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  1. Games
  2. Sim
  3. Cities: Skylines

The worst places to live in Cities: Skylines

Features
By Christopher Livingston published 6 April 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

City of Fright

City of Fright

We've seen some of the best things the players of Cities: Skylines have to offer, but not every city is a paradise on earth. We scoured the game's Steam community page and subreddit to find cities run by most dubious and irresponsible mayors around. Here are some of the worst places to live in Cities: Skylines.

Page 1 of 15
Page 1 of 15
Rollercoaster City

Rollercoaster City

There's a time and place for the fun and excitement of a roller coaster, and Mayor MaxC has decreed that the time is always and the place is everywhere. The citizens of Rollercoaster City might want to bring a barf bag along on their morning commute.

Page 2 of 15
Page 2 of 15
Hullchester

Hullchester

The demise of poor Hullchester has been well documented, but I return to it often to stare in horror, because a city being completely buried in poop-water holds a certain fascination. When Mayor Filsketeer presides over a disaster, he doesn't mess around. Except when it comes to the mess. You can read part 1 and part 2.

Page 3 of 15
Page 3 of 15
Poo-power

Poo-power

Not every mayor buries his city in sewage. Mayor 5463728190 actually, literally, powers his city with poo. It's actually a pretty novel system of feeding sewage, and only sewage, into a network of dams. It really works! The city really does run on poo. But the smell, mayor! The smell!

Page 4 of 15
Page 4 of 15
Cruise control

Cruise control

We know cruise lines have been getting a lot of bad press lately, and in Mayor Turtlegains' city, they're taking some drastic steps to attract new customers, such as driving right up onto land to find them. Mayor AdvLeon is having similar issues, which you can see it in action here. Those sitting in the first few avenues might get wet.

Page 5 of 15
Page 5 of 15
Paving the way

Paving the way

I don't want to make accusations without evidence, but I think Mayor _Ganonmight be accepting bribes from a local paving company. Luckily, the citizens are so dizzy from asphalt fumes they didn't find it strange when their town was awarded "Most Attractive City."

Page 6 of 15
Page 6 of 15
Bus, stop!

Bus, stop!

Mayor Repost Research had good intentions. The city's bus lines were a problem, so he tried to delete them all and start from scratch. The buses had their own ideas, though, and quickly began breaking the laws of nature. Buses ain't care.

Page 7 of 15
Page 7 of 15
Send help

Send help

Building a working road system isn't easy, and we've all been frustrated from time to time. You shouldn't take it out on your citizens, though, but making them live in a giant message of your failure, like Mayor Stumpyoftheshire did.

Page 8 of 15
Page 8 of 15
Folks, we're looking at a slight delay

Folks, we're looking at a slight delay

Mayor HeyRevolver might want to do something about the air traffic controller strike. Just look at this air traffic nightmare in action. Hope they brought a lot of extra peanuts.

Page 9 of 15
Page 9 of 15
Stock up on gauze

Stock up on gauze

Speaking of delays, if you're a citizen of Mayor Deblobman's city, you may want to get some first-aid training because the ambulances are gonna take a looooong time to reach you if you've had an accident.

Page 10 of 15
Page 10 of 15
You had one job

You had one job

We're not sure if this is due to a lack of proper training or just an overworked and underfunded fire department, but if you live in the ironically named Mayor SomeoneWaterMyPlants' city, you might want to take fire prevention into your own hands.

Page 11 of 15
Page 11 of 15
The moving park

The moving park

It's great to build parks for your citizens: it makes them happy and gives them a chance to get some exercise. Mayor Leeisamoron might be pushing it, though, as you can see in the following animated link, by making his residents, uh... work a little too hard for some relaxation.

Page 12 of 15
Page 12 of 15
Don't settle here

Don't settle here

We love Settlers of Catan, but would we really want to live there? Mayor YeppImNaked sure thought so, designing a road system of hexes. I admit it looks cool, but imagine giving directions. "Make a right, then a right, then a left, then a right, then a left, then a left, then a right, then a left, and bingo, you're 1/10th of the way there."

Page 13 of 15
Page 13 of 15
Bad dog

Bad dog

People aren't the only ones who live in a city: there's also pets. Mayor Tuerwox's town doesn't put up with any doggone nonsense, though. They've even got a special doghouse for any misbehaving mutts. Poor Rover!

Page 14 of 15
Page 14 of 15
Now He's Bouncing in Heaven

Now He's Bouncing in Heaven

This is nobody's fault, really. But the unlucky kid who thought it would be a great day for a bouncy adventure... let's just hope Mayor Mmseng built a therapist's office right down the street.

Page 15 of 15
Page 15 of 15
TOPICS
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Christopher Livingston
Christopher Livingston
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Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

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New houses
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A jellyfish-like ocean guardian watches over an organic structure on the sea floor.
This underwater city builder had me more emotionally invested in my corals than SimCity does in my human citizens, and you can try it at the next Steam Next Fest
A cyberpunk city with the PC Gamer logo
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Beach front properties at sunset.
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A red ape-man struts across the surface of an alien world.
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