Welcome to this edition of Game Ramblings; you can find the previous Ramblings here.
As you know by now, most of these ramblings are about what game I am playing at the time of writing, or in this case, looking forward to a game due to be released later in the year.
An announcement in March 2023 confirmed that Cities: Skylines II, a sequel to one of the best city-builder games ever developed, will be released soon.
Cities: Skylines II
In addition, more news was forthcoming this month, along with a video trailer shown during the Summer Games Fest that Cities: Skyline II now has a confirmed release date of the 24th of October, and I, for one, can not wait.
During the Paradox Interactive announcement show, Colossal Order CEO Marina Hallikainen celebrated the eighth anniversary of Cities: Skylines and the 5.5 million new players that the game has picked up in the past year alone.
Furthermore, in the official press release Marina Hallikainen, CEO of Colossal Order, had this to say about Cities: Skylines I and II.
“Cities: Skylines I is the most captivating, visually stunning, and intricate city builder ever made. “We are giving players an unprecedented level of freedom over managing their population and city, with each choice having a meaningful impact on their citizens. Players can realize their vision for an urban utopia like never before, utilizing tools to control every key aspect of the city planning experience and watching their photorealistic metropolis grow block by block.”
The trailer that developer Colossal Order released shows some gameplay footage to the delight of city-building fans worldwide. I’ve watched the video several times, and the game looks fantastic, with many updated and new features added to the gameplay.
In a previous Ramblings, I wrote about what features I’d like to see in Cities: Skylines II. Now with the first gameplay trailer, we can get an idea of the features that are incorporated into the game.
Vast Improvement
From the trailer, we can see that there have been vast improvements to the city-building experience we know and love while introducing exciting new elements that will make our cities feel like they’re living and breathing.
Additionally, the scale of the buildable area on the maps in Cities: Skylines II will be 159 square kilometres. Furthermore, comparing the buildable map space to the original Cities: Skylines, publisher Paradox Interactive says that although individual map tiles in CS2 will be smaller, we can access many more tiles in the base game than in the original game.
Dynamic Maps
The maps are dynamic and set in various biomes that will present challenges and opportunities for city builders. Also, with the maps being set in different biomes, the climate of your city will more than likely change. As seasons will be in the game, can we expect the seasons to change on the map you build your city on?
Having natural forces such as seasons and rising pollution will give us more gameplay mechanics to manage in our cities. Due to the changeable weather, we might have to contend with supplying heating in chilly climates to keep our cims warm.
Cim’s are More Life-Like
For the first time, each cim will have its individual life, including occupation, household, relationships and more, making cities feel alive. We can follow how our choices affect citizens’ lives, adding weight and immediate impact to every strategic in-game decision.
A more intricate economic system looks to have been added, presenting city mayors with choices that have ripple effects across our city.
Improved Road Menu
The trailer shows that the road menu has been improved, giving us more options when placing roads. I can see more road tools in the UI, such as parallel, road snapping and finer elevation. The trailer also shows bridges extending across wide rivers and spaghetti motorways.
New road tools are always a welcome addition to the game, and I also spotted that the roads already have heating, electricity and water pipes attached. Does that mean we no longer will have to place electricity and water pipes ourselves? I hope so.
In addition, a new video going into more detail about road networks has recently been released this week. You can see that here.
For city-building fans like myself, I think we can look forward to gameplay that will be more involved than it is now in Cities: Skylines.
Paradox Interactive is running a Feature Highlights series in the lead-up to the game’s release in October. They will take us through everything the Cities: Skylines II offers each week. Ranging from familiar features that have been expanded to elements that are brand new to the franchise.
What are you looking forward to seeing in Cities: Skylines II?