Cities: Skylines II
Last updated: 2025-05-14
- Significant improvements since initial launch.
- Improved graphics with more detail.
- Excellent mod support and integration.
- Engaging and satisfying gameplay experience.
- Frequent crashes and game instability.
- Performance issues, especially in late-game.
Verdict
Mostly negative
Summary
Positive 46% · Negative 54%. Score: 54 / 100
Positives:
- The game has seen significant improvements since its initial release, with developers actively addressing community feedback through updates and patches. These updates have enhanced performance, stability, and gameplay, making it more enjoyable and comparable to its predecessor. Many features from DLCs of the first game are now included in the base game.
- The game boasts significantly improved graphics compared to its predecessor, featuring more detailed environments, dynamic weather effects, and enhanced textures. These visual enhancements contribute to a more immersive and realistic city-building experience, making the game more visually appealing and enjoyable.
- The game features significantly improved road construction tools, offering greater flexibility and control in creating road layouts and intersections. These enhancements make road building more enjoyable and intuitive, allowing for the creation of realistic and complex highway interchanges.
- The game has excellent mod support, with a mature and well-integrated modding community that provides tools, enhancements, and custom content. The integration of Paradox Mods simplifies mod management and ensures compatibility, enhancing the game's replayability and customization options.
- The game offers more customization options, including building upgrades, detailed economic balance, and the ability to tailor cities to specific needs. These features provide players with greater control over their city's development and management, enhancing the overall gameplay experience.
Negatives:
- The game suffers from frequent crashes, freezes, and performance issues, often leading to lost progress and save game corruption. These issues persist even on high-end hardware and after multiple patches, making the game unstable and frustrating to play. Some players suspect review bombing due to the high number of mentions and emotional language.
- The game is often compared unfavorably to its predecessor, lacking content, features, and polish. Many reviewers feel that core mechanics and details that made the first game enjoyable are missing or simplified in the sequel, making it a disappointing experience.
- The game was released in an unfinished state with numerous bugs and performance issues, and updates have been slow to address these problems. Some reviewers feel that the developers are prioritizing DLC over fixing core issues, leading to a perception that the game is not worth the price.
- The game's traffic AI and road tools are flawed, leading to illogical traffic jams, poor pathfinding, and frustrating road construction. Reviewers note that the AI often disregards lane markings and makes unrealistic maneuvers, making traffic management difficult and unrealistic.
- The game's economic simulation is criticized for being unrealistic, lacking depth, and requiring mods to function correctly. Reviewers note that the economic system often fluctuates unpredictably and lacks meaningful feedback, making it difficult to manage the city's finances effectively.
Gameplay:
- The game offers robust city-building mechanics, including detailed simulation of citizens, versatile planning tools, and extensive customization options for roads, zones, and services. Compared to its predecessor, the game features improvements to road systems, traffic management, and economic depth, providing players with more control and complexity in designing and managing their cities.
- The game presents a complex simulation that can be initially challenging for new players, requiring time to learn the mechanics and understand the economic systems. While tutorials and milestones are helpful, the early game can be difficult to balance, and some players may find the interface confusing.
- The game introduces new features such as mixed-use zoning, modular buildings, and upgradeable service buildings, expanding creative options and requiring more strategic planning. These additions provide more depth and customization compared to the previous game.
- The game offers modding support, allowing players to enhance and customize their experience with community-created content. While the game uses a specific modding platform instead of Steam Workshop, the internal system works smoothly and provides access to a variety of mods, some of which address content gaps in the base game.
- The game does not offer a narrative or story-driven missions. The core gameplay loop is traditional, with few innovations compared to the first game.
Performance:
- The game suffers from significant performance issues, including low frame rates, stuttering, lag, and simulation slowdowns. These problems occur even on high-end hardware, especially in larger cities or later stages of the game, making it difficult to play comfortably. Some users are reporting that the game is unplayable due to these issues.
- The game has long loading times, which can be frustrating for players. This issue is exacerbated when using mods, which further increases loading times. Some users have reported that the game freezes during loading.
- Some reviewers note that performance has improved since launch due to patches and updates, but it is still not optimal. While some users report smoother gameplay and reduced crashes, others say that the improvements are not significant enough, especially in larger cities or on less powerful computers.
- Some reviewers have reported that the game does not fully utilize the GPU, with usage never exceeding 80%. Others have reported that GPU usage spikes to 100% before crashes.
- Some users have reported graphical glitches, such as flickering weather and lighting effects, shadows not fully refined, and display bugs when zoomed out. Additionally, DLSS can create ghosting issues and degrade visual quality.
Recommendations:
- The game suffers from significant technical issues, including bugs, crashes, poor optimization, and simulation problems. Many reviewers recommend waiting for patches or sales before purchasing, or suggest playing Cities: Skylines 1 instead. Some reviewers mention losing progress due to crashes and save file issues.
- Despite its flaws, many reviewers find the game enjoyable and engaging, particularly for fans of the city-building genre. They appreciate the depth of the simulation, the creative possibilities, and the potential for future improvements. Some reviewers recommend the game despite its issues, emphasizing its fun factor and addictive gameplay.
- Many reviewers feel that Cities: Skylines 2 does not offer enough improvements over the original to justify the purchase, especially for those who already own Cities: Skylines 1 with DLCs. Some suggest sticking with the first game due to its more complete feature set, better mod support, and superior performance. Others find the sequel to be a worthwhile upgrade despite its flaws.
- Many reviewers express hope that the developers will continue to improve the game through updates and expansions. They suggest waiting for future updates, the asset editor, or a more polished experience before purchasing. Some reviewers draw comparisons to No Man's Sky, suggesting the game could undergo a similar redemption arc.
- Some reviewers suggest that the game is targeted at a more casual audience than the original Cities: Skylines. They note that the game is easier to get started with but lacks depth and detail. This point highlights a potential shift in the game's design philosophy.
Miscellaneous:
- The game launched with issues, leading to mixed reviews and community negativity. However, the developers are dedicated to improvements through updates, fixes, and new content. Paradox has acknowledged the issues and is actively working to address them, earning some recognition from reviewers.
- Compared to its predecessor, the game feels incomplete and lacks content, with many features missing or underdeveloped. Reviewers feel spoiled by the amount of content in the first game and expect more from the sequel, especially considering the larger file size.
- The game is large in size and requires a decent PC to run smoothly due to its detailed simulations. High-end PCs may still experience crashes with excessive mods or large cities.
- The game has received helpful updates, including free themed building packs, since its release. Region packs introduce different building styles and provide a variety of assets, enhancing the gameplay experience.
- The game lacks a specific goal or story, making it easy to get lost in the details. Some reviewers describe it as a 'city painter' due to its open-ended nature.
