This expansion feels like an afterthought.
One of the oldest rules in the savvy consumer’s rulebook is, “Don’t buy the cow when you can get the milk for free.” In the case of the After Dark expansion for the surprise hit city simulator Cities: Skylines, Developer Colossal Order already gave away the game-changing and day/night cycle in a free patch, which leaves After Dark without a defining feature to hang its hat on. Instead, it feels like an inessential collection of odds and ends.
We want to hear it.
It’s the kind of content that, if you weren’t looking for it, would probably take you a while to notice.
There are absolutely some tweaks in After Dark that will add some visual variety, and power-users will get some use out of them: roads with built-in bus lanes, taxi depots, a bigger airport, some new ordinances, the ability to specialize your commercial districts between nightlife buildings and tourist-centered attractions, and shoreline buildings like yacht harbors and restaurant piers to give them more distinct regional personality. Still, it’s the kind of content that, if you weren’t specifically looking for it, would probably take you a while to even notice anything new or different, and very little affects the moment-to-moment task of running a city in a meaningful way.
On paper, the new police system sounds like a big deal: it simulates criminal activity in more detail, with more activity at night, and criminals who’re caught and incarcerated will eventually be released and reoffend unless you rehabilitate them in a new prison structure. In reality, the difference has amounted to plopping down an extra police station or two, plus a prison, which hasn’t changed the way I play beyond the subtle sense of satisfaction that comes from knowing there’s even more simulation going on behind the scenes.
It may seem ungrateful to be unenthusiastic about a content pack of miscellaneous upgrades, but the strongest reason to recommend this DLC is to say thank you to Colossal Order and Paradox for the great stuff we got for free in patches. There’s plenty here, and some of it can give your city a little more regional flavor, but none of it stands out as a must-have feature that refreshes how Cities: Skylines plays. Instead, it serves as a reminder to return to this great city builder and see how it’s improved since you played it last.
