Highrise City Review: The City Sim for Everyone

Truthfully, before Highrise City, I had very little desire to play a city simulator. I was unsure of how much I would truly enjoy these games, and I worried about the potential complexity stressing me out. However, our team was generously offered a free code to the game (in exchange for our honest review, of course), and I found my curiosity piqued. From the moment I watched the trailer, I could tell that this game was going to be different from the city simulators I’d seen before. If you’ve been curious about this game, keep reading to hear about my experience as a city simulator rookie in this Highrise City review!

City simulators have been around for quite a while in the gaming world, dating all the way back to 1989 when SimCity was first released. With roughly 35 years of development in this genre, players are often looking for a unique experience. I believe Highrise City provides that experience while still being accessible to new players.

Story – A Surprising Discovery

Going into Highrise City, I didn’t expect a story or lore of any kind. Imagine my surprise when very early on, the game greeted me with just that! You are a new mayor in a world that seems to be struggling to find an appropriate balance between industry and having a practical, lovely place to live. It appears that several mayors have come before you and failed at the task of managing a city well. Failure is a very real threat that comes in the form of bankruptcy. If you’re unable to manage your city well, you will go bankrupt and subsequently be removed from office. Presumably, this is game over and you will have to restart. I came dangerously close to this outcome more than once. Luckily, the game does a great job of letting you know how to dig yourself out of the hole if you pay attention.

Of course, I will be keeping this review spoiler-free so you can enjoy the game as much as I have. As you continue playing, the game periodically enlightens you with more of the story. It’s like a trail of breadcrumbs as you play on! It’s an aspect of the game that keeps me coming back each day. I want to know more about the world beyond my city limits!

Gameplay – Stressful Yet Fulfilling

Make no mistake, Highrise City can be quite stressful. You are truly managing every aspect of your citizens’ lives. This includes (but is certainly not limited to): food sources, entertainment, utilities, transportation, hauling resources, and taxes. Luckily for players, the game does its best to make everybody’s needs very clear. Despite this, it can easily become overwhelming. This is especially true when you’re working hard to provide for your people, only to realize you’re quickly falling into bankruptcy. However, when your city is thriving and you can work on the more “luxury” industries, the game is immensely satisfying.

Tutorial – Scratching the Surface

In my opinion, when you first begin the tutorial, it’s deceptively simple. While it gives you the absolute basics, it was truly just scratching the surface. Once I had completed it and began working on my city, I found myself lacking knowledge in important areas. In particular, the ‘Tools’ resource comes to mind. Tools are an essential resource for building in Highrise City, but I was clueless on how to obtain them! I found myself googling how to get my hands on them. It turns out that in the early game, your only option is to buy them through trade ports. 

Now, it’s not the game’s fault entirely. After you complete the tutorial, the game continues to give you tips in the form of pop-ups. All of these tips are saved in a comprehensive list, which can be accessed through a small button in the top right HUD. Once I discovered this list, things became much easier to understand. I do think that this list should be pointed out more directly to the player early into the game. Overall, I think it’s a good system, but a few tweaks could really help set players up for total success.

What Sets Highrise City Apart?

In order to get a reference point, I played about an hour of Cities: Skylines II. I had also never played it before, and I started from scratch to keep everything fair. Between the two, I personally prefer Highrise City. The tutorial for Highrise City was much more in-depth, leaving me feeling pretty capable of managing the city when it ended. Comparatively, I felt woefully unprepared after the tutorial in Cities: Skylines II. It felt like I was fumbling to grasp what I needed to do or what my citizens wanted. This theme continued throughout my gameplay, and frankly, I wanted to go back to my city Megatropolis in Highrise City. 

While the economy and resource management is significantly more complex in Highrise City, it’s generally quite easy to identify your next steps. If a building has an issue, there will be a small pop-up directly above it. When you click on that, you can see more information on what the issue is and you can then work on fixing it. Conversely, with Cities: Skylines II, the citizens alert you to issues through a system called “Chirper.” I found it to be largely unhelpful and a bit passive aggressive, if I’m honest. In general, as I played, I felt that Highrise City improved upon a lot of the mechanics you’ll find in a city simulator. As a result, I think it’s a much better option if you’re new to city simulator games like me.

Audio & Visuals – Choose Your Own Adventure

When I first began my playthrough, I was pleasantly surprised by the upbeat, and at times, soothing soundtrack. My fear was that as my city grew, I would become overwhelmed by the noise and cluttered look of it all. Highrise City combats this beautifully. They did so well that when I realized the depth of it, I had to take a few minutes and truly appreciate the work they put into it. 

While managing your city, you have the option to zoom in and out as you please. When zoomed out, you are treated to that beautiful soundtrack. As you zoom in, you can hear all of the intricate sounds of your city. It even changes as you change locations so you can hear what the factories, farms, and neighborhoods all sound like!

The visuals work very similarly to the audio when zooming in and out. The closer you look, the more detail you discover. I played fully zoomed out most of the time, so discovering this felt like a little Easter egg for me. You can even zoom into the sea and look beneath the water! Lastly, I want to highlight the grid system used in this game. Even if you’re like me and place things haphazardly, the grid system keeps everything looking relatively organized. The game offers an almost overwhelming variety of customization options when it comes to things like placing roads or how you want buildings to snap to the grid. The options are endless for designing your city visually, making Highrise City inclusive to gamers of all skill levels.

Verdict

Though I don’t typically play city simulators, I found myself thoroughly enjoying this one, as you can probably tell from reading this Highrise City review. Even when the game became a bit stressful, I never became genuinely frustrated nor did I want to walk away. In just under a week, I’ve already put over twelve hours into my city Megatropolis. I suspect that number will only grow in the following weeks. The story is a bit mysterious, but I think that it adds an extra layer of intrigue to the game. It’s not all just monotonous city management. I was hoping for a game that wasn’t overwhelming or confusing; something that I could lose myself in for hours and not feel burnt-out. It was such a pleasant surprise to find that in Highrise City and I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in city simulators!

I went into Highrise City with an open mind and it absolutely blew me away. The options feel truly endless in this game! Recently, the developers at Fourexo Entertainment released the Vacation DLC for Highrise City. It’s always great to see continued development on a fantastic game. While we were given access to the DLC as well, unfortunately I ran into an issue that made it unplayable. However, I have tons of faith in the team at Fourexo Entertainment and I can’t wait to bring tourists to my city once the problem is fixed. Keep an eye out for our review when that time comes!

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