Review of Cities: Skylines 2 – memorable urban development

Cities: Skylines is a game that has taken the world by storm. Therefore, the announcement of Cities: Skylines 2 became a very important moment for many gamers. I’ve had the opportunity to pour countless hours into this game over the past few days, so now we bring you a review dedicated to how this building strategy actually works.

• Platform: PC (review version), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S.
• Publication date: 10.24.2023
• Developer: Colossal Order LLC.
• Publisher: Paradox Interactive
• Genre: Construction strategy
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Download data: 57 GB
• Game time: from 30 to 100 hours
• Price: 1225 CZK (Steam)

Cities: Skylines 2 gave me choice from the start

Through strategies, creators choose different ways to introduce players to the game world they create. In the case of Cities: Skylines 2, the studio decided to avoid any form of campaign and instead relied on presenting you with a map and immediately putting you in the chair of the person in charge of the newly created city. The basic palette of locations contains only ten directions. They differ from each other in climatic conditions, space for construction, as well as the raw materials that you can find on them and then work with them, for example, as part of the functioning of your farm. I placed my first city in a valley between two mountains, cut in half by a rushing river. And I must say that I succeeded because he offered me everything I needed.

The very beginning of construction in Cities: Skylines 2 was surprisingly fast and also affordable. The layout of the city areas was quite intuitive, so after a while a smaller city spread out in front of me, consisting of residential plots, commercial buildings, as well as industrial buildings. Although for some time I was able to dump waste directly between houses, I soon realized that the sewer pipes should be in the river and not in the building. On the other hand, I completely covered it with a water network from a waterworks pumping water directly from the depths of the earth, so that my city would not be exposed to potential pollution from the mass flowing through the local stream.

But I managed to get it quite efficiently on my own through a small coal-fired power plant, which my people weren’t very fond of, so I ended up buying a larger power plant that used the same raw materials but produced many times more energy. than its smaller predecessor. Thanks to this, I was given the opportunity to begin the next stage of construction, associated with an expanded range of possibilities for site development. Not every potential resident of my city could afford to buy their own home, so a certain percentage began to move to larger buildings. Although at first glance it seems to the residents of Cities: Skylines 2 that they don’t need that much. But the opposite is also true.

Their needs are different. In fact, it is good to build infrastructure that can meet all the basic requirements near the residences they own. It’s hard for people to live without firefighters, police, education, transportation and some kind of recreation. For them, everything can be built at the start in a relatively limited form. If you want to give your people something better, you need to work on your city. Expanding its population is one of the ways in Cities: Skylines 2 to reach new buildings of a decent range of characteristics, containing structures focused on water supply, electricity supply, education, waste treatment, transport or communications. Thus, there is a lot of space to move around during the game, so once you reach the best power plant, a nuclear colossus or solar complex will be waiting for you.

The larger the city, the more fundamental the problems

As mentioned above, getting started in Cities: Skylines 2 is actually incredibly simple. A small town is not that much of a strain on your attention. You kind of throw it in there and then just watch how well he moves in it. But the goal of the game isn’t to follow a village of a few thousand people, it’s to build something truly impressive, and once you start to really expand there will also be challenges due to the countless game factors that you have. It’s something to take care of, but things don’t always turn out right.

When playing Cities: Skylines 2, you’re under pressure from almost every direction. People here need better medical care. There is again a lack of education there, and I’m not talking about the roads bursting at the seams. Of course, something can be done with everything, but the problem is that usually everything has to be thought about in advance: to free up enough space for future residential buildings, roads or also government buildings. We also cannot neglect the supply of factories and the city as a whole, which require certain raw materials. They can be imported, but if you start producing them yourself, you will get many times better than if you import them.

Mining and industry in general are good for the city’s finances, but certainly not for the residents. They don’t really like factories, so like coal power plants, they need to be built away from homes. If they are located somewhere in the building, they will actively pollute the air and thereby reduce overall satisfaction. They can also have a negative impact on groundwater. In short, there is nothing for industry to do in the city. However, it is undoubtedly necessary as a source of work, or at least in the initial stages. As the population becomes educated, they gain access to better jobs in Cities: Skylines 2, which may lead to a reduction in industrial areas. But it definitely doesn’t happen right away, and excavators often continue to work long after you promise your people to stop them. Sometimes your plans are thwarted by natural disasters, and sometimes by money.

Construction in Cities: Skylines 2 isn’t the only element you’ll have to deal with. Another thing is the city treasury. After all, you are the one who distributes the money received from taxes and subsequently tries to create a sustainable budget with their help, which is more difficult than it might seem at first glance. People want a lot, but don’t want to pay a lot, so sometimes it’s a struggle to optimize income and expenses. One form of last resort is the option of borrowing money, but as it turns out, this is more of a step into the abyss than a real salvation, because the debt will weigh you down more and you will find it difficult to fight it. . However, active resource management is a great thing because it often forces a choice between populism and responsible management.

Construction is picking up speed here

Cities: Skylines 2 is simply a great strategy game full of stories. Personally, I had a lot of plans for my first playthrough. The city was moving forward and slowly approaching positive numbers, which forced me to experiment with the budget. I removed it somewhere here and added it again there. But somehow during the games I forgot that a reduction in finances would automatically reduce the quality of the services provided, which backfired on me badly. Because I also reached for the firemen’s salary, which was not a very good idea, and then my train very quickly rolled downhill straight into the abyss. A game full of interesting moments, this thing is precisely because it is not afraid to present different moments and throw sticks under its feet.

The building here is extremely intuitive and addictive, so you can build small cities that look beautiful even with your eyes closed. But if you want to build a large metropolis, you will have to thoroughly understand certain principles, learn how to work with a budget and make the most of the development opportunities in your city. For myself, I must say that I am missing some elements from the first part related to the DLC. For newcomers, the later stages can be a challenge, along with minor bugs and currently annoying technical aspects, but in the long run, Cities: Skylines 2 has huge potential thanks to the support of the community. I can’t wait to see what I see in the next few days and weeks.