Cities XXL remains a curious release from Focus Home Interactive. Cities XL was a well-enough received, though not a groundbreaking city builder--but neither myself (nor, it seems, much of the market) knows what exactly to make of Cities XXL.
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Pitched as a confusing mix between a new game and a re-release, Cities XXL is perhaps a sleight of hand on the part of the developers. Not much at all has changed from the original game, and though the developers offer a discount to owners of Cities XL to push the idea of an 'upgrade', it's unclear what Cities XXL was ever meant to be.
The idea of a polished, improved version of a game that originally launched in 2011 is not bad in concept--how many remasterings have we seen in the industry, especially recently? The issue here is that very little is actually upgraded: an improved engine was supposed to make the experience smoother, but Cities XXL remains a bit of a memory hog with occasional hangups. The interface is slightly changed as promised (though, in my experience, still far from ideal), and many of the frustrating bugs and inconsistencies remain. At the end of the day, Cities XXL comes across as a moderate patch for Cities XL that players must pay for. You don't need me to tell you how unexciting that prospect is.
So what about the game itself, apart from its nature as a failed repackaging of an extant title? I did have some fun with Cities XXL, and building your city is a worthy challenge. Understanding the systems and seeing them work--from balancing the amount of residents you allow in against the number of jobs available to planning the traffic routes--is satisfying, and you can definitely feel yourself learning what works and what doesn't. The tutorial is filled with failed humor and teaches the game piecemeal--I wish I could have gotten a bigger picture, as I didn't understand how everything worked together at first when trying my own city--but it mostly gets the job done in teaching how to use the game's menus.
Many of the overall complaints and features alike were applicable to Cities XL, but this is of course a better point to jump in for series beginners. Slight performance upgrades and a few other additions make this the best version to purchase if you're starting from scratch, but Cities XXL does itself no favors to fans considering an upgrade. There's little here to warrant your money if you already own its predecessor, and even with Sim City faltering, Cities XXL is not the best city-builder available.
Focus Home had an opportunity to capitalize on a market with clear interest among PC gamers, but the attention (and positive reception) has all been on the unrelated Cities: Skylines. Cities XXL is merely a decent city-builder, and that's without considering its questionable release as re-launch partially disguised as a new game. Cities XXL had a chance to make a case for itself in a market with an EA-sized void to fill, but given the popular new kid on the block and a lackluster offering, that opportunity has been missed.
