A new beginning or more of the same?
Building a beautiful, big city with very happy residents – that is the end goal of Cities: Skylines that I never knew how to achieve. Every growth spurt in my city resulted in gridlocked roads, overloaded power grids, or unemployed citizens. Still, I put dozens of hours into the game and tried again and again. Because that’s the charm of the game: every time you think you’re there, a new challenge comes your way. When Cities: Skylines 2 came out, I immediately started investigating. Is the game worth it even if you love the self-flagellation of the first part?
Cities: Skylines is a simulation game in which you build a city with all the challenges that come with it: enough facilities, safe roads and happy residents are your end goal. And a gigantic, cool city with all kinds of attractions, of course. The game is from developer Colossal. They have been expanding on the game first released in 2015 for years and that has not always gone smoothly. Time for a clean slate. Time for Cities: Skylines 2.
The various extensions of the first part simply no longer fit together properly. If you wanted to meet all the requirements of the extensive game you would get chaos and for me that takes the fun out of the game. So I threw it aside despite dozens of hours of playing. Fortunately, Cities: Skylines 2 is a real reset. The basis of the first game has been taken and expanded upon considerably. It feels like the same game without you wondering why you pay for the new version.
Gigantic
What is immediately noticeable is that Cities: Skylines 2 is a lot larger. You could also expand your city in the previous game by purchasing new plots of land, but in this second version the available area is about five times larger. There are now also neighboring towns to which your access roads run.
If you are from the modest city centers or the fledgling metropolis, you may be thinking: why? But all that extra space does add something. You can actually build multiple cities in a map. A network, municipality or even province full of different cities, each with its own character. Because the latter is also easier to add in Cities: Skylines 2.
There is also another advantage of that large building space. Did you also find it irritating that all your polluting facilities made your residents unhappy? That’s over now, because you can just build an airport five blocks away and connect it to public transport. Problem solved – or at least shifted.
Your city, your style
A nice detail is that in this new part you can build cities in a certain style or map theme: North American or European. The choice of a theme affects all kinds of elements in your city, from architecture and traffic lights to services such as police and ambulance. You can also choose a mix of styles, because you can choose a style for each zone you build. The overarching theme remains fixed, so other details remain the same, depending on the theme you choose.
It’s also cool that you can now get to know your residents better or even follow them. Follow them as they go from home to school or work, discover what makes them happy or not happy in the city. This way you learn where there is room for improvement in your city or you can simply act as a kind of omniscient God-like turbostalker.
Another way to make your city your own – and a very welcome addition to the game – is that you can upgrade buildings. You can now add extra space for fire trucks, build an auditorium for your college or an extra playground for your primary school. This ensures that you no longer aimlessly build random facilities because your city turns red from dissatisfied citizens who do not live close enough to the school. Moreover, you can upgrade and add to your own taste.
Would you rather focus on higher education? Or do you want to be the city with the most parks? Or a gigantic crematorium, because you have to excel at something, right? Everything is possible.
Better, but far from perfect
No, Cities: Skylines 2 is not all roses and moonshine. For example, building roads has always been my biggest pet peeve in the first part. No matter how big your highway or roundabout was, people were always dissatisfied and the traffic jams were long. Upgrading was difficult, because it was often at the expense of your zones and your beautifully designed city.
I’ll just be honest: building roads is easier, but certainly not perfect. You can now easily place a roundabout in your road plan and there are roads with built-in networks for electricity and water. You can also create a grid of roads, making your neighborhood perfectly symmetrical without too much effort. That’s a welcome addition. But making curved roads, making upgrades or figuring out why the hell those roads are still red when no one lives there and it’s a million-lane highway? That is still not possible. That’s part of the charm of the game, so to speak.
I also never understood the radio function. It’s always the first thing I put out. The idea is nice, but as long as it is not executed like in Fallout (read: wonderful music and hilarious commercials in between), then I don’t think it’s necessary. Then just put on some Sims music or just silence.
Nice for the builder
In Cities: Skylines 2 there is clearly more attention for the avid builder. Managing your city costs less money. This makes it all the more fun to build beautiful neighborhoods, beautiful roundabouts and dazzling parks. You can add trees, decorate your own streets and customize the style of your city.
Fortunately, the ‘endless money’ feature is still in the game. So if you don’t want to manage at all, but really just want to build, this is the game for you. The only thing I’m missing is a handy one undo-button, because HOW is it still not there?
2023-11-05 08:00:00
#Review #Cities #Skylines #perfection #Pixel #Vault
