Cities: Skylines is back with its 11th expansion, Plazas and Promenades, this time centered around more pedestrian-friendly and eco-friendly city building features. All Cities: Skylines players are also receiving plenty of new content thanks to the free update coinciding with the release of the expansion, including new roads, menu features, and bug fixes.

Cities: Skylines has come a long way since its release back in 2015 thanks to a multitude of major updates and expansions that build upon the strong foundation laid out by developer Colossal Order. Considered by genre fans to be the premiere city-building experience, the game has received widespread critical and public acclaim thanks to the depth of its city management gameplay while remaining intuitive enough for newcomers to develop a bustling little town without too much trouble.

Plazas and Promenades is the 11th expansion for Cities: Skylines, with key features being the various eponymous plazas, promenades, and pedestrian-friendly build options allowing players to take their city designs into entirely new directions. New pedestrian-only streets let citizens walk freely from point to point without the interference of motor vehicles and noise pollution. Designated Pedestrian Zones can also be placed, forbidding the use of vehicles for the given area, reducing vehicular traffic in an environmentally friendly manner.



Several new policies can be adopted as well. These include Slow Driving which enforces a lower speed limit in the area, Sugar Ban which decreases citizen happiness while boosting their lifespan, Street Music which increases both happiness and noise pollution in pedestrian commercial zones, and Deliver Everything, which forces buildings in the area to use service points to receive cargo and garbage service.

New district specializations include office districts, high-density residential areas, and high-density commercial zones. Specialized districts will take on new appearances and gameplay effects, in this case, the new specialized districts will adopt a modern wall-to-wall building layout with 24 new designs. New aesthetically pleasing city service buildings that match the visual style of pedestrian zones can be placed to further enhance happiness in the area. The free portion of the update also introduces 9 new small roads, 4 new large roads, 5 new highways roads, and a new "Quit After Saving" feature. All this new content will likely be further enhanced thanks to Cities: Skylines' excellent modding community.

With expansions still releasing seven years after the game's release, the possibility of a Cities: Skylines sequel is still hanging in the air. Colossal Order has shown no signs of slowing down on its development of Cities: Skylines, so there may be several more years of expansions and updates before another installment is on the table.

Cities: Skylines is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.

Posted: Sep 18, 2022 8:05 am
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://gamerant.com/cities-skylines-plazas-and-promenades-expansion-free-update/