Skid Cities
- February 25, 2021
- LapsuS
- 3h median play time
Get on Steam
Get on itch.io Store"Skid Cities" is a first-person shooter game set in a dystopian future, where players must navigate through gritty urban environments and battle against factions vying for control. With a focus on fast-paced action and intense combat, players can customize their character's skills and weapons to their playstyle. The game also features a rich story campaign and various multiplayer modes for up to 32 players.
Mac OS
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Reviews
- The game has a unique concept that combines cyberpunk themes with city-building mechanics, allowing for creative vertical city designs.
- The developer is responsive to feedback and consistently updates the game, showing promise for future improvements and expansions.
- Despite its current issues, the game offers a fun and relaxing experience for fans of the genre, with potential for deeper gameplay as it develops.
- The game suffers from significant performance issues, including crashes and lag, especially as cities grow larger.
- Many players feel the game is incomplete, with a lack of variety in buildings and mechanics, making it feel undercooked.
- There are concerns about the game's future, with some players believing it may be abandoned or not receive the necessary updates to reach its full potential.
- optimization18 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with many users reporting severe performance issues that hinder gameplay, such as stuttering and low frame rates even on lower settings. While the unique three-dimensional city-building concept shows promise, it is currently marred by technical shortcomings, leading players to recommend waiting for significant optimization updates before fully engaging with the game. Some users note that ongoing patches are addressing performance, but the game remains a challenging experience for most players.
“Dev has been patching performance alongside features, so if you like city management, now's the time to hop in.”
“This game truly has the potential to revolutionize city builders since there are not really any that allow you to fully take advantage of three dimensions and have multiple street levels, but the performance and bug issues really hold this game back from what it could be and what it could do for the industry as a whole.”
“This game is one major optimization patch and one significant content patch away from being a full-throated recommendation at its full price.”
“Worse, it's unplayably badly optimized.”
“While the concept of this game is unique given the ability to plan out a city in three dimensions, the performance of this game is horrible.”
“This game is one major optimization patch, and one significant content patch away, from being a full-throated recommendation at its full price.”
- graphics11 mentions
- 36 % positive mentions
- 36 % neutral mentions
- 27 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the vibrant neon aesthetics typical of a cyberpunk setting, while others criticize the visuals as outdated and lacking polish, resembling early 2000s titles. Despite some graphical improvements and a responsive development team, issues like glitches and performance concerns persist, leaving players hopeful for future updates. Overall, the game's visual appeal shows potential but currently falls short of expectations set by its promotional art.
“Cool graphics, I think this game definitely has potential.”
“The music is pretty and the visuals have a fair amount of neon on buildings and the signs of the hypercapitalist hellscape you come to expect in a cyberpunk future.”
“I'm playing the early access version, so while there are certainly some kinks, the visuals are beautiful and the mechanics are intuitive.”
“The graphics at standard level of quality look like something out of 2000-2001, and I have no idea why it runs so slowly and why it would even need 16 GB of RAM.”
“Plus, the graphics are pretty meh, bearing even less resemblance to the beautifully rendered publicity art for the project than is even the norm for other future-city computer games.”
“Something that doesn't look likely to change in early access: the trash-future aesthetic.”
- gameplay10 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 30 % neutral mentions
- 30 % negative mentions
The gameplay features intriguing mechanics and a unique cyberpunk aesthetic, but suffers from significant balance issues and performance problems, particularly in the early access version. Players have noted that automatic upgrades can lead to cascading downgrades, which complicates city management and can result in substantial losses. While the game shows potential with its innovative multi-level design, it currently feels incomplete and may only appeal to dedicated fans of the genre.
“It's definitely got the vibe down and some interesting mechanics.”
“I'm playing the early access version, so while there are certainly some kinks, the visuals are beautiful and the mechanics are intuitive.”
“For the gameplay itself, there's a weird thing as things upgrade themselves automatically when combined with appropriate cyberpunk devices, but this also means if you run a too tight budget and you try to move something somewhere else, you'll trigger a cascade where all the stuff around it will downgrade, and you lose income from the downgrade and thus are forced to remove more and more until half your city is gone and your maintenance cost is still too high.”
“This game has great potential, but in a little under an hour of gameplay and only 30k residents, my computer is frozen.”
“While it brings a unique style and the underused mechanic of multiple z levels in a city management game, massive performance issues coupled with little other innovation make this an enthusiast piece at best and a poor entry point to the genre.”
- stability5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is a significant concern, with users reporting frequent random crashes, severe lag, and unresponsive UI as population numbers increase. Many players experience issues such as corrupted saves and buggy functions that require reloading to resolve. Overall, stability has reportedly worsened over time, leading to a frustrating gameplay experience.
“On the other hand, it does slow the game to a crawl; a population of 50k already causes random freezes during UI operations like placing a new road.”
“Things become stickier or unresponsive until the whole thing eventually freezes completely, or you can't put anything down or remove anything. Reloading gets forever stuck with a corrupted save.”
“The game is known to randomly crash at times. Lag can start to be a problem once you reach the mid-10s of thousands of population. Sometimes, certain UI functions will cease working, and you have to exit the save and go back to 'fix' it. Some functions are buggy, and using the button that clears the view of obstructing buildings doesn't function very well when you start to go up street levels due to removing the bottom platforms in the process.”
- music4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The music in the game is praised for its beauty and emotional depth, featuring a talented soundtrack that blends both melancholic and triumphant tones, perfectly complementing the neon-lit visuals of a cyberpunk setting. Overall, the soundtrack serves as a motivating backdrop that enhances the game's atmosphere.
“The music is pretty, and the visuals have a fair amount of neon on buildings and the signs of the hypercapitalist hellscape you come to expect in a cyberpunk future.”
“The soundtrack to this game is great.”
“The soundtrack has notes of being a motivation to rise from ruins - it sounds both depressing and triumphal at the same time, if that makes any sense.”
“The music is pretty and the visuals have a fair amount of neon on buildings and the signs of the hypercapitalist hellscape you come to expect in a cyberpunk future.”
- story3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The story aspect is enhanced by an engaging tutorial and optional missions system, which effectively draw players into the gameplay and encourage exploration. Users appreciate the well-structured missions that contribute to a compelling narrative experience.
“The tutorial, as part of the optional missions system, is a great idea.”
“The missions and tutorial are really well designed.”
“Easy to lose an afternoon in the quest to build up.”
- humor1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is noted to be very funny, though some users feel it may not resonate with everyone.
- replayability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Reviewers suggest that the game's replayability may improve as the developers continue to enhance its overall playability, indicating potential for a more engaging experience in future updates.
“The lack of meaningful choices makes replaying the game feel pointless.”
“Once you've completed the game, there's little incentive to go back and experience it again.”
“The game offers no new content or variations in gameplay on subsequent playthroughs.”
