The highlight of this expansion was to 'become the crisis' but this system seems a little underwhelming. By the time you get there you're probably steamrolling. It comes with unique ship types (menacing corvette/destroyer/cruisers) but these use the pirate models which look very out of place as a proper, advanced empire - you'd expect them to have a new ship set or at least use your normal one with highlights. They also use minerals which seems useful but by the time you get to them (3 ascension perks plus) you have tooled you your economy for alloys which suddenly becomes almost useless.

The update is decent but the DLC's main feature is not.

A very unique clan which really changes up the way the game plays, focusing on coastal tiles over inland tiles, getting all sorts of different bonuses. A really nice change of pace.

Lots of new content based around federations, plus some good new origins. A very worthwhile DLC.

A solid base game for paradox to expand upon but, although everyone knows its going to receive a lot of DLC and free updates in the future, it seems like when there are such well evolved games like EU4 and CK2 already there it feel extremely lacking in features. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here though!

This clan adds a very unique playstyle to the game, with the ability to rapidly expand by using civilians to clear out wolves and even drauger (in enough numbers) before building any military units. The reliance on Thralls (mainly for sacrifice) means you need to keep upping your gold production to keep buying more unless you can capture them in fighting. Overall a really unique clan and a great addition to the game at a good cost!

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.