Unlike a game like Cities XL (which lets you fill any empty space of any size and shape with "decorative landscaping"), Parklife pretty much only works for large, broad park areas. District-painting has just never been particularly precise, nor has it ever been easy to make certain types of shapes with it. They use the same district-painting mechanic, however, and are subject to the same problems and annoyances. Park areas are not technically districts - they occupy their own layer and can overlap with other districts. The paintable parks are hampered by Skylines somewhat awkward district-painting mechanics. Every last square meter of your city can now be turned into useful park space if you feel so inclined. No matter how beautiful you would make it, that mountain-side hiking trail was always little more than useless dead space.Īreas that used to be dead space that was impractical for construction can now be utilized. If they didn't have to go to work on the other side of that mountain, they simply wouldn't walk those trails.
Sure, you were always able to place walking paths in places like that, but the game (and the citizens of your city) never really recognized it as a place they can go for leisure and entertainment. What used to be a near-obvious matter of "build some mines" actually has some viable alternatives.
If that mountain also happens to have ore or oil resources under it, then now I suddenly have some meaningful choices to make on how to effectively utilize the resources. That mountain that is too big to level, and too steep to realistically build on, can now be turned into a massive park, complete with hiking trails, lookout points, and so forth. Parklife allows you to leverage these features of your landscape as part of your city-beautification plans. I now have a more meaningful choice of how to utilize this resource-rich mountain. Well now you can actually formally use those obstacles. Starting out with a limited budget, small pool of unlocked buildings, and a relatively small plot of land means that young cities often have to work around environmental and natural obstacles, which made those obstacles part of the character of your city.
Even if you have a billion dollars saved up in your city's coffers, the fact that every cubic meter of dirt that you excavate has to go somewhere, and every cubic meter of dirt that you dump has to come from somewhere, means that you can only do so much to modify the map. The mechanical limitations of the terraforming tools means that you rarely (if ever) have the money and terrain available to make wholesale changes to the geography of the map. One of the strengths of Cities: Skylines has always been the way that the game utilizes its space and the natural environment. And honestly, is there anyone playing a city-builder who doesn't enjoy making their city look pretty? A walk in the park While Parklife still isn't going to offer the same degree of freedom and creativity that you can get from mods, having these more free-form park-creation and decorative tools should be a welcome addition for anybody who enjoys adding a little more personal flavor to their city. In any case, it should seem pretty obvious that I'm pleased to see this expansion incorporate so many of my own ideas and suggestions. Much of Parklife's content seems inspired by mods. But who knows? Maybe somebody did see my wishlist and incorporate some elements of my ideas into the development in progress? It's certainly one heck of a coincidence! It seems like someone in Skylines design is thinking along the same wavelength as me. I'm not going to take credit for having designed this expansion for Colossal Order, because I posted that wishlist in February, and the game is releasing in May, so unless Colossal Order is supernaturally efficient at creating expansions, there simply wasn't enough time for them to design and implement Parklife after reading that wishlist. That is because the focus of the expansion seems to be pulled almost verbatim from my own "Great Outdoors" wishlist. Parklife is perhaps the single Cities: Skylines expansion that I have most looked forward to. Please click here for my review of the base game.Ĭities Skylines base game rated E (for Everybody) Note: This is a review of expansion content only.
Parks are fun and expressive, but not a strict upgrade Lots of decorative options and opportunities for player expression.