Rating: 3/5 stars (so far)
Played on: Intel Core i7-11700KF + RTX 3060 12GB
It’s been a week and a half since Cities: Skylines II was released. While I haven’t created my perfect societal utopia that this game is capable of, this latest instalment looks super cool. But is it worth the $100+ AUD for the Ultimate Edition?
Note: As of writing, we reached level 3 in terms of city growth and haven’t bought that many squares.
Just like its predecessor, Cities: Skylines II is a game where you can build your dream city. Only this time, improvements and changes were made to make this a way more advanced city building simulator. Similar to the first game, you get to select a handful of maps that the game provides. From there, the sky’s the limit on what you want to do in this world. The only thing that’s stopping you is your imagination and budget.
One of the big changes this game made is that the budget that you start with has drastically increased. However, it also meant that the cost of service buildings, resources, and roads, have risen as well. If you plan well, fingers crossed you don’t fall into bankruptcy. Many features from mods and DLC made their way to the base game, like making interesting road patterns. Unfortunately, you can’t control the traffic manually.
One big surprise that I witnessed during the first few minutes of playing is how resource buildings, like power plants and windmills, have increased in size. It felt more appropriate in terms of appearance. Another shocker is how the terraforming tools, like flattening or making hills, are easily accessible at the start of the game. No need to wait or increase your city if you want to level the lands. And unlike the first game, terraforming tools are much easier to use and aren’t as clunky compared to the first game’s vanilla options.
Other cool changes and features that were created exclusively in the sequel are as follows:
- You can build bridges and adjust where the ramp starts.
- There are skill trees that can help improve your city’s efficiencies
- You can drop roundabouts in the middle of existing roads
- Roads already have pipes and electricity grids, making your infastructure sorted automatically.
- Landfill is its own designated area, just like how you can draw industry areas in the first game. So you can create and shape this dumpster fire to your heart’s content. The same can be said for other industry areas, like farmland.
- You can buy around 80 squares as the maps have gotten bigger and more detailed.
- Buildings, like hospitals or cemeteries, can be upgraded to add more capacity for people or trucks.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Now let’s go to the elephant in the room – performance.
I was shocked when I learned that the recommended specs to run this game are an RTX 3080 (10 GB) and a 12th gen CPU. We’re also aware of the comments the developers made about the game’s performance during a Reddit AMA. So I had my fingers crossed that this purchase wouldn’t lead to a refund.
Just playing the game, it’s pretty clear that the frame rates are bad, to the point where it lagged in some areas. However, running the default settings on a 3060 didn’t hinder the experience. It is important to note that we’re playing this game on a 1080p monitor. Also, I’ve noticed some lag when you move around the map very fast or how it takes some time for some of the buildings to properly render. It’s playable, but when compared to playing the first game with a ton of mods, you do question why game devs are doing this.
Overall thoughts
It’s no secret that Cities: Skylines II has more detail compared to its predecessor. The sequel has added more options and opportunities to develop your city. While everything does look pretty, there are some buildings, like housing, that kinda look… eh? It could have been designed better.
Overall, Cities: Skylines II is more micro-managey than the first one and it’s gonna take at least 2 more cities to fully grasp the game. It’s going to take a while to get used to the game, especially since we’re playing without mods. But based on how it’s currently running on a current-gen PC, it’s up to you if you want to tolerate the poor graphical performance that this game offers.
It’s such a shame we have to choose between good graphics to PC performance. Perhaps it could improve in the future, or maybe not. At least it can run.
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