Cities: Skylines II Review (FROGking)
"Thanks for the chats all, but I'm moving on. :)
EDIT: (Nov 17) I've heard from Paradox support to the query I logged. They confirm I was banned for this post, where I said "Publishing games as bare bones as possible (even removing content to plunder later, looking at you pre-release DLC that CS2 has), is customer abuse IMO.".
The Paradox support person went on to state: "Frankly I would have issued a much sterner infraction than the minor "trollish comments" one you got for that!" (I can provide a screenshot of the email to those interested).
My comment got me a one month ban. Proves my point.
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ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE:
I love city building games. I mean the ones where you can build up massive modern metropolis's like in this game. I remember getting my hands on SimCity back in the old days, and instantly fell in love with it. I would lay down roads, zones, services for the city, and watch it grow at my hands. And I loved every single city builder that came along. The various SimCity versions (except 2013), Cities XL/XXL/all the versions, City Skylines, and Highrise City. SimCity 4 is definitely my most favourite of the city builders.
When I heard that Cities Skylines 2 was being made, I got pretty excited. But also, pretty worried. I was really excited, because a new game in my second favourite type of game was coming out. And the videos made it look really good! But I was worried. Worried because Paradox was publishing it.
When CS1 came out, it was an insta-buy for me. I really enjoyed the game. I was happily playing along, making cities, and then the DLC start coming out. Before CS1 came out, for years I had bought Paradox games and the DLC. However, I was really getting annoyed by the DLC policy of Paradox. CS1 came out on the heels of the 80th or something DLC for Crusader Kings 2. Not to mention the countless DLC for HOI and EU that I also played. So when the DLC starting coming out thick for CS1, I decided it was time to bow out of Paradox and put them on "the list". "The list" contains the publishers I will not buy games from. There's a few now, including EA for what they did to SimCity/Maxis. Paradox had joined them. I did not buy a single item from Paradox after June 2017. I wanted to, believe me. But this was my very minor protest against their DLC policy.
And then came Cities Skylines 2. I actually held my ground, until the day before release. I knew if I bought in, I'd be buying into the DLC flood. I was really conflicted. I knew Paradox was going to DLC the hell out of the game, and there was the performance announcement before hand but I knew from experience (with my work) that performance can (and usually does) get fixed. But I REALLY wanted to play a city builder. So I caved, and bought the standard edition. Hey, at least I would minimise my losses to $70 (AUD).
The day came, and I downloaded it, and started to play. After changing a few graphics settings, I was okay with sitting on medium graphics and tuning a few things like RPS suggested to. And I played.
But it wasn't too long before I started noticing things. But I kept playing. I noticed even more things, and read about similar things others were noticing on the Paradox forum and here. I got to 25 hours and wrote my review. I didn't want to give a cheap 2 hours review, so I gave the game an honest shot. I was actually really shocked how popular my review became. I just wrote what I honestly saw in the game.
Then the hostility began. I found myself banned for 3 days at Paradox forums for the most flimsy of reasons (the review was being discussed there and I commented on that thread). At around the same time, I started getting threats and hostile posts on my steam profile, my workshop items for other games, and ended up playing whack-a-mole deletion of posts. No point reporting as they were level 0 empty profiles just made to attack me. But I did keep playing, because maybe they had a point. Maybe I'd misunderstood some things.
Anyways, eventually I hit 85 hours. I was done. I did an update to my review, and my 3 points that I feel kill the game for me stand. They are:
1. Performance and bugs. Whilst performance had improved on the graphics side, over 250k pop my PC would start suffering from repeated stuttering. This was simulation, not graphical. The list of bugs is massive. Just look at the confirmed list on Paradox forums.
2. Lack of content. The extreme lack of content is really disappointing. Obvious hat tip to DLCing us to hell. Yeah, there's a content creator pack of some couple thousand assets coming for free, but I would put a hundy on it that the original point of that pack was to introduce paid-for curated special content on Paradox mods. But they are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ their pants and giving it for free now.
3. Design choices. There are lots of design choices that just simply don't make sense.
It was at this time that I posted a new thread on Paradox forums outlining the above, and that I was putting the game down for now. Shortly after that thread was posted, I found myself banned for a full month. I have read carefully the code of conduct, the infraction matrix, and also the support page on forum user rules. I cannot see anything I could have legitimately been banned for. I can only think it was because I have been vocal in honest criticism (it's not the only time Paradox has been caught censoring their forums of negative feedback). Their code of conduct and support page also give you some instructions when banned. Contact the moderator in the instance, or if you cannot contact that moderator, email admin@paradoxinteractive. The irony is, when you are banned, you cannot access the messaging system to read the notice why you got banned. Nor can you reply to it. So I've tried emailing (politely) the email address a couple of times. I've had no reply. I don't believe I will get a response either.
So at this point, I am done. I feel that my feedback is not wanted, nor do they want to hear it. I believe that Paradox doesn't want me around, and I will just continuously be banned at Paradox forums, and if I continue to post here, banned here as well. I actually don't think this post will last long, but hey, let's give it a try. I'll screenshot it and post it to my steam profile. Avanya can't get to me there. Hahaha.
I will never, ever, buy another Paradox product. My experience with Paradox in the past, and especially recently, is that they are a hostile, abusive company that will stop at nothing to suppress honest critical feedback that they believe may impact their shareholder profits. My belief that Paradox is an extremely toxic company has been reinforced with my recent interactions with this company. I will never engage with Paradox forums again. I will never engage with any of their product, or the products of any company that has an association with Paradox. I am completely done with this company.
To everyone I've chatted with here, go in peace and have some fun. Thank you, all of you, for the fun times I had here. Even you Stealthy, even though I still think you're a Paradox employee here to muffle out any negative comments. You never did answer my question, but it's okay, you're off the hook now.
My review: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197998739866/recommended/949230
Paradox thread I got one month ban for: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/its-time-to-put-cs2-down.1608679/"
This is the state of CO and paradox as a entirety, this one persons feelings has everything I have to feel about Paradox. They have gotten to the point that they just ban criticism because its "mean" This game along with CK3 and Vicky3 clearly show that we are little more than cattle for PDX to harvest for money. Friends its time to retire from playing PDX games. Its been a good ride but all things must come to an end.