Little Cities really surprised me on the Meta Quest when it released, so when it was announced it was coming to PSVR2 under the moniker of Little Cities: Bigger!, I was instantly anticipating the release of this version.
Release Date: March 12th 2024
Developer: Purple Yonder
Publisher: nDreams
Price: US $24.99 / CA $33.49 / €24.99 / £19.99
Reviewed On: PlayStation VR2
* Code Provided For Review *
SIT BACK, RELAX AND CREATE
One thing I love about Little Cities, is this offers city building simulation but one that is much more laid back than the likes of the Cities series. This means the management side is a little more simple – which really works in the games favour and makes it much more accessible to more users. But, with this in mind if you are looking for a fully fledged city management simulator, this might not be for you.
One excellent thing about the PSVR2 release, is you will be getting eighteen-months of update content that has come over its time on the Quest platform. Meaning from the get go you will get little citizens walking around your city, attractions, the Sandbox update, and also the Snowy Islands DLC. Giving you ultimate creativity from the start.
Each of the islands you create your cities on will start with just a port and the start of your road, where you will expand your city from. With the aim being to increase you population and have a city the is self sustainable. As you would expect as you grow your population, you are going to have to start in factoring in commercial and industrial zones to keep your city moving and your little citizens busy and spending their hard earn cash – allowing you to keep moving your city and island forward.
As the population keeps growing you will unlock more and more for your city in the form of emergency services, hospitals, schools, recreational areas and airports to allow for holidays and visitors to your city. Add to this the wide range of attractions from the update, meaning you can add things like aquariums, stadiums to helter skelters – all of which is going increase the happiness of the residents.
Of course to keep your city running successfully you are going to have to make sure everything has the utilities to strive. Meaning you will need to make sure the city has water, electricity and a mobile network to connect to. This is one area that more laid back approach comes in, as the likes of water towers just need to be on water baring parts of the island and the windmills for generating electricity can be placed anywhere. This is just monitored by the levels on your wrist, meaning you are not going to have to make sure everything is linked up throughout the whole city for them to to be provided these utilities. The only one that you need to make sure covers the city is the mobile network – this is just indicated by a blue circle that just needs linking up to offer full coverage.
The only dangers to your cities is some of the islands coming with natural disasters like a volcano erupting or just general fires and crime. This is where the aforementioned emergency services come into play, so you need to be prepared – and like the mobile network you need to make sure you have given the full island coverage of these services.
All of above means you can aim to max out the style rating of your city (current rating shown on hand) if you want ultimate completion in campaign mode or just de-stress with some low stakes city management – allowing you to decided how you want to play.
Keeping the laid back feeling is enhanced by the perfect control system. All you need to do is press the hammer on your hand, this will bring up the building menu with all the sections broken up. Meaning if you want zoning you can just press that section and select what type of zoning you want to build. Then when you no longer what that selection, just press the bubble next to your dominant hand to deselect it.
When it comes to moving around your island and city, you will grab the island and pull yourself around. With option to lower yourself in the city to get a closer look at your little citizens going by their daily life being done with the analogue stick.
SIMPLISTICALLY BEAUTIFUL
One of the charms of Little Cities was the more simplified visuals the team at Purple Yonder went with, and I am happy they didn’t make big changes in this area for Bigger. The feeling of the game really suites the visual aesthetic, so I think the more bold simplified look suits what the game offers. However, with the extra power of the PSVR2 it has allowed an enhanced frame rate and the glory of 4K visuals. Mixed with the OLED and HDR displays allowing everything to pop that much more, and looks so beautiful on PSVR2.
Adding to this some great relaxing music and the general noises of the population living their life, sirens from the emergency services and the aeroplanes flying by really bringing the islands to life. With the subtle headset haptics as planes and hot-air balloons go by only increasing the immersion as you look over your city in this God-like view.
COMFORT
THE VERDICT
Summary
Little Cities: Bigger! is the ultimate way to play Little Cities, with all the content released over the lifespan of the Quest version being available on day one, but with the PSVR2 enhancements. Purple Yonder describe the game as a cozy city creation game, and this is the perfect way to describe it. The laid back feeling of the game resonates throughout the whole game, from the gameplay, music to the perfect control system making it accessible to everyone. But, if you love the more detailed city builders and the core of what those offer, this will not offer what you are looking for.
