Cities: Skylines II Review (Evangeline)
Sadly this review is negative.
The performance is just unacceptable, there are some rendering issues plaguing the game, and on top of that there are some wildly unoptimized assets in this game.
From small guard shacks with modeled out wires, computers and keyboards to the horrendous looking procedural generated citizens that far exceed even some larger buildings in triangle count, they are a waste of computer resources.
The whole unecessary addition of a ''citizen lifepath'' is something very few players asked for, and its clear part of the issues with this game relate to choises made during development of the game.
The truth is, these citizen models look so hideous that they dont even invite you to engage with the lifepath mechanic at all, id rather have they were significantly reduced in detail, or replaced by assets modeled by an actual artist, and not a procgen program, before i would consider paying attention to the ''lifepath'' stuff this game offers.
I wanted to love this game, and in a way i still do, everything else Cities Skylines 1 did is improved in 2, but the terrible performance, and questionable looking assets really ruin the hype for me.
Also, this game has a launcher, and just like the 1st game, its totally unnecessary and offers no utility whatsoever, beyond serving advertisements to you for Nvidia.
This review might change to positive if the optimisation is adressed in the future, and the ability to mod the horrendous looking potatoheads is added..... Before then, if you are not brand loyalist like me, stick to the first game a while longer, this game needs a couple more months in the oven.
Edit: Further thoughts:
After longer play A noticeable issue is that Residential zoning demand is based on *density* not on *affordability*
Wealth does not factor much in where a citizen will move in as much as density type does.
This results in the player having to build an insane amount of low density zoning, even though denser apartment building types would be preferred and more efficient, limiting your planning abilities and creativity.
The game will complain about there being a ''housing crisis'' when the real problem is that citizens will not move into denser buildings.
City policies are negligible and can no longer be applied globally, instead having to be set per district.
Building upgrades are a great mechanic however.
Virtual texturing/texture streaming seems to struggle with alpha mapped objects (primarily hedges) causing them to look cubical with flat 2d planes sticking out of them. This happens even with less performance intensive cities.
Edit: Specs
GPU: GTX 1070TI
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X
RAM 32GB
My settings: everything set to medium, disabled volumetrics, DOF and Motion blur. 70% resolution scaling.
Average FPS zoomed in: 30
Average FPS at range: 25/20
Population in city used for benchmark: 100.000