When comparing Time Rifters vs Cities: Skylines, the Slant community recommends Cities: Skylines for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Steam with a level editor?” Cities: Skylines is ranked 2nd while Time Rifters is ranked 28th. The most important reason people chose Cities: Skylines is:
At a total of 36sq.km of area to use (compared to SimCity 4), there is a large amount of room to build and play.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Rarely seen gameplay mechanic that combines multiple playthroughs
Each level is played through multiple times with every new playthrough adding previous playthroughs alongside current one. This is done 4 times trying to complete as much of the level as possible. It essentially creates a solo co-op experience and allows for lots of strategical planning forward.
Pro Vibrant aesthetic
The game has simple, clear, blocky levels and uses bright colors. There's an Iron Man inspired hud, but that can mostly be ignored unless you want to check out the score. Important information such as enemy count is displayed on the walls of levels and there's no need to keep track of health or ammo.
Pro Good weapon variety
The game has 6 different weapons that each has a progression system associated with 5 upgrade categories - Spread, Focus, Rapid, Punch and Acid. It adds another level of strategical depth as weapon upgrades have to be planned for.
Pro Level editor and Steam Workshop support
You can create your own levels to challenge yourself and your creativity. It feels really cool playing through levels you made, although you know what to expect.
Pro Large scale
At a total of 36sq.km of area to use (compared to SimCity 4), there is a large amount of room to build and play.
Pro Steady Stream of new content via DLCs
DLCs are optional, they do go one sale. Plus when a new DLC is released a bit of the content is released into the base game.
Pro Depth of field
There is a depth of field effect that will blur distant buildings, which mimics Sim City's diorama effect. It can of course be adjusted with a slider as to how much or little to use.
Pro Large Amount of Workshop Mods & Assets
With almost 150 thousand assets and mods, you can totally change the gameplay and look of the game
Cons
Con Abandoned support
Currently the game does not work with the retail version of the Rift, a DK2 (beta Rift model) and older drivers will be necessary to play the game. There has been no word from the developer if this will be fixed.
Con Short
While there's definitely potential for multiple playthroughs to try and get a better score, the base game has just about 2 hours of gameplay.
Con Resource Heavy
If your computer doesn’t have decent specs, don’t expect to be able to run this game smoothly.
Con Expensive
If you want more gameplay features, you have to buy expensive DLC, but you can get them on sale sometimes.
Con Can be difficult to glean what one has done wrong in game
Cities: Skylines has difficulty letting the player know what they have done wrong, which results in a lot of head scratching.