This game has a tight focus which serves it really well. Its management is light and serves just to give a little progression for your units as you fight island to island. It is a game that rewards taking risks - as long as you can make them pay off and don't overstretch. Your 3 unit types have amazing synergy with each other - any combination of 2 or 3 of them, of 2 of the same unit, etc all make for very different tactics and approaches to consider when fighting. And as the campaign progresses it doesn't lose focus and keeps you engaged the whole way through. Very highly recommended!

Small but fun addition which brings to life the city parks that were missing before. Whilst I didn't find the nature reserves, zoos or theme parks as great (although they're still fun to add for sure), the city parks add an element that seemed to be missing before - no longer does your city have just a few plazas and huddles of trees, you can now build proper parks and gardens like you would find in most cities, larger blocks of land dedicated to the outdoors in the middle of your city.

It adds a few less-common transport options but doesn't really change much up and the utility is fairly limited. I doubt you'll be converting to an all-blimp city anytime soon.

An interesting DLC that adds new industrial areas that, like parklife, level up and have various new things you can produce and import/export/sell to your citizens. It does leave the question of what is the point in normal specialised industry areas now, but otherwise its an alright purchase for Cities Skylines.

The game can be split into 2 parts - preparing you colony and bringing your humans. With a semi-random order of techs, varied terrain and resource distributions and different 'mysteries' each playthrough can present a somewhat different experience.

Although not 'realistic', the simulation is fun and makes for good gameplay, and the devs have already shown they are listening to feedback and have updated the game accordingly with requested features.

This game reminds me of games like FTL and XCOM, and is very fun. I tried it save-scumming but actually started again without doing that and found it more fun when accepting my losses.

The FTL element in my mind is the controlling of crew around the aircraft, moving them between stations and to go repair parts, put out fires etc. With crewmen going out on the wings, bringing up ammo to reload guns, and saving injured crewmates, it keeps you concentrating and on your toes.

The XCOM element comes from the game structure of going out on missions, then returning to base to upgrade your gear and aircraft between. With rewards from every mission, this generates an engaging and fun loop.

Additionally, you will take some losses. Sometimes crew will be downed and you can't save them all, or occasionally you will find yourself in so much trouble your plane crashes or does an emergency landing. This is generally from over-reaching and getting yourself into a situation you shouldn't have, including from selecting a mission you have been warned may be very dangerous (but may have higher rewards). This loss and rebuilding/recovering is another great element of the game and I would recommend against avoiding it like I did at first! The game is well balanced around you taking losses and recovering from this so fear not!