Cities: Skylines II
Cities: Skylines II is based on its predecessor, but has been significantly updated and contains many small and large improvements. He may be the best city builder ever, but not yet; The game suffers from performance issues and some annoying bugs. Even with modern hardware, cities become increasingly unplayable as they get larger and this is a serious problem. There is also no support for mods yet.
In 2015, publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order surprised the world with the release of Cities: Skylines. This alternative to SimCity was a pleasant surprise at the time; The sequel to the original, shiny sim from 2013 was received disappointingly a couple of years ago, in part because that game nearly collapsed due to mandatory online connectivity. Cities: Skylines was a welcome alternative and quickly stole the hearts of many sim makers. It was playable offline and therefore had no server issues, and it offered greater freedom and a number of innovative features, such as some transport elements. The biggest power came from another source: the massive amounts of mods that can be added to the game via Steam, such as grids to quickly create new neighborhoods, tools to build perfectly engineered roads and highway-ready entrances and exits, and more unique buildings, vehicles, and complete… the cities And extensions for any reason tension To add.
Eight years after its release, the filmmakers felt it was time for a successor: Cities: Skylines II. The developers have taken a close look at popular mods and have largely integrated them into the game. Expanding the city is now much easier. Grids are supported, allowing you to build a new neighborhood very quickly, and roundabouts are now standard in the game. Moving existing buildings is now very easy, whereas before you needed to modify it. The maps are also much larger than before. Fun too Zoning for mixed useSuch as a building consisting of shops at the bottom and residential floors at the top. At the same time, it is somewhat controversial that mods can no longer be added via Steam, as this is what made the first version so successful.
Moreover, the game has kept up with the times: you can build solar parks for cheap electricity, expand with battery storage, there are electric buses and taxis, as well as charging stations. Moreover, the game has been expanded with additional functions. The original version already had some Transport Tycoon elements, where you could build bus and metro lines, for example, but you can now also find raw materials on the map or produce them and then process them by your city’s industry. This provides additional income allowing you to grow your city faster.
But does this new part offer enough improvements and challenges to make the switch? In this review you can read more about the innovations, but also about the serious problems that occurred during the review period.