Review by: Troy S. Goodfellow

A persistent multiplayer city builder is a daring idea when you think about it, and its obviousness doesn’t lessen the guts it takes to try it. Thousands and thousands of players building their own cities on very different landscapes is an opportunity for nation building and city sharing. Imagine all the wild possibilities of resource trading and building competitive advantages for your little burg. Monte Cristo, developers of the charming City Life, are not the first to come up with this idea but in the new Cities XL they are probably the first to bring it to life so convincingly.

Well, almost convincingly. Forget nation building, for example—these thousands of cities share a planet, but little else. It’s like the Greece of Pericles and Leonidas – all distinct city states that only need to interact with each other for trading purposes. There is no sense that losing citizens means that they go somewhere else or that your city is contributing to anything larger than itself. Cities XL is autarchy, at least up to a point.

The solo nature of this multiplayer world becomes readily apparent when you dip into the solo city builder game. In both versions, you build a city step by step, unlocking new options and structures as you meet specific population goals. For example, you are limited to low density housing for Unqualified and Qualified workers until you hit 5,000 people. Business, service and utility structures are unlocked in a similar way.

Some businesses produce goods. If you have lots of fertile ground you can produce excess food. If you have oil you can exploit that. Manufacturing will produce another good. These goods meet the needs of your population, but more importantly are available to trade for other goods. Your city can’t build everything your population wants or needs, so you can buy the excess from other cities and sell yours.