When “Cities: Skylines” was released in March of 2015, it revived an entire genre of city-building simulation games.  “Cities: Skylines II” aimed to do just that, but with overly complex game mechanics and an unnecessarily confusing game menu, it fell short. It may have sent the city simulation genre back to the grave, or, at the very least, become another example of the stereotypical “the original is always better” archetype. 

“Cities: Skylines II” was announced in March of this year to considerable (and justified) excitement. The announcement trailer itself was incredible, showing off dozens of new bells and whistles compared to its original counterpart. But they may have sacrificed user friendliness and ease of access for extra features not seen in the first installment; there are (quite literally) over a hundred ways you can customize your city, from traffic signals to new eco-friendly economic policies to dozens of terraforming options, all in favor of a more realistic metropolis. 

These options come at a cost, other than the user interface: accessibility. To run the game smoothly with minimum specs, Game Rant recommends at least eight GB of RAM and a whopping 60 GB, along with a strong computer. It can also be very buggy, with an easily failing resource economy and literal packs of dogs roaming the streets. But as I said the main issue in my experience was performance; I ran it on a Windows 10, and it struggled to load on minimal graphics. 

I don’t want to trash it completely; it’s a great game, certainly enjoyable, and worth playing if you belong to what is the niche community of city simulation games. The game itself is very realistic, with updated game assets, jaw-dropping graphics and a truly astonishing – maybe unnecessary level of detail (they went as far as to include functioning teeth in your civilians, which is doubtlessly why it’s such a heavy game). 

Overall, Colossal Order, the makers of “Cities: Skylines II” had an ambitious dream, but the game itself is an example of ambition running wild, with too much packed into too little time.