Cities: Skylines II

Cities: Skylines II followed up the successful first game with the ambition to push city simulation even further, among other things with a more elaborate economic model, a more detailed simulation of individual residents and their needs, and an improved transport network. Colossal Order promised a deeper interconnection between residents' health, education, and employment and their impact on the running of the city, meant to give players more reasons to think about the long-term consequences of decisions, not just the immediate growth of the population count.

The launch, however, was marred by significant performance problems; the game had high hardware requirements and frame-rate drops even on powerful rigs, which, compared to the visually similar but better-optimized first game, caused disappointment among part of the community. Immediate Steam Workshop support was also missing, something players were used to from the previous game, and it was only added later.

Publisher Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order gradually fixed and expanded the game after launch through updates and paid expansions, similar to the previous entry, so the game's state kept improving over time and moving closer to the project's original ambitions. The zoning and road-building system remained close in controls to the first game, so series veterans find their bearings quickly, while players who want to see more under the hood of running a city will appreciate the more elaborate economic graphs and statistics.

Why play it: Better suited to fans of the series who want the newest and most detailed simulation and have a powerful computer as well as patience with a game whose state is being fine-tuned through updates; those who want a game without reservations right now should reach for the first entry.