With the giant void left by the undeniably disappointing city builder that shall remain unnamed (*cough* Sim City *cough*) I for one was left with an itch to scratch. Luckily the lovely people over at Colossal Order have just the answer for us. Moving forward from the great Cities in Motion games they decided to have a go at a fully fledged city builder. All be it winner of the ‘Most Awkwardly Named Game 2015’ award.

Taking your first steps into a city can be an intimidating experience, particularly if tutorials are over intrusive or under developed. There’s a lot of tools and a lot to learn. Across the bottom of the screen is a toolbar that contains all the stuff you need to create your city. Initially there is only a limited selection for you to play with. As your population grows more tools become available and the pacing is just perfect.

Features like global policies that can reduce power consumption or increase fire safety are introduced at a rate that never feels like a bombardment. The same goes for buildings and services. Rather than a sit down and read endless pop-ups style tutorial features are gradually introduced so that only small explanations are needed at each stage. It really lets you get hooked even during those often tedious early learning stages.

Another reason Skylines is so fun straight from the start is that each and every tool you use is so effortless. From square one I created a dual carriageway with streets set to one way traffic, a junction and a satisfyingly freeform residential block. I didn’t get stuck or have to continuously remove and relay sections of the road. I just clicked on the tool and started building. I did all this in the first 5 minutes of gameplay.

There’s a zone system used that is very similar to everyone’s favourite Sim City game. But again the tools are there for you to make your life easy. Streets come ready equipped with grids attached that you can either paint one square at a time, use a paint brush tool or even a fill tool to create entire blocks easily. Then waiting just a little time everything comes to life as buildings are erected and citizens go about their daily lives.

Linking up electricity and water facilities is satisfyingly simple too. Once you’ve created your water pump each property will need connecting up with pipes. Once again in the interest of user friendliness pipes have a decent sized radius around them and any areas within it will have sewage pumped away and fresh water in. Pylons too are needed to connect each area to your power plants but it is assumed that cables come included to transfer the power locally so you don’t need to spend hours connecting every single building. In fact my little town had power, water and sewage needs sorted within minutes. Even 20 minutes in I had a decent little town starting to thrive.

All this simplicity isn’t to imply that Skylines isn’t complex. Underneath the user friendly interface there are a set of menus and tables that reveal some of the numbers that lie beneath. Finances, happiness, healthcare, education, crime and transport are all detailed enough to make Skylines worthy of any city building fan. That swing meter balancing act is calculated just as well as the intentionally paced introduction of tools.

Another major victory for Skylines is the potential size of your city. At first appearance it looks to be OK. Nothing special but probably about the same size as Sim City allowed. But, and it’s a giant unmissable BUT, Skylines allows you to expand and include multiple city-sized tiles in one giant city. So once you’re city is big enough, you can expand and make it bigger. Rather than be forced to stop and never play again.

Once your city grows the districting tool starts to become very important. It allows you to paint an area, select the relevant policies and even allows you to select an industrial specialization. For example, you can make an industrial zone agricultural or just leave it general. Each area is automatically given a realistic sounding name and referencing different parts of your city by districts adds a nice layer of realism.

The only thing that some may not like is the slightly sandbox style, especially later in the game. Once the learning curve and introduction of tools is done with there are very little objectives to give you direction. If you’re quite happy developing a city and have enough self motivation to keep going then Skylines will not be a problem. It definitely provides you with enough space and tools to create whatever city you like. But those looking for an objective driven experience may be left wanting. For many the sandbox way will be a plus point but everyone else optional objectives to follow wouldn’t have done any harm.

Skylines knows what other games have done wrong and pulls no punches in getting it absolutely right. Colossal Order also have more than their fair share of experience working with Cities and know how to use that experience. The ‘miniature village’ style is gorgeous and intricately detailed. You can even see people leaving houses, getting in cars and driving around. There’s a real eye for detail that you can see in Skylines if you’re willing to look. Another big winner is the size of the city. Knowing that you can keep expanding at least for five entire city sized tiles is relieving.

But there’s no doubt at all that the key to Skyline’s success is in the design of its interfaces and tools. Every element of the interface is simple and fun. I didn’t need to remove and relay roads or demolish incorrectly placed pipes. It didn’t take painstaking hours to hook everyone up with water and power. Every tool is just a joy to use. Making sure the tools you’re given to build the city with are accessible and fun to use was no mistake and Skylines gets it right every step of the way.