Cities: Skylines II Review - Gamecritics.com

A Promising Start. Maybe.

HIGH A few really nice quality-of-life features.

LOW Poor performance at launch, even on high-end machines.

WTF Sometimes a massive tornado will just sorta roll through your city and wreak havoc.

To me, there’s a certain kind of artistry involved in developing a sequel that’s nearly identical in aesthetics and mechanics to its predecessor. This isn’t to say that every hacky triple-A series with a yearly release schedule is dabbling in high art, of course. Rather, sequels that hew close to the original vision but wish to stand on their own merits require a sort of careful attention on the part of the developer. They must treat the original like a lump of clay, paring down superfluous mechanics and streamlining good ones until untapped potential of the original is fully revealed.

Cities: Skylines II definitely opts for this sort of careful, iterative approach… though I’m still not sure whether or not that was the right decision. While it does streamline the previous core gameplay loop in a way that makes much of the experience smoother and more satisfying, it also places more emphasis on the ‘human’ aspects of the city, to mixed results — at least for now, prior to any DLC releases.

The start of a Cities: Skylines II run unfolds much the same as the first one — the player is presented with a mostly-empty map featuring a small handful of connections to the outside world via highways and the like. Immediately, the player can begin building the city of their dreams by setting down roads, zoning for commercial, residential, or industrial buildings, bolstering their citizens’ happiness and productivity with a variety of city services, and so on.

The early game rollout of roads and basic services (such as water and electricity) feels less painful now thanks to a few smart tweaks like the ‘grid’ tool. In a few clicks, they can set the length and width of an entire series of roads, making the creation of suburban housing units or industrial centers feel totally effortless. Essential services now feel far easier to implement, as well. For example, instead of manually placing water pipes, the majority of road types now feature a built in ‘network’ of underground water pipes, sewage pipes, and electrical wires, meaning that buildings are automatically connected to these networks when they are built next to a road.

These handy tools, combined with a more robust set of tutorial popups, make the early game absolutely fly by. Clearly Cities II wants to empower the player to create as soon as possible, allowing novice players (and experienced pros alike) to focus on the more detailed and human-focused simulation elements of the sequel.

On the right side of the screen, the player is delivered a constant stream of social media posts from citizens and businesses in their city. Clicking on the names of the uploaders warps the camera to their location, allowing the player to see them going about their day. From an isometric view, the player can see these mini-Sims walk down the sidewalk, park their cars, wait outside their burnt-down house as the firefighters deal with the wreckage, and more. Every single member of the city can be ‘followed’ by the player as well, keeping their profile within a handy tab and adding their significant life events to the constant stream of social media posts.

However, all of these systems still feel a little barebones — characters seem largely defined by employment and familial status. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, especially when it comes to a series like Cities: Skylines which seems to be reliant on its post-release DLC if the pattern of the previous installment is anything to go by. Nevertheless, I think it’d be nice if the constant social media feed and notifications on the map (indicating problems or areas of interest) were more varied and personable.

As it stands now, the player is mainly treated to a constant flow of repetitive and often unhelpful complaints from citizens, as shrill as an alarm clock. If an extremely small section of city has less-than-favorable hospital access, for example, the player will receive constant social media notifications complaining about the city’s bad healthcare. The same scenario applies to every other city service — police, electricity, sewage, and internet.

Oftentimes, these issues won’t be a pressing concern, or they won’t be fixable given the player’s current plans/financial situation. As such, the ways in which the game ‘talks back’ to the player often seem more obnoxious than helpful, and more confusing than inspiring. CSII contains a nifty skill tree allowing the player to unlock and focus on services they’re particularly interested in, a nice component the adds to Cities: Skylines II’s sense of personalization and expression. However, for the majority of my playthrough I felt that I spent a great deal of time putting out fires (real or imaginary) brought up by the busy UI, rather than expressing my own desires.

As I alluded to at the beginning of this review, I’m sure CSII‘s idiosyncratic and compelling elements, such as the ability to follow individual characters, will be expanded on in future DLCs. But if that’s the case then — well, I hate to be That Guy, but is there any reason to upgrade from the original Cities: Skylines at the moment?

If you’re a die-hard city fan of city builders, and the idea of a new Cities: Skylines that’s 10 percent prettier and 5 percent more interesting has you salivating, you might wanna hop on this one right away. But for the rest of us, we can probably just keep chipping away at some other 2000-hour video gaming time sink. It’s not like this franchise is going away any time soon, after all.

Final Score: 6/10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 12 hours were dedicated to the single-player campaign and the game was not completed (it does not seem to have a definite end-state). There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E, with no additional descriptors. This is a city-management simulation game in which players can build and manage their ideal city. From a top-down perspective, players monitor various statistics while using planning skills to attract businesses, residents, and tourists.

Colorblind modes: there are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game does not offer subtitles, but all information is relayed via a text and image user interface. The user interface can be altered and resized. Every relevant piece of information is transmitted visually as well as aurally. It is very easy to play the game without sound, and I would say that it’s fully accessible.