With the arrival of Cities: Skylines also on consoles, Colossal Order has rightly kicked off the release of the various expansion packs also for the Xbox One and Playstation 4 versions. Today it's the turn of Snowfall, an expansion of Cities: Skylines that all about the winter period, and more specifically about the snow.
The expansion is already available on Xbox One November 14, while PlayStation 4 players will have to wait until November 21, the day of the expansion's release.
"When the snow falls, nature listens"
The big news of this expansion is certainly the presence of snow which, however, has not been implemented very intelligently in the game world. In fact, if you plan to use your city in a winter period simply by playing and waiting for the change of season, well unfortunately we have to tell you that you will be disappointed. In fact, in Cities Skylines: Snowfall there will be some predefined maps that can be played in the snow, the problem is that you'll have to keep the snow forever, sight the impossibility of a change of season.
We found this choice questionable, but we decided to gloss over and evaluate the expansion in full, in the hope of finding interesting content that could push fans of the genre to return to play in fairly hostile weather conditions. Well, there are some news but they are not as many as we would have expected, in fact, in addition to the snow, there are some additions that were nevertheless fundamental for the correct management of the city in winter.
The main introduction made by the developers is definitely the introduction of heating systems that will allow us to keep our beloved citizens warm. The pipes can be connected to the pre-existing system of water supply to homes, thus simplifying the necessary operations and at the same time guaranteeing a simpler organization of the pipe system that will not cross with the pre-existing ones.
Heating has well-studied variants, both as regards the supply of heat and the quantity needed by citizens. As for the supply, there will be various alternatives, including the heating through the use of electricity, or through specialized centers - for example geothermal power plants and boilers. Speaking instead of quantity, they will vary according to the external temperature, forcing us to manage our resources in a meticulous way, so as to avoid sudden shortages due to sudden drops in temperature.
Turn on the snow blowers!
Like any self-respecting mayor, the first thing to do in case of big snow is ensure the proper functioning of basic services, generally accessible via the roads. Even in Cities Skylines: Snowfall, the streets will tend to become covered with snow during storms, and our task will be to overcome this problem by purchasing structures that will house the snow plows.
Snowplows will go to clear our snowy streets, so as to allow our citizens to reach their workplace in complete tranquility. It may seem strange but this is perhaps one of the most interesting novelties of the expansion that does not introduce much else regarding the winter period, limiting itself to implementing only the "fundamental" things, namely heating and snow plows.
However, we must also add the presence of new options in the political sphere, it will be possible for example, require citizens to use wheel chains, which seemed sensible and useful for those who want to better manage a completely snow-covered city.
Tram and many decorations
With the arrival of the Snowfall expansion, the much loved decorations could certainly not be missing, which in this case will be dyed white. In the appropriate decorations section, you will easily find those relating to the winter period, which will allow you to add to the city winter parks, icy slopes, trees and much more.
One aspect that has always struck us in Cities: Skylines is precisely the possibility of embellishing one's city with many decorations, leaving the player the freedom to place them where they want, sometimes managing to create cities not very far from the metropolises that we live every single one day. The decorations already present in the standard version of the game can still be used and will be affected by the presence of snow, adapting accordingly.
Another interesting news is the introduction of the much desired trams, which finally see the light in the management of Colossal Order. It will be possible to build customized roads that will present tram lines, which will allow the passage of it, and which will transport citizens throughout the city, guaranteeing you a positive return from the point of view of the happiness of citizens but also of traffic, which in this way, together with trains, metro and buses, will be slightly improved.
The snow falls, but so does the frame rate
Speaking of the technical implementation of the expansion, we are obviously at the levels of the standard game, with a snow that evenly covers each game object, even if at times with some uncertainty. The atmosphere that is created is certainly fascinating and together with the new parks and decorations, the winter city target has certainly been hit in full.
Unlike the graphic rendering, the frame rate unfortunately suffers from some small drops in some moments of stress, but especially during the snow fall, which often more than creating a pleasant atmosphere, ends up resulting in fairly annoying frame drops, which affect the gaming experience.
We can therefore be partially satisfied with the technical implementation of this expansion, which also suffers the limitations of the standard version that we had already analyzed in depth in the review. However with the arrival of updates the various frame drops seemed partially resolved, in fact today they are practically absent in the “normal” maps, while they are unfortunately present in the maps of the new Snowfall expansion. We hope that even this time these minor problems will be solved in the short term so as to guarantee a complete and well-optimized experience for lovers of the genre for their platform.
Cities Skylines: Snowfall is an expansion that will please lovers of the title of Colossal Order, which will guarantee some interesting news in normal modes, such as the arrival of the trams, but at the same time also an absolute novelty, namely the presence of maps with snow. Maps that can only be played in the winter season, and which will force you to take specific measures regarding the heating of citizens, but also for the maintenance and cleaning of the streets, essential in the event of strong storms. In addition to these additions, the news can be counted on the fingers and in our opinion they are not enough to create a new experience in the winter maps, which are still fascinating. Speaking of the technical side, we found some problems in the general fluidity of the game when heavy snows begin, while otherwise the technical quality has remained the same as the standard game.
