NOTs
Unhelpful Tutorial
The main reason behind any frustration caused while playing Cities in Motion 2 is not knowing how to achieve what you want to do. The root of this issue is the lacklustre and unhelpful tutorial. Blocks of text and a few pointing arrows is the extent of the tutorial. It gives gamers the basics but only after reading and often re-reading the unsupported text. The extent of the problem caused is highlighted when trying to play the campaign and, for no obvious reason, you are unable to do something. The tutorial is not simple enough for new players and may discourage some gamers from continuing to play.
Off-Putting Interface
The user interface leaves a lot to be desired. Although it communicates the relevant information that players will need, and with time is perfectly usable, at the start it is feels overly complicated due to it being unintuitive. Players will have to learn where certain things are and at one point I had five graphs on-screen and I couldn’t get rid of them. Getting rid of them was in the end a rather simple affair, but giving players the option to open multiple graphs, whilst normally having newly opened graphs replacing the previous one, would have worked better. It gets the job done but little more. With plenty of menus and sub-menus to go through often finding a single feature takes too long.
Oddities
While it is not a major problem Cities in Motion 2, currently has no autosave feature. While playing I found no game crashing bugs. However, if you have to quit in a rush and forget to save it would be painful coming back later to find your hard work gone down the drain. A simple fix is to save often but it is easily forgotten with most other titles having autosave features.
City navigation is also an odd experience. WASD is used to move around and it works well, although I would expect to also have the ability to use the mouse to navigate. Edge scrolling as it is often called is common in games, especially of this nature, so why it was not included mystifies me.
Verdict
The unhelpful tutorial and the less than polished user interface mean the game starts at a disadvantage. Prevailing through the steep learning curve with little more than a trial and error approach is worth it. Cities in Motion 2 is a visually pleasant title that offers plenty of replay value, most coming from fan made map creations. Its saving grace is the sandbox mode which allows players to try and test everything out without worrying about throwing away their company value. In sandbox mode the game can be enjoyed as the frustrations, due to the punishment of loss of money for mistakes, are removed. Once the game and its features become known to the player it is possible to enjoy Cities in Motion 2, nevertheless it is an experience some may wish to avoid.
[Editor’s Note: Cities in Motion 2 was reviewed on the PC. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
