Cities: Skylines 2 — THE NEWEST AND BEST CITY BUILDER EVER!!
…sikeeeee. I wish.
I really wanted to love this game. I mean, the idea is there. Build a massive city, manage everything, watch your little civilization grow, and eventually create the city of your dreams.
Instead, I spend about 30 minutes playing and then find myself staring at the screen wondering what I'm supposed to be excited about.
And let's talk about the graphics.
MAXIMUM SETTINGS.
Everything is cranked to MAX.
And for what?
The graphics honestly look terrible for a game that demands this much performance.
I'm sitting here looking at my city thinking:
"Surely this can't be max settings..."
Meanwhile my RTX 5080 is sitting there wondering why it was summoned for a game that looks like it belongs on a very angry mobile phone.
RTX 5080: “I was built for this?”
Cities: Skylines 2:
“Yes. Now give me your entire GPU.”
This game somehow manages to make a high-end PC feel like it's running a mobile phone game. The graphics are honestly atrocious for what this game demands from your hardware. You'd think I'd be rendering the next Avatar movie with the amount of performance this thing wants.
But nope.
I'm building a city that looks like it was made in a microwave.
The performance is probably the biggest issue for me. A city builder should let you build a huge, beautiful city and then sit back and admire your creation. Instead, I'm watching my FPS slowly disappear as my population increases.
And somehow the game can be demanding AND boring at the same time.
That's an impressive achievement.
I usually get bored after around 30 minutes because there just isn't enough here to keep me invested for long sessions. The game has potential, but it feels like I'm playing a really expensive early-access tech demo that still has a LOT of work left to do.
There are plenty of things I like about the concept, and I can absolutely see the foundation of a great city builder underneath all of this.
But right now?
It needs A LOT more work.
Performance needs improvement. Graphics need improvement. Optimization needs improvement. And, honestly, the overall experience needs more things to make me actually want to keep playing.
I'll probably come back to it eventually.
Maybe after a few few few few more more more more updates.
Maybe after my grandchildren finish college.
4/10 — Would build another city, if my computer survives the first one.
