Cities: Skylines II Review – Utopian Thinking

In the technical world of city-builders, 2015’s Cities: Skylines made a name for itself as an uncompromising but delicate game where players needed to spin a variety of municipal plates to keep things in order across their fantasy cities. Colossal Order is back with a sequel to Cities: Skylines II. Eight years later and after millions of permits, Colossal Order returns. The iterative additions don’t arrive without consequential imperfections, but Cities: Skylines II still boasts all the intricacy and customizability necessary to provide players with a challenging and deep city-building experience.

You can create an entire world in Cities: Skylines II by starting with terrariums. To build a district that is appealing to dedicated citizens, you must first zone your area. Next, add electricity and plumbing. Unintentionally, I recreated my hometown by putting all of the industrial elements to one side and adding power and water.

Cities: Skylines II, despite its impression of a sandbox, has a rewarding progression system that rewards you as you grow from a small village to a thriving megalopolis. The Development Points earned for each milestone can be used to unlock police, parks and other systems. Expansion permits allow you to extend the city boundaries and gain access to the resources needed to run your city. This guided approach made it feel like a real thrill to unlock and invest in underground parking, and figure out what it can do for my citizens.

My city began to grow more complex as it added iconic buildings such as mansions or factories, but also more current concerns like traffic and pollution. I was inspired to come up with Arcadian-style solutions for my citizens and improve their lives. The locals have plenty to say, even when you’re successful. They can do so via Chirper – the game’s Twitter replica. As in real life, I received a flood of negative comments about my supposed bad choices. A few complimentary remarks were also sprinkled throughout. How dare I try and use green energy to power the city; it’s far too loud now. You have to accept that your digital utopia will not be shared by everyone.

The exponential growth of my cities took a toll on the game’s visuals and performance – Cities: Skylines II struggles to keep up with its own ambitious scale. Up close, there are moments of peculiar beauty, where sunlight streams through the gaps of a castle’s battlements, or you catch the shadow cast by your own terraformed mountain. While the top-down viewpoint is beautiful, I found the game to be flat, cold, with frequent crashes, systemic chuggings, and errors. It was frustrating, even though I’m sure these issues will soon be fixed for all players.

It is possible to zoom into the city and become attached to individuals. By clicking on their names, you can learn more about them, including information such as education, pet status, family and social economic standing. A suburb was on my list of demolitions until I noticed one uncanny Valley citizen doing some yoga in her backyard. After reading their factfile, I couldn’t bring myself to destroy their family home.

If you miss too many citizen complaints, you’re alerted of major problems via booming emergency warnings that disrupt Cities: Skylines II’s calming Brian Eno-esque soundtrack, which is punctuated by appropriately annoying fictional ads. Environmental tragedies constitute hard urban planning lessons, and you’re able to manage traffic control, bunkers, and firefighters to mitigate damage. The first time I witnessed a tornado, it skirted my city’s edges, and I held my breath, praying it wouldn’t reach the center, promptly investing in better protection after the fact.

Quantifying the nuance of Cities: Skylines II isn’t easy. The more I delve into its complex system, the more interesting features become. This sequel has a lot of ambition and asks players to consider hundreds factors as they work towards Elysium. Yet, unfortunately, the game’s consistent technical problems tend to mire that calculated success.