Cities XL sequel Cities XXL officially announced

The Cities XL franchise will be returning next year with Cities XXL, a bigger and greener city builder.

The game was revealed back on 17 November but there’s now more info on what’s to come. I suspect you can guess what Cities XXL is going to offer, but here’s the official list: a “vastly improved” engine, a streamlined UI, over 1000 buildings, over 70 maps (offering new landscapes and environments, from the tropics to the mountains), and “ecological features.” You’ll have a variety of different available resources ranging from oil to farmland; four classes of citizens spanning four densities of housing; a variety of road options including curved roads, bridges, and tunnels; region-specific roads to match your country; “green” options like park-and-ride, bike hire, and industrial building upgrades that can reduce emissions…

You’ll also have “low-level city management” features, like air and noise pollution levels, and beauty hotspots that can be exploited for tourism. There’s even a citizen management level which lets you track an individual’s route to work to help you manage sea, air, rail, bus, and bike transport. Oh, and a “detailed street-level view” which lets you “meet the citizens as they drive to work, ski, play basketball, or even parachute off the top of towers.”

Also also: Steam Workshop support, mods, and free tools to help you use both of those.

All of which sounds… well, pretty much fantastic. I do recall that past Cities XL games haven’t quite lived up to the lofty expectations players have had for them, though, generally being referred to as “pretty good, but…” so I’m going to retain a bit of caution rather than running naked onto the streets and screaming HOLY SHIT, CITIES XXL LOOKS AMAZING.

Cities XXL is due out in Q1 2015. You can check out an teaser trailer and some shiny screenshots below.