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Cities Skylines: Africa in Miniature – Content Pack Review

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Cities Skylines 2 might be just around the corner, but there’s time for one last hurrah as Cities: Skylines kicks off round two of its world tour.
With three content packs covering Africa, Shopping Malls and Sports Venues, I’ve had the pleasure of sinking hours into each of them so today we’re starting off with Africa in Miniature.

The Africa in Miniature content pack promises 28 buildings, 11 unique buildings, 2 monuments, 4 service buildings, 9 grow’ables and 2 props, which doesn’t sound too bad for the £4.99 price-tag, but as you’ll hear about with the Shopping Malls and Sports Venues, Africa in Miniature just feels a little lacking.

The 28 buildings sadly can’t be forced by stylising a district, so that large portion just becomes background content as they appear amongst your other buildings.

These leaves the areas you can control as the most noticeable content, the unique buildings are well varied, offer some great detail and do a good job of setting that African vibe, but because of this, they never really feel well placed next to more traditional buildings found in the base game and the majority of other packs.

If I was able to make a specific “African” district, based around these unique buildings and monuments, I’d feel far more comfortable using them in a city, but players who are specific enough to zoom in close to see the details of the African themed buildings, are likely to be the same ones who are a little more picky about the colour and theme differences between them.

The African in Miniature pack also promises 4 service buildings, of which I have to admit I could only find the one (Police station) and having only two props feels incredibly limited.

To be perfectly fair, I feel pretty disappointed with the overall package, I had visions of a large African themed district, with shanty huts, leading to more traditional buildings and some large unique buildings inspired by Africa, but this pack really doesn’t deliver that much more than you could do with the base content (and the many, many DLC and content packs I already own).
I wanted to get a second opinion, so I let my wife lose (and she’s put some serious hours into Cities Skylines) and sadly the result was the same, there’s just not enough here to warrant the purchase, unless you’re really determined and patient with getting that African theming perfect.

Cities Skylines content packs are always quite polarizing, and while the lower price will entice some buyers, most will only go for the content packs they have a specific interest in. Africa in Miniature is definitely a great theme to explore, but I just don’t feel like there’s enough content here to make it worthwhile.

Cities Skylines: Africa in Miniature – Content Pack

Review by Lee Palmer

Gameplay
75%
Engagement
60%
Value
60%

Summary

Africa in Miniature is definitely a great theme to explore, but I just don’t feel like there’s enough content here to make it worthwhile.

65%


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