Cities XL is a day away from official release.  In the last two weeks Monte Cristo released a couple of detailed videos to showcase both the single player and online gameplay.  Do these videos help make the case for Cities XL?

As a community comprised of city-building fans, we've been closely following the development of Cities XL for the last two years.   Having been so close to the debates and debacles, it's hard not to look at the game without a jaundiced eye.  But once we can accept that us core fans are not the centre of the universe (gasp!), that we're just a fringe nebula in an otherwise vast array of players, you can appreciate how these videos have made a pretty good case for Cities XL as a compelling game worth trying.  

A quick rundown of the 4 minute single player video shows that Monte Cristo has taken great care to hit all the right notes.  So for the purpose of discussion, I encourage you to watch these videos as if you were seeing the game for the first time.

0:04 - Massively Multiplayer, Build any type of city

Right off the bat, we know this isn't just a solitaire type city-builder, that this is a massively mutiplayer city-builder.  We're told we can create a financial metropolis or a little backwater town.  Now, I'm curious to see if building a small town can actually maintain compelling gameplay, and how the game will continue to challenge you and give you a sense of progress without forcing you to expand.

0:20 - Roads and Bridges, Airports and Infrastructure

Now Monte Cristo appeals to the traditional player with some slick looking road, tunnel and bridge tools.  The video gets our imaginations going by showing us how citizens travel to other cities by road, plane or boat.  It mentions how we can build a "network of seaports", and emphasizes the importance of public services and infrastructure to entice businesses to move to your city and so on.  All of this is all well within the realm of familiarity for any core fan.

1:00 - Zoning, the easy way and the precise way

The zoning is a series of fairly quick cuts showing how "easy" the new zoning tool makes it for you by autofilling the lots (I am still not 100% convinced of the autofill, but maybe that can be later improved).  Then we see that we can place our own lots one by one directly where we want them to go.  Monte Cristo balances both features fairly well, realizing that more casual players may find individually placing lots to be tedius, while more fastidious players require that level of control. 

The video goes on to talk in general about density and creating desirability to attact the different types of citizens.  It quickly mentions agriculture and industry as sources of employment and producers of resources. We are told that it is important to keep our private sector happy since they are the main source of income. The farmland visuals do look pretty impressive.  I still think the industry smoke stacks look a bit too cookie-cutter.

2:45 - City Advisors

Advisors are a staple of city-building games.  I imagine Cities XL Advisors to not only be a nod to core fans (most of whom will likely disable them anyway) but also serves to reassure newcomers that the game will help you along.  By talking about the overlays which indicate satisfaction, pollution, commute times, education and so on, reminds us that the game is, at heart, supposed to be a simulator.

3:13 - Number Crunching

Further, we're told that we can dive into numbers and tables to get more data such as unemployment rates, and satisfaction levels.  Evidently, Monte Cristo is appealing directly to the core city-building fan to show that the game has some depth here and will require us to solve the kinds of city-building problems we're familiar with.

This video ends on the same note it began with; mentioning that players can connect with others online.

So the second video is largely focused on selling the online gameplay.  Again, if we look at the video as if seeing the game for the first time, it's easy to be impressed with the potential here.

0:16 - First Step Choose Your Planet

So we're told, to start, we have to select a spot on the planet and that the choice of location will affect the type of city we can build as some land may be more suitable for agriculture, be higher for oil production, have the right climate for tourism or drinkable water.  We're left to imagine how drinkable water might play as a natural resource.  Over all, the implication here is that you'll want to explore the different types of terrain and climate to see how it shapes your city.

1:10 - You're Never Alone

With a direct appeal to social gamers, being able to chat to anyone online is part of the whole online experience -- whether you like it or not.  Maybe with just a wink to The Sims casual player fans, the avatar studio is featured and we are told we can make any type of avatar that suits us.  I notice here that the avatars shown look a lot better than my best results with the avatar studio myself.

1:40 - Trade, and Away-from-game play

Arguably, the main component for online play is the ability to trade resources with other players.  Since all cities consume and produce resources, there will always be shortages and surpluses.  We're shown how a trade contract is created and how trade is managed. We are told that even while we're at school or work, we can still pop in to the website to manage our trade contracts.  Monte Cristo obviously wants us to keep Cities XL on our minds.

3:15 - Megastructures, Rankings and Socializing

Probably the biggest emphasis on co-operative play is collaborating with building megastructures.  The Planet will maintain rankings to provide for a little competitiveness and supposedly will give us something to work toward.  We're told that we can keep a journal for each of our cities, and use the social website to send messages to friends.  There's potential for this to be compelling for those players who do create a lot of friends online.

Overall, I think these two video walkthroughs cover a lot of good "selling" points.  Naturally, Monte Cristo eschews the more contentious issues by focusing on generalities that would appeal to a wider audience. If you've never seen the game or haven't followed its development as closely as some of us in the community has, I think these videos do an excellent job of selling the sizzle.

So, assuming you just saw the game for the first time based on these videos, what would you think of Cities XL?

Related Entries:

• Interview with Monte Cristo
• Keep your MMO, just give me my City Builder
• Is Cities XL mass transit worth the fuss?

The gameplay videos: making the case for Cities XL