This City Builder combines Cities Skylines and Anno! But is it Good? | Highrise City

Highrise City is a fairly new indie city building game that feels a bit like a mix between Anno 1800 and Cities Skylines, with sprinkles of Tropico mixed in.
Originally developed by a solo developer, the game was released into early access in 2022 with a full release in late 2023, just before the release of Cities Skylines 2.

So is a game the Stardew Valley of City builders or a game that can be skipped? We'll take a look in today's video, we'll take a first look at the game, starting a new city as we go through the basic mechanics of the game. At the end, I'll show you an advanced city and share my thoughts about the game.

As an FYI - this is NOT a sponsored video and I picked the game up with my own money. Thanks to the developer for answering questions that came up, though!

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► Assistant Editor: @CityPlannerPlays

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CHAPTERS

What is Highrise City? - 0:00
Selecting and Map and Starting a City - 0:43
So many graphical issues - 3:10
Building a Small Community after giving up on fixing graphical issues- 4:45
One of my Favorite Features of the Game - 30:18
A few interesting tidbits about the Game - 31:31
Exploring a HUGE city - 34:17
My Thoughts About the Game - 36:15

[highrisecity]

Many thanks to ❤City Planner❤ for the review😄. I am the solo developer of Highrise City.
A big focus was performance, so that cities of +20 million inhabitants are possible.😇 My largest city was 27 million inhabitants. Therefore 7.5 times bigger than here 34:28 Performance remains good. However, more RAM is required for such large cities.

- Something else that could be mentioned in your post is that there are many ways to make farms and industry more efficient so that even the largest populations can be supplied.
- There is an extensive research menu with 5 research branches to specialize your city.
- Subsidies can be used to specifically promote individual branches of industry.
- There are missions that unlock improved building levels.
- There are buff buildings that improve the productivity of other buildings or reduce maintenance costs, for example.
- Laws can be used to gain additional income or spend money.

Why did I develop Highrise City?
The latest part of Sim City was released in 2013. This part had disappointed me so much that I decided to develop my own Sim City with complex gameplay, just as I had wanted it for a long time. When Cities Skylines came out it was nice, but didn't offer any complexity (for me). It was more of a sandbox game without deep gameplay mechanics.

By the way: There are two additional game modes that significantly increase the complexity of the city-building simulation and are for players who want to be challenged (if that's what you want). To unlock them, you have to build the spaceport with several construction phases and launch a geostationary satellite.
One feature activates different groups of workers. Industries then need certain groups of workers. This increases the complexity of large cities. 😆

Maybe I can give some people a new feeling for a citybuilder with this game. stay healthy. 😊

[VaingloriousGaming]

I was just thinking that what my city builders have lacked for my entire life is ability to place a chicken. So glad that need has finally been met!

[TheNerd]

I bet a UI overhaul would do wonders for the sales numbers of this game.

[benhahner]

As a German myself, I was so happy to see this game when it finally released, but there are so many minor things that I don’t like…

[CityPlannerPlays]

Couple of Quick things:
- Please be aware that there is flickering at points in this video due to a bug in the game. I tried to minimize it in the edit, but it's still there!
- This is not a sponsored video - I purchased the game myself, but did speak with the developer for questions. Shout out to them for quick responses!

[Jimmmmmmmm]

It is funny that they call the Netherlands sandbox, even though it is probably one of the biggest topography disrespecters in the world. It used to be swamp land, but we slowly transformed it to what it is now, even adding artifical islands (Flevoland) and transforming a sea to a lake (zuiderzee --> IJsselmeer).

[TheXLAXLimpLungs]

I loved my vacation in 2013 to Sandbox, what a lovely city to visit! So glad this unknown paradise was recognized on the global level, much love. I moved there in 2019 and haven't regretted a single day 😊

[CN-nybp]

I actually kinda like the way the blocks work & look, it looks very much like very walkable and not car focussed neighborhoods by removing them from the road and having those concrete looking spaces between the houses :)

[NoBettaFeta]

Professional game designer of nearly 9 years here with experience from indie to AAA, mobile to console/PC. I feel like I need to comment on the idea that releasing DLC soon after a game that still has issues is somehow a bad thing, even with a small team.

1. It’s very likely that the person(s) building the DLC and the person(s) primarily sorting out technical issues are somewhat specialized into their respective disciplines, and having one person just not do work they’re more specialized to handle doesn’t make sense, especially if they are not really familiar with the issues present.

2. It makes no business sense to hold back content that is done just because other issues are present, in all likelihood the DLC is helping keep the lights on while major issues are being worked on. Released 2 months after ship, new DLC for a few bucks is a good way to extend the funding runway while major issues are still being ironed out.

3. Early Access isn’t a magic solution. It adds a lot of additional pressure to a team, especially a small one or an individual. It sounds like this team is very receptive and communicative on Discord so maybe it would have been the way to go for them as they are already doing a lot of the things early access releases tend to require on top of the frequent updates and improvements. I’m sure they have their reasons, though.

Hopefully this is helpful perspective! I really love your channel and it has been exciting to rediscover it sometime last year and see how far you’ve come since I first stumbled upon it some years back. I remembered to subscribe this time, at least!

[NelielSugiura]

I do like seeing you and Biffa branch out to other games. Helps me get a good feel for things I might want when I play similarly to you.

[jaykebirdgo]

I actually like the idea of having to add on a haulage company/hauler. I mean, I'm biased since I work in the trucking industry, but it adds a level of realism and interaction between other disparate parts of the game that I think sounds neat. And (at least as far as I can see in the video) at least all you have to do is just place down the building, not actually micromanage the trips or anything like that.

[thomrade]

interesting looking game. Feels more like a logistics sim than a citybuilder, much like Workers & Resources, which is a city builder only secondarily as a way to provide workers. Would love to see you take on that game!

[Wereldburger]

At 17:07 you can define the radius area of a hauler building, making it's radius area larger or smaller. You can change the hauler building radius with the blue "Reach" slider button in the Haulage pop up screen.

[iain.sm.c]

This is dope, I hope you do more of these indie city builder videos!

[Chaosonic]

Looks interesting, but definitely too complex for me. My fun in city management games definitely drops off sharply as things get more complex.

[positronalpha]

I'm impressed by your patience. I'm in my mid-40s and I have zero patience for games that don't work. For that reason, I like to wait a few years before trying a new game – just started Fallout 4 for the first time! :P

[flashbashergaming]

I might try to introduce this to my channel as well. Thanks Phil really appreciate your videos!! I have learned a lot from you and Biffa and Diana. I owe my channels success to you!!!

[Violant]

one of the things that frustrated me the most with CS1 was that broken grid problem, it's also why I've always played CS1 with ploppable buildings because I could never count on the game grid system, simcity4 didn't have this issue 20 years ago.

[AndyDJane]

Good to see New Zealand is left off the world map yet again

[WhiteCarBlackWheels]

sending love from san diego! thank you for naming ur city after my town to bring awareness to my people