notes on…
Cities: Skylines
Draw roads, zone neighbourhoods and spend an hour fixing one roundabout. A relaxing city builder.
What you actually do
Plan a city from a single motorway exit. Lay roads, zone homes, shops and industry, provide water, power and services, and watch traffic flow (or not).
Who will love it
Creative players who like building something beautiful at their own pace.
Traffic is the game
Most problems come down to traffic. Public transport, one-way roads and clever junctions solve most of them.
Mods on PC
The Steam Workshop has thousands of free buildings and tools. Even a few can transform the look of your city.
Playing calm
Turn on unlimited money and unlock all buildings if you only want to design. It becomes a digital model railway.
Plus
- Relaxing and creative
- Enormous mod scene on PC
- Great traffic simulation
Minus
- Lots of paid DLC
- Late game performance on big cities
Bottom line
The best city builder for players who want to design rather than survive.
Notes written on 27 October 2026. Updates can change details; the official page has the latest.