Cities: Skylines was a revelation for the City Simulator. The genre was in quite the lull after the Sim City remake bombed and Cities XL continued to underwhelm, and there was developer Colossal Order, sweeping in to save the day with the critically lauded and addicting-as-hell Cities: Skylines.
But to say that it was all smooth sailing from there would be an overstatement. Cities: Skylines released two expansions within its first year of development – After Dark and Snowfall, and although each of these added a new element to the base game, that's about all they did.
By the time Snowfall came around, people were wise to Colossal Order's act, and the game received mixed reviews on Steam, with many people commenting on how fast and loose they were playing with the term "expansion." When reviewing Snowfall, we echoed that sentiment.
Related: Cities: Skylines – After Dark Review
But Cities: Skylines – Natural Disasters may in fact be the genuine article, acting as the game's first true expansion and sure to avoid any such criticisms of "expansions" past.
Because, in addition to adding eight potential natural disasters (flooding, earthquake, fire, forest fire, sinkhole, thunderstorm, tornado and meteor strike), it also adds a feature that fundamentally changes the way you play the game: the Scenario mode.
With this mode, Cities: Skylines becomes a lot more like a 4X Game, at least in the respect that there are win/lose conditions. Five different scenarios come with the Expansion, all of which vary in difficulty and type of disaster, and you have the ability to create your own scenarios as well.
While, on paper, this seems like only a nominal difference, it makes all the difference, raising Natural Disasters to the realm of expansion, for, you could argue, the first time in the series' history.
