Citybuilding spin-off Cities: VR will launch on April 28th
What if Godzilla was mayor?
Squatting among the cityscapes of Google Earth remains one of virtual reality's best experiences, and so there's an instant appeal in being able to build the cityscape yourself. Cities: VR aims to allow that as a spin-off from Cities: Skylines, and we now know it'll launch exclusively for the Meta Quest 2 on April 28th. There's a new video below, offering a look at how it all works.
While this is a spin-off from Cities: Skylines, it's worth noting that it's made not by Colossal Order but by a new studio, Fast Travel Games. Fast Travel, in turn, say that Cities: VR "isn't a direct port of Cities: Skylines." That's because you can't run cities of the size and complexity of Skylines on a VR headset.
Instead, Cities: VR offers the fundamentals of laying down roads, painting zoning districts, and adjusting taxes. What it adds is the ability to do those things while walking around your city like the world's biggest mayor. As mentioned above, I like the idea of being able to crouch down and peer at all the buses and pedestrians scurrying around beneath me.
Whether that's enough to compensate for a more stripped-down citybuilder after the initial novelty wears off, I don't know. I'm also a little disappointed that the interface looks like a set of regular 2D menus you pop up over the world, rather than a more visual, VR-friendly display.
Also that there are no natural disasters - and, more importantly, that you yourself can't destroy buildings by simply punching them, Godzilla-style. Fast Travel are promising free updates after launch, though, so I'll live on in hope.