Cities: Skylines - Parklife (PC) Review

By David Lovato 30.05.2018

Review for Cities: Skylines - Parklife on PC

DLC for Cities: Skylines has always been hit-or-miss, which is probably something a lot of city building games face. What can DLC offer without feeling hollow? Just adding new assets won't cut it, since the game is most often viewed from above, meaning new assets are just as likely to go entirely unnoticed. Skylines has seen its fair share of both, with some DLC adding little more than new sounds and models, and others offering new environment cycles, natural disasters, aspects of the world to manage, and more. Where does the Parklife aspect fit in, then?

On the surface, Parklife sounds like it would be a simple asset add-on. The focus is on parks, a feature the game has had since launch. Parks serve to offer leisure to in-game citizens, and are a crucial part of keeping them happy. Somehow, Colossal Order has managed to turn the whole idea of an asset drop on its head, though. Yes, Parklife adds new buildings and models to the game, but it does it in a way that's not only unique, but should serve as the model for city building DLC going forward - not just for Cities, but the whole genre.

Assets aren't simple drag-and-drop here. Parklife challenges players to zoom in to street level and actually manually place everything. The fence around the park, walking trails, each building, plaza, park bench, rubbish bin, kiosk - all of it is completely customisable. Some of it may have little-to-no effect on actual gameplay, but that's beside the point - this is a game about making your city yours, and this is probably the first expansion to really expand on that.

Screenshot for Cities: Skylines - Parklife on PC

Parks aren't just limited to grassy areas meant for relaxing, either. The expansion includes amusement parks, nature reserves, and zoos. The developer went hog wild on this DLC, and it shows: new assets, new gameplay methods, and new citywide and street-level features appear here. It's not all relegated to parks, with other aspects of the game getting a few updates, as well, like transportation and a new unique landmark.

The only downside to the DLC would be in its cost, but it's far from an insulting price-tag. In the greater scope of the industry, it might hurt a little to think something like Parklife costs almost as much as, say, a major expansion for Skyrim that would add dozens of hours of gameplay, whereas with a city builder, it's more often than not a slight refresh of what was already established, but this is still by far one of the best DLCs for Cities.

Screenshot for Cities: Skylines - Parklife on PC

Cubed3 Rating

8/10
Rated 8 out of 10

Great - Silver Award

Rated 8 out of 10

Colossal Order might be asking a little much for what some would consider a small DLC, but there's no denying that it has created something pretty special here. Focusing the DLC on zooming down to street level and getting into the nitty-gritty of placement of pretty much everything in the park was a stroke of genius, and something it will hopefully implement into future DLC releases. In a genre about building a city, it's interesting to get players to come down from the clouds every now and then and really set up something unique to their town, and serves as just another reason why this game is special among others of its ilk.

Developer

Colossal Order

Publisher

Paradox

Genre

Simulation

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  8/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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