Cities Skylines Complete Edition for PC is a single-player, open-ended city building simulation game, in which the player can work linearly, achieving story-arc type goals or they can play sand-box style, setting and working towards their own objectives. The game is a loose follow-on from Cities in Motion which had an especial focus on effective transportation links within cities.

Play begins with the player in possession of a single plot of land, a certain amount of money in the bank and an interchange exit from the nearby highway. The player ‘develops’ their land by adding infrastructure – roads, utilities and designated zones, including residential, commercial and industrial. This encourages people to move in, acquire houses and jobs and basically begin to live out their lives.

Growth is measured by the population and at certain milestones, certain civic features are unlocked from the ability to divide your city into districts bound by by-laws and restrictions to installing schools, police and fire stations, as well as hospitals – and even introducing taxation to pay for it all.