Cities: Skylines II

Cities: Skylines II presents a mixed experience to players, combining impressive visuals and deeper simulation mechanics with significant technical and design shortcomings. The game features realistic building designs, improved traffic AI, and a more detailed economy, offering a richer city-building experience than its predecessor. However, many players report persistent issues such as frequent crashes, long loading times, and bugs that affect gameplay stability.

A major point of contention is the removal of native Steam Workshop support, replaced by a less user-friendly Paradox Mods platform, which has fragmented the modding community and introduced additional frustrations. The game’s DLC model is also criticized as expensive and incomplete, with some feeling the developers prioritize paid content over fixing core problems. Despite patches and improvements over time, many fans still find the sequel inferior to the original, citing lack of polish and missing features as key drawbacks.

Overall, while the game holds promise with its ambitious design and improved simulation, it is currently hampered by technical instability, poor mod support, and perceived neglect from the developers.

Highlights

Players praise the game's enhanced graphics, noting the realistic building models and beautiful lighting effects, especially at night. The deep simulation mechanics involving traffic behaviors and individual citizen routines add a new layer of realism and immersion. The improved UI and expanded city-building tools receive positive mentions for making gameplay more accessible and enjoyable. Additionally, some appreciate the game's creative potential and the fun of managing complex urban systems.

The game's ambition to evolve the city-building genre is recognized, with many acknowledging the improvements over the original in terms of scale and detail.

Criticisms

Common criticisms focus on frequent crashes and technical instability, which severely disrupt gameplay and frustrate players. The removal of Steam Workshop in favor of Paradox Mods is widely viewed as a downgrade, complicating mod access and community involvement. Many feel the game was rushed to release with incomplete features, bugs, and poor optimization, especially on launch. The DLC strategy is criticized as expensive and lacking meaningful content, with some players accusing the developers of neglecting core fixes in favor of monetization. Performance issues persist even on high-end systems, and key gameplay elements like traffic management and save reliability remain problematic. Overall, the game is seen as less polished and less fun than its predecessor, with a community divided between hope for future improvements and disappointment with current quality.