Cities: Skylines II Is a Truly Enormous Sequel – and It’s Built as Much for Console as PC 

Launched in 2015 Skylines: CitiesParadox has been the best city-builder for eight years, providing players with unrivalled resources and freedom to create their ideal empires. Paradox will now take this one step farther with Cities: Skylines IIThe long-running Simulator is back in a sequel.  

Cities: Skylines IIThis game offers a new and exciting way to build your own city. metropolis feel like they’re living and breathing alongside you. The game features new weather simulations and traffic systems for managing the flow in your city. Your cities now also have a buildable area of 172 square KM and can boast over 4,000 building assets – a huge expansion on the first base game. 

In addition, the Xbox 360 controller is the preferred method of play for budding architect who like to use a controller. Mariina Hallikainen was kind enough to talk to us about Cities: Skylines II, and what makes it the best sequel no matter how or where you play.  

Evolution for Players 

Players of PCs will be at ease with the control scheme. Cities: Skylines IIHallikainen tells us that creating a convenient console experience has been a “crucial part” of the game’s design. Hallikainen tells us that crafting a convenient console experience has been a “crucial part” of the game’s design. 

“The game was designed for all platforms simultaneously, meaning it is the same code base, same UI, same achievements for all players. This allows for the same kind of experience, no matter on what device you decide to play on,” Hallikainen says.  

“Unlike its predecessor Cities: Skylines IIThe game has been designed for multiple platforms. It doesn’t matter if you want to design the perfect traffic network, the most efficient public services or just build the most beautiful skyline imaginable, everything is more fun and more relaxing when you do it from your couch.” 

The controls and the UI were designed and tested using the controller. Hallikainen tells us that you’ll be able to navigate the UI seamlessly whether you’re using a controller or a mouse and a keyboard. 

Whole New World

Cities: Skylines II has been built to take onboard all the lessons learned from the making of its predecessor — as well as fan feedback — in order to make it feel more alive than ever before. 

Cities: Skylines II’s biggest change is its size. The maps are made of 441 tiles that can be unlocked at any time.  

“You can grow a continuous city from the starting tiles, create smaller separate areas connected by pre-built highways in the map or anything in-between,” Hallikainen tells us. “The cities can become massive and your imagination is the only limit!” 

“The cities can become massive and your imagination is the only limit!”

Visuals Cities: Skylines IIUse the most recent graphics to show the cities more in detail. 

“Lighting is physics-based and the sun’s position depends on the latitude of the map, giving the game a more realistic look that strives to also replicate the lighting conditions of different areas around the earth faithfully,” Hallikainen adds.  

Simulation in Cities: Skylines II has been overhauled and is much more detailed than before; the inhabitants of your city – be it citizens, vehicles, businesses — react to their environment, the changes around them, and have entire paths that you can observe.  

“It supports a redesigned economic system which is built on real-life economic models,” Hallikainen tells us. “This means that citizens in Cities: Skylines II earn money and spend it on living, travelling and activities in their free time.” 

Companies can find areas with easy access to workforce and resources. They then adjust their production real-time to increase their profits. The new resources are a great way to simulate business as companies can sell, purchase, import, or export the materials and then refine them into products that they will be able to sell and buy. 

A new AI for traffic and pathfinding has been developed to provide a better immersive experience. The vehicles can take decisions in real time to improve traffic flow, like changing lanes. They will also try to make way for emergency vehicles. It’s smarter, reactive, and makes for hyper-realistic management.  

“Another cool and new thing is the introduction of parking spaces, which really makes the cities feel more realistic,” Hallikainen adds. “The citizens need to find a parking space and that will further drive up the importance of handling roads and traffic.” 

The People’s Power 

A striking addition to Skylines: Cities II is the Lifepath feature, which allows you to track your citizens, who they are, what they do, and where they’re going at any time.  

Each citizen has their own income and expenditures, and all of them are intertwined to affect the choices they make, such as where they live or where they want to shop – and how they want to get there.  

“Citizens have been an integral part of Cities: SkylinesFrom the start, this is what we mean Cities: Skylines II we wanted to give them more agency through the advanced AI and simulation, as well as a way to meaningfully voice their opinions about the city,” Hallikainen explains.  

Hallikainen assures that the economy simulation will balance out itself in many cases, allowing the player to have a seamless playing experience. This economy simulation is designed for beginners to make their cities successful. More experienced players, however, can dig deeper and learn more about the intricacies of this simulation. 

Change with the seasons

New features in Cities: Skylines include seasons, which go well beyond what you might expect to see in the game. For example, they are not limited to snow and sun during the summer. Hallikainen tells us that that they’ll recreate realistic weather patterns found on different sides of the globe, an updated pollution system where air pollution now takes wind direction into account, and groundwater options for freshwater pumping.  

“Seasons work differently on each map as the exact position and latitude of the map defines how the weather and thus the seasons will affect the gameplay,” Hallikainen explains. “Seasonal variations will have an impact on the electricity consumption, traffic and weather which will give players additional problems to adjust to. In this game, players will face familiar challenges. Cities: Skylines IIThe simulation is more complex, and will present new challenges for people who are already familiar with creating a digital city.  

However, the AI is perfectly balanced to support newcomers to the series, and players can familiarise themselves with the game’s wealth of features and assets at their own pace. 

“Even with all this added depth, the economy simulation is designed to balance itself out in most cases in order to provide the player a smooth playing experience,” Hallikainen explains. “The economy simulation helps out beginners and newly-found cities to succeed but more experienced players can delve deeper into the simulation and work out its intricacies to fine tune their city more.” 

So whether you’re a seasoned architect ready to take your building game to the next level, or an aspirational overlord raring to put down your very first road tile, Cities: Skylines IIThe world of is waiting to be welcomed by you. This new, bold, exciting and bigger than anything you can imagine.  

Cities: Skylines IIXbox Game Pass and Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Game Pass on October 24^Th.  

Cities: Skylines II

Paradox Interactive

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

You can do anything you dream of!

Create your own city and manage it without any restrictions. City: Skylines II, with its deep simulation and living economy will test your decision making skills. Get ready for a new epic scale in the most realistic city builder – ever.

Your city will change and respond to the decisions you make. This dynamic, ever-changing environment is challenging as well rewarding. Your creativity and planning abilities will help you grow your city to a vibrant metropolis, which attracts businesses, residents and tourists. The possibilities for a city are limitless. From quiet residential areas to bustling central business districts, there is no end. Keep up with your city’s needs and wants by navigating the complexity of managing a large metropolis.

See how your city changes and grows over time. Cities: Skylines II features stunning graphics as well as detailed and beautiful.