Cities: Skylines II Critic Reviews

Cities: Skylines 2 has lofty ambitions. Several interlocking systems come together to convince you that this isn’t just a city-building game, but a way to build lively neighbourhoods full of small stories and intertwining threads. There’s a lot to love here, and if you fall for it, you’ll be hooked for a long time.

Overall, Cities Skylines 2 is a worthy successor to the long-standing original city builder.

Despite its few peculiarities and performance issues, Cities: Skylines II successfully upholds the legacy of its predecessor and raises the bar for the city-building genre. Whether you’re a seasoned city planner or a newcomer ready to embark on an urban adventure, Skylines II offers endless possibilities and countless hours of creative enjoyment.

Cities: Skylines II is a city-building experience of epic proportions, filled with complexity and creativity. Its immense ambition in city design is complemented by an intricate web of services and an intelligent population. It may stumble under the weight of technical performance and a few bugs but the series still continues to redefine urban strategy in games. Colossal Order have truly delivered a living, breathing, dynamic city management game.

Cities Skylines 2 is the city builder we've been waiting for: beautiful to look at, complex in its systems, extraordinary in the construction and planning tools offered. The genre has never offered anything better, and this is just beginning...

Despite the technical imperfections (which Paradox has acknowledged), Cities Skylines 2 is still a masterfully crafted jewel in the crown of the city-building genre. There isn't anything else that can match it for breadth or depth right now. This is still the best way to build the city of your dreams.

The number of meticulous innovations that have been added to Cities: Skylines 2 are far too many to even begin to cover in this review. The game feels very similar in some ways to its predecessor, while also having many noticeable improvements. There are some performance issues, and it doesn't have as many extras as Cities: Skylines currently has, but as a foundation, this sequel is exactly what it should be. It lays a foundation for many exciting things to come and is a stunning example of what a city-building simulation game should be.

It's like SimCity on steroids: a marvel of a simulator game, even without the community mods that will undoubtedly follow the release.

Cities: Skylines II is a game that's ahead of its time in terms of both gameplay and hardware demands. It has taken significant steps forward in terms of quality, gameplay, and detail compared to its predecessor, although this comes at the expense of very demanding system requirements. In an era where city-building simulations are becoming increasingly scarce, Cities: Skylines II remains the top choice for fans of city-building simulation.

While it does struggle under the weight of its own ambition a little, Cities: Skylines II is still a super addictive, easy to pick-up city sim, and if you enjoyed the first game it’s an absolute must-have. It’s also the perfect anathema to all the soulslikes and roguelikes we’ve had recently. It’s a game that demands nothing but time and creativity, and pays it back in dividends.

The new city builder is a perfect example of a sequel, with its complex systems and many improvements compared to the past. However, if on the one hand there is a renewed graphic sector to admire, on the other hand a vast range of features from the first chapter have been lost (for the moment). The game's cities are bigger, denser and more alive than ever, but achieving the same amount of content as its predecessor will take time.

Cities Skylines 2 offers a myriad of great, all-round, quality-of-life improvements over the prequel. Whereas the game faces technical challenges at launch, it seems well set to become a worthy successor of the original, being much more sleek and accessible as well as bringing a bunch of fun novelties.

I had sky-high expectations for Cities: Skylines 2, and they were largely met. The larger scale, satisfying progression system, more realistic cities, improved AI and an extremely well-reformed road system have me completely hooked by this game. Unfortunately, there are also some negatives, which fortunately did not hinder my enjoyment. This will definitely be a regular on my PC for the next five years.

Cities: Skylines 2 meets most of the expectations, it is addictive and gives you incentives to keep coming back. It’s an impressive new standard for the genre, essentially an ultimate city builder with a great potential to become even better. However, there’s a fly in the ointment, namely some graphical glitches, poor optimization, and balance issues involving a couple of features.

As far as world-building games go, Cities: Skylines II is second to none. The sheer volume of capability is staggering and the possibilities are endless for what you can create.

Even in this subpar technical state, Cities: Skylines 2 is a potent and captivating sandbox that’ll see the hours fly by as you engage with it. It’s a worthy successor to the title that dethroned the mighty SimCity and will define the genre for the years to come. Official as well as modded content will surely supply players with even more toys and tools in the future.

A good sequel which provides a better interface and lots of freedom for building your own cities. Too bad the game lacks in modes and optimization.

Cities Skylines II does its best to become the best city builder on the market and this first step surprises for how many things Colossal Order managed to improve. Of course it still needs more time to build (pun intended) on this foundation, but the ambition of this game was surely delivered with the right amount of love and care for even the little details.

Cities: Skylines 2 is not a huge revolution for the genre, but it represents a step forward that I think the vast majority of fans of both the original game and the genre in general will enjoy.

Cities: Skylines II is a gripping experience and a perfect follow-up to the first game. Sadly, all of that is really dragged down by myriads of technical problems. For now, we can only hope that Colossal Order will fix most of the issue and gets the game to the state it deserves to be.