Recording summary · October 2023
DO NOT BUY Cities： Skylines II - VERY disappointing!
AI-generated reading aids, not verified accounts.
These summaries describe what appears in the transcripts. A speaker’s claims are not established facts, and transcription or speaker-label errors can carry through. Check the linked transcripts and original recordings for context.
Months and years group recording metadata—not necessarily when an event happened. Undated recordings remain separate.
Read this recording’s transcript →
Overview
Cities: Skylines 2 offers an uninspiring, repetitive city-building loop marked by fiddly utility connection errors, basic mechanics, and repetitive grid zoning.
The game suffers from severe performance and optimization issues, failing to maintain acceptable frame rates across multiple hardware configurations, including an RTX 3060 PC and an ROG Ally.
Given repetitive gameplay, limited creative freedom, poor performance, and a £50 retail price on Steam compared to £12 a month on Xbox Game Pass, the game receives a 6.2 out of 10 and an advisory against purchasing it.
Themes
Disappointment with Cities: Skylines 2 and comparison to traditional city builder mechanics.
Infrastructure placement issues and recurring connection errors involving pipes, water lines, and electricity lines.
Repetitive grid zoning and predictable routines for placing essential services.
Technical performance deficits and low frame rates across different hardware setups.
Potential causes for intense hardware demands, including citizen simulations and background operations.
Value comparison between the Steam retail price and an Xbox Game Pass subscription alongside the 6.2/10 rating.
Uncertainties & gaps
The precise cause of the persistent connection error messages for pipes, water lines, and electricity lines is unknown.
The exact reason why the game is so computationally demanding despite unremarkable visuals is not definitively known.