Cities Skylines Snowfall & After Dark DLC

During the recent Steam Winter Sale I picked up a couple of DLC for Cities Skylines (After Dark and Snowfall). The Snowfall DLC is currently $12.99 regular price on Steam and presently has a review status of mixed, which I happen to disagree with. While there are some things that they could have more fully fleshed out, there are many more features of this expansion that make it worth the regular price. I started one of the three snow maps as a test and ended up spending all my current city building time plowing snow.

The various screenshots below detail some of the aspects of the DLC.

This is one of three snow maps that ships with the DLC. Sadly it only snows on these maps, and they never have anything but snow. It would be nice if there were true seasonal changes in the game where summer is summer and winter is hell, but right now in the game you are either living in Saskatchewan or Sarasota.

The roads will get covered with the stuff and you need a healthy combination of snow plows (from the new snow dumps which operate similar to a cemetery or garbage dump), as well as a new road maintenance depot building which sends trucks out to monitor and improve road conditions.

There is so much snow to plow you can actually get a Steam achievement for it.

One of the new City Policies is called “Schools Out” which allows you to somewhat suppress the desire for higher education by having working age cims seek employment rather than college. I have found myself employing this specific policy on low density residential districts. So far I am unable to tell a difference.

This is a bear. Bears do things in the woods.

This was my initial schematic: Industry up near the highway while residential zones push towards the coast. Once demand picks up for commercial, it will fill in between.

After some heavy development that flow crosses the road to the other side and some attractions fill in the gaps (mall, aquarium, stadium, etc.)

I had to come up with this custom interchange in the center of the city to account for some traffic issues. The initial builds can only last so long before you have to make decisions about what roads to expand and how to reset the various services that may be displaced.

Just a glamour shot from one side.

And now from the other side.

The new Bus Terminal (part of the After Dark expansion) is a major improvement. It acts as a hub for all bus traffic. I parked this terminal across from a bus depot and metro in a major attraction area where all service transportation originates from. Although this is not part of Snowfall, it is included here as it is an integral part of this map.

The new Cargo Hub is also from After Dark: It combines a standard cargo harbor and a rail line so trains can take product directly to and from the industrial zones (which I put right next to the hub).

In an attempt to not have huge population fluctuations due to over zoning, I have been laying down a 4X1 grid at the first of each month as long as demand was at least at medium for a specified type. This has greatly reduced the wild death waves that I have experienced in the past.

Although I have not done much of anything with the tourism aspects of the After Dark DLC (currently $14.99 regular price), I would have to say it is a must buy as well considering the usefulness of the Bus Terminal and Cargo Hub buildings.

There are a number of other features in both DLC that I have not touched upon in this review. Overall both add to the base game and are worthwhile investments if you find yourself playing this game frequently.