Cities in Motion 2 – Review
Cities in motion was a very unique simulation game. There were other traffic simulation games but CIM was the first one that was all about the traffic in one city. The point of the game was to build up the public transportation as efficient as possible. But the game had its problems. Because of this the developer Colossal Order listened to the game community and started working on a sequel, Cities in Motion 2, Bearing all the critic in mind to solve a lot of the problems from the first one and create a better sequel.
Story:
There isn’t much of a story involved in the game. When you start the campaign mode, you can choose just one city. When the game is started, the mayor of the city that they are glad they hired you to build a public transport system as that is the one thing missing in the city. So do your best, build a great public transport and you can hop to the next city in no time.
Graphics:
Comparing the graphics to its predecessor, there isn’t much difference. Except for the fact that CIM2 looks much more realistic, where CIM looked more colorful and simple. It both has its charms, but the graphic style from the first one was more appealing. Nonetheless CIM2 certainly doesn’t have bad graphics, it looks better than most other simulation games I’ve played.
Sound:
The music from the game is not that special, just some tunes that you’ll get bored of after hearing them a couple of times. Even when building objects it’s always the same. But luckily the sound of the traffic is surprisingly real. When you zoom in on the road, where there is a lot of traffic, and close your eyes it feels like your right there in the middle of a traffic jam.
It would have been nice if they added radio stations you could listen to while playing. This way you could choose the sort of music you like while playing the game. For me this would’ve made a great difference in the experience of the game.
Gameplay:
As briefly discussed above, you start the campaign mode as the contractor hired by the city to build a public transport system throughout the city. In the first city you start off with a quest from the mayor to build a transport system that covers 15% of the city. While working on this quest there will be more quest from citizens to for example build a public transport to the university or to a certain shop, etc. But while doing all of this you also have to keep your passengers happy which means don’t keep them waiting too long, see that your ticket prices aren’t to expensive or too low because of course you need to make some profit. When your almost out of money, you can even take a loan to keep your company running.
But the trick to not go bankrupt is to see that you connect the different parts of the city with your public transport system. This way the citizens will start using the public transport more and more to get to their destination, which means there will be less cars on the road and that leads to a lot less traffic jams which in turn again leads to a more effective transport system without much delays and happy paying customers.
Next to the campaign mode, there is also the sandbox mode. Here you can try out the game with unlimited funds, which means you don’t have to look at your money so build away and if it’s not working demolish it and try again. This is a perfect way to learn the basics of the game as where the tutorial is a little bit poor on explanation. After going through the tutorial you’ll get the feeling you’ve learned a little bit on how to play the game and the rest will point itself out. But you could not be more wrong, there is so much more to the game then the tutorial tells you. This is where the value of the sandbox proves itself, it’s the perfect way to learn the game.
It’s not very common in simulation games, but yes this one has it: Multiplayer mode! There are two types, co-op and competitive. In co-op you and your friends (up to 3) work together for the same company on the same map. Here you have large maps with a lot of city centers, so there is space enough for you and your friends to build at the same time. This really benefits the game, because a simulation game usually is played alone but now you can enjoy it with your friends.0
The competitive mode is the opposite, here you are pitched against each other. Here you can choose objectives to complete, if you both have an objective to complete the game will end when one player has achieved his goal. You can also play with one objective, so the first one to complete it wins.
There is also a map editor to create your own city, you can even put them online for other players to play them. So don’t be discouraged when you’ve completed the campaign mode, there are lots of player created maps out there to play.
And last but not least is the store. In the store you can buy DLC, which for now consists out of 4 extra vehicles which can handle more passengers as the one that are standard in the game. And of a combined bus/trolley/tram stop, so you can just put one stop at the side of the street instead of three different ones, which makes your life a lot easier. Every item in the store is priced €0.99, which is not too much.
Conclusion:
No doubt about it, this game is as good as its predecessor if not better. The multiplayer mode adds a great value to the game, as when playing with friends you’ll play the game a lot longer. Hopefully many more simulation games will follow CIM2 and add a multiplayer mode to the menu. The gameplay could’ve been made a little bit more easier, but after playing for about ten hours or so, you’ll get the hang of it. This game is one of the better simulation games in my collection, and hopefully there will be a third installment in the future.
Cities in Motion 2 - Review,
Related Items
1 Comment
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] for not reading our awesome review about it. If you start to get interested now, you can find it here. Now Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive have released new DLC for the game called European […]