics1 review

Where to get it

Steam

2009 · Monte Cristo · City-building · MMO

Cities XL

Cities XL is a simulation game in which players can build their own cities on realistic 3D maps. Players are challenged to create the right combination of social services, employment, activities, and job opportunities for the cities' citizens. In a handful of brief animations, a grandmother character will get into scuffles with much stronger men; this is usually depicted in a slapstick manner as the men cower in fear or futilely strike back.

Released: 8 October 2009
Platforms: Windows
Genres: City-building MMO Role-playing Simulation Strategy
Developers: Monte Cristo
Publishers: Monte Cristo
Series: Cities XL
Modes: Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Sandbox
Country: France
Age ratings: ESRB E

About

Cities XL (originally Cities Unlimited) is a city-building video game developed by Monte Cristo as a sequel to their earlier title City Life. It was originally scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009, but was eventually released on October 8, 2009. The game allowed players to play online and interact with others on massive persistent planets, and to work together by trading resources or building blueprints in order to satisfy the needs of city inhabitants. However, on March 8, 2010 the online service was closed and the game became single-player only.

Focus Home Interactive acquired the franchise in June 2010 and released Cities XL 2011 on October 14, 2010. The third installment, Cities XL Platinum, was released on February 14, 2013. A new version, Cities XXL, was announced on November 15, 2014, and released on February 5, 2015.

›Story

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.

Keywords

management
steam
micromanagement
online
steam trading cards
economy
terraforming
city builder
polygonal 3d
world building
god mode

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Cities XL allowed players an option to play on a persistent online virtual community known as a planet which required a monthly subscription fee. As a member of a planet, players were able to build their cities in a virtual world populated by other subscribers, trade resources such as electricity with other players, work together to create structures such as the Eiffel Tower, and visit other cities as an avatar and host events.

On January 27, 2010 Monte Cristo announced due to a low subscription rate they would be closing the multiplayer online service, and they did so on March 8, 2010. A patch was released on the same day allowing players to use buses in single-player mode, as they had previously only been available in multiplayer mode.

Development

The terrain is composed of height maps, textures and a normal map. Instead of creating new tools, Monte Cristo relies on existing third-party tools like EarthSculptor, World Machine and GeoControl to generate unique realistic terrain before importing it into their terrain-editing software. In addition, middleware like SpeedTree has also been used for in-game afforestation. In an interview on September 11, 2007 Philippe Da Silva announced that Cities XL would include a large variety of maps and landscapes, which would allow players a greater depth with the types of cities they wanted to create. A pre-released screen shot of an Aspen map confirmed that Cities XL would include snowy landscapes.

Monte Cristo has made a 3D engine that allows lower-range PCs to run the game. The player may not have all the graphic options fully turned on but still get better quality visuals than City Life.

Reception

Cities XL received average reviews. IGN described the game as having "pushed the genre in the right direction" with its "friendlier learning curve" compared to the SimCity series. The review praised the ability to add curved roads, and the "gorgeous" graphics, however, the multiplayer feature was described as "shallow" and the subscription cost was questioned.

GameSpot praised Cities XL for "taking a city builder online", but described the multiplayer feature as "limited and overpriced", and the single-player mode as an "afterthought". The review criticised the limited trading options in single-player mode and commented that the graphics were "bland". 1UP.com also criticised the trading features of the game, and while the review did describe the graphics as "fantastic", it concluded that Cities XL was being "dragged down" by a lack of features. Aggregate review websites give scores of 68.27% on GameRankings, and 69 (out of 100) on Metacritic.