Cities: Skylines 2 Reviews
While I absolutely enjoy Cities: Skylines and have seen the features that really make Cities: Skylines II a more enhanced version in terms of game mechanics, it is severely let down in my opinion with its graphics. I found myself getting frustrated that I could not have a smooth experience if I had the graphics even on medium. Against the previous game, graphically Cities: Skylines wins. I started to question why this second iteration was needed. Could they have not just upgraded the game mechanics in the first one and carried on building on what they had? I guess maybe it was not possible and perhaps the changes were too much for any existing cities to handle. It’s a shame as my experience has not been a massively positive one and despite having some better features and ways of doing things, it feels like a backward step in user experience at the moment. Let’s hope for some serious optimization to happen! For now, I would hold off from buying and maybe play it through the Xbox game pass library if you want to have a dabble.
In its current state, it is impossible to recommend Cities Skylines 2, as the game proves to be unplayable, even on a very powerful machine. The game has enormous potential and could score much higher after the necessary corrections. It is important to note that this is not an early access version, but a "final" version that is being sold for 49.99 euros. Players have the right to expect a smooth and complete gaming experience for this price, and unfortunately, Cities Skylines 2 does not meet these expectations in its current state.
Review in French | Read full review
It's going to take a lot of improvement to get this sim into an acceptable form
Cities: Skylines II offers a wide range of options for building your city on a foundation that isn't yet very stable. It doesn't provide all the features and expansions that its predecessor has received over the years, but it has at least set the stage for developers to continue working on the game. Cities Skylines 2 will keep you entertained for hours already. It's more accessible, creative, and fun, as you can feel the enormous work the developers have done on the build features. On the management and city governance side, it's unfortunately worse. You must also forgive the relatively poor technical state, which spoils the impression of a reasonably successful sequel.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Cities Skylines 2 can be engaging – expanding your city provides a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it cannot overshadow a vast sea of greyness, identical, levitating cars and ugly graphics that do not explain ridiculous system requirements.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Cities: Skylines 2 is an ambitious sequel that might have bitten off more than it can chew – be prepared to do a lot of terraforming if you don't want your metropolis to look like a nightmare.
Cities: Skylines 2 is an ambitious sequel that manages to both implement amazing simulations systems while at the same time do little with them. It fails to recapture the magic of the original and the performance issues are a huge letdown. Maybe it will become the “ultimate city builder”, but that day is still far away.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Cities: Skylines II has an extensive system that lets you control every aspect of a city's growth. Unfortunately some aspects could use more explanation and the graphic requirements are high, making it tough to get started.
Cities: Skylines 2 is a sequel with notable improvements over its predecessor, but it falls short in terms of content and stability.
Cities: Skylines II is a modest improvement on its predecessor, integrating a good amount of features and content to feel like a worthwhile sequel. The underlying design remains great and should eventually reach its full potential, but a lack of structure and poor technical performance mean that it's not yet time to make the switch.
Intricate, intuitive, and ambitious, Cities Skylines 2 successfully integrates all the major improvements that players might have wanted. Something personal is lost in its larger scale, while performance problems spoil the beauty, but this could one day become the superior city building game.
Even with some of its shortcomings, Cities: Skylines 2 delivers an extremely deep and content-rich city simulator that genre fans will definitely want to check out. It should once again remind fans why Colossal Order is the perfect studio to lead the urban city-building genre after the failings of the SimCity franchise. However, it is also hard to look past the fact that this game is launching with less content than the original game currently has. Couple that with the limitations the districts have and the lack of the custom-building tools that players loved in the original, and the game feels like it is being held back a bit at launch. Much of this may be fixed with post-launch updates, but right now, it feels like a pretty glaring omission.
In many ways, Cities Skylines 2 is addictive, but the word 'addictive' should be taken subjectively. The game has good addictive potential, like the runner's high after intense exercise or a delicious cup of coffee. But it also has bad addictive potential, like a narcotic, as you grind through the performance issues because you know it'll get good again soon, and you know your rig can totally handle it, as you promise to your friends.
Cities Skylines 2 brings its share of new features, including even more in-depth management of your city. The financial aspect is more difficult and may come as a surprise to some, but after a few attempts you'll get the hang of it. However, the heavy tutorial for older players and the numerous technical problems spoil the experience for many.
Review in French | Read full review
Cities: Skylines II, like its predecessor, provides one of the most enjoyable and robust city management experiences today, especially if they address performance issues and if you're not a political fanatic like the person writing this particular review. So, if all you're looking for is an escapist amusement to test your disastrous skills as an amateur civil engineer, you'll undoubtedly find this game very entertaining and comprehensive.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Skylines II is a good strategy builder that meets today's standards, but could have delivered a little more. You won't find anything in the management that you haven't seen in the previous game or in other city building games. We appreciate the opportunity to build a really huge megalopolis with a complex structure.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Cities: Skylines 2 doesn't rebuild the genre nor its identity, instead choosing to go bigger and deeper without losing sight of what made its predecessor work. With no better alternatives on sight, this will do.
City Skylines 2 is a great city management and creation game, with a bright future ahead thanks to updates, mods and user-created content, which already has a range of interesting options, although the whole is weighed down by poor optimization that still has a little way to go to unfold its full potential.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Quantifying the nuance of Cities: Skylines II isn’t easy. As I dig deeper into its complicated systems, more and more exciting features are still coming into focus. The sequel is ambitious and wants players to juggle hundreds of considerations as they build towards Elysium, and it delivers in that aspect. Yet, unfortunately, the game’s consistent technical problems tend to mire that calculated success.
The city builder sequel is packed with big improvements but a fair share of disappointments.