City building and management games have been popular since the firstSimCityreleased in 1989. The game spawned a whole new genre of games based around designing a location and optimizing its administration.There are many great city building gameswhich cover everything from modern cities to colonies on Mars. However, because the originalSimCityseries has been dormant since its 2013 reboot, another title has had to take on the mantle of the quintessential modern city management game,Cities: Skylines.
Originally released for PC in 2015,Cities: Skylineswould later see releases on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. The game was praised for being accessible to new players, while still providing a deep experience for fans of the city building genre.
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Now theCitiesseries is getting a VR spin-off game for the Meta Quest 2, which will be released on July 12, 2025. A new trailer forCities: VRwas shown as part of a Meta Quest 2 showcase stream that revealed many new games and updates coming to the VR system. Othergames shown off during this stream includeAmong Us VRandGhostbusters VR. TheCities: VRtrailer reveals the game to be functionally identical toCities: Skylineson PC and consoles, but with a new VR perspective and controls.
Although some playerswould have preferred a full-blown sequel toCities: Skylines, a VR version should provide enough of a new gameplay experience. The game’s new VR perspective allows the player stand over and move around their virtual city as if it were a model. Players can also paint in roads and place trees or buildings by hand. However, the cities inCities: VRwill be limited to a much smaller size than those found inCities: Skylines. This is the trade-off for the game having its new VR perspective.
This new perspective provided by VR could end up changing the feel of the game quite radically. City building games often cast the player as the mayor, or some other figure of authority over the area they are designing, andCities: VRis no exception. The camera’s perspective over the city is usually there to help the player gain an overview of the city’s design, and to highlight which areas need more administrative attention. But with a VR game, players won’t just have a mayoral overview perspective, they will be an actual ethereal presence, which looms over their tiny city like an invisible Godzilla.
There are some city building games that play into the idea of the players apparent Godhood, albeit a Godhood limited by a civil administration budget.Cities: Skylinesdid have a DLC pack that allowed the player to activate natural disastersin the city, but a VR version opens up a whole new option for casting the player themselves as the classic Godzilla-style monster, such as those seen back in the originalSimCitygames.
Cities: VRis coming to Meta Quest 2 on August 03, 2025.
