Summary
Cities: Skylines 2has seemingly improved upon many aspects of the original to deliver another exciting city simulator. While the game may have some technical issues, the creative freedom players have to design their own city helps make up for that fact. Not only is the simulation far deeper than it was the first time around, but the studio has also expanded what was possible by giving players so much more space to construct their cities. However,Cities: Skylines 2also seems to make other things a bit too big in the process.
As players playCities: Skylines 2, they will have toplace loads of city service buildingsto ensure that their city thrives. These buildings come in many forms and fulfill many purposes, and as the city increases in size, players will unlock even more to play with. Anyone who has played a city builder before should be familiar with this loop. However, they may not be prepared for the sheer size of these buildings. Many of these services take up multiple city blocks, which leads to a pretty cramped society filled with mixed-matched buildings.
Everything Feels a Bit Too Big in Cities: Skylines 2
Cities: Skylines 2 Gave Players So Much More Space to Play With
Cities: Skylines 2has taken the cities of the original game and expanded them immensely. InCities: Skylines, players would start their city-building adventures on one 1.92 X 1.92km tile. As their city grew in population, they could purchase neighboring titles to expand their city size. Without mods, they could own 10 different tiles by the end of the game. This gave them a lot of space to construct the city of their dreams. However, some players also found it a bit limiting. So,Colossal Order decided to take it to the next levelwith the sequel.
InCities: Skylines 2, players can now purchase a total of 441 map tiles to build on. While these tiles are a bit smaller than the ones in the first game, this massive increase means that players have virtually limitless creative freedom to build whatever they want. Some players may still want an even bigger area, but many will likely never fill the buildable area if they tried. This makes it feel like a fantastic change, yet something still feels a bit off about the game size.
Cities: Skylines 2’s City Services Feel Massive
Cities: Skylines 2may have increased the city size, but it also drastically increased the size of city services along the way. For some reason, city service buildings are now massive.Schools inCities: Skylines 2take up entire blocks, power stations look like someone stretched them out considerably, and even police stations completely dominate the city skyline. While some of these buildings are also large in real life, many of them just feel a bit too big. And even with the city size increasing, these buildings can make things feel cramped extremely quickly.
Schools are especially massive inCities: Skylines 2, which can often get very annoying as players will have to construct a lot of these. It may make sense for a college campus to take up a lot of space, but elementary schools in larger cities often blend right into the rest of that city. However,Cities: Skylines 2’s version does not seem to do that as players must give up entire streets just to build one school. And since they have to build multiple ones, their city may soon look more like a collection of massive schools than actual residential buildings.
Some of the biggest buildings also come in the form of power stations. Many of the larger stations force players to buy additional tiles just to fit them into the city. Even though these may also be massive in real life, the sheer size of them does not match the rest ofCities: Skylines 2’s aesthetic. Everything else pales in comparison to the size of these buildings, which leads to a very strange-looking landscape. It may not really ruin the experience, but these things may need to be shrunk down a bit in future DLC.
