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Kevin Purdy<\/span><\/a> – Nov 19, 2023 12:00 pm UTC<\/time>
The worst thing about Cities: Skylines 2<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is that it was recently released.
If this hugely ambitious city builder simulation would have been released some time ago, patched over and over again, and updated with some gap-filling DLC, it would be far better off. It could be on its slow-burn second act, like No Man\u2019s Sky<\/a><\/em>, Cyberpunk 2077<\/a><\/em>, or Final Fantasy XIV<\/a><\/em>. It could have settled into a disgruntled-but-still-invested player base, like Destiny 2<\/em><\/a> or Overwatch 2<\/em>. Or its technical debts could have been slowly paid off to let its underlying strengths come through, as with Disco Elysium<\/em> or The Witcher 3.<\/em>
But Cities: Skylines 2<\/em> (C:S2)<\/em> is regrettably available now in its current state. It has serious performance problems, both acknowledged by its 30-odd-employee developer Colossal Order and studied in-depth by others (which we\u2019ll get into). It has a rough-draft look when compared to its predecessor, which has accumulated eight years of fixes, DLC, and mods to cover a dizzying array of ideas. Worst of all, it was highly anticipated by fans, some of whom have high-end systems that still can’t properly run the sluggish game.
\u201cMy heart goes out to the devs,\u201d said Robert Zubek, a game designer, developer, and cofounder of simulation-focused indie game studio SomaSim<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019re at the mercy of two enormous competing pressures there.\u201d One of them is testing\u2014endless, every-edge-case-covered testing. \u201cNo simulation game is ever finished, it just gets shipped at some point\u2026 You can get your model closer and closer to some perfect reality, but eventually, you have to put it in front of people and see, \u2018How does this actually play out?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n