Summary
WhileCities: Skylinesreplicated theSimCityfranchise in a lot of ways, Colossal Order also injected a few exciting unique features to help set it apart from the crowd. One such feature came in the form of districts, which let players alter specific parts of their cities as they saw fit. It made them feel a lot more lifelike and wasfurther expanded upon via DLC. Since it was such a popular feature, it makes sense thatCities: Skylines 2would include it as well. However, something feels off about this new version.
Cities: Skylines 2improves upon various aspects of the original game, but it also seems to falter a bit. That may be because the original game got years of post-launch DLC that this title just does not have yet, or Colossal Order chose to cut out some features to match a release date. Whatever the case may be, the district feature seems to have suffered for it. Even though it is still fun to use, it feels pretty barebones when compared to its predecessor.
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Cities: Skylines 2’s Districts Are Lacking Something
Cities: Skylinesdistrict featureoffered a lot of customizability for players to tailor their city how they wanted. They could paint over various parts of their city and designate them with whatever district name they saw fit. Then, they could apply unique building styles, give them special district policies that would differentiate them from the rest of the city, and even specialize them for different purposes. This felt like the perfect way to represent different neighborhoods, which is why it was such a beloved feature.
Colossal Order would end upexpandingCities: Skylinesdistricts through various DLC packsand countless post-launch updates. Dozens of new district policies were added throughout the years that let players further customize their cities to their liking. Additionally, that tool was then used for the Parklife, Campus, and Industries DLC packs. While those were separate from the districts themselves, they felt like a great evolution of the system.
With all of this focus on districts, many players were excited to see how Colossal Order wouldhandle them inCites: Skylines 2. The game was promising a far deeper simulation, so many assumed that meant that the districts would be a bit more engaging. However, that could not be further from the truth. Instead of expanding the feature in new and unique ways,Cities: Skylines 2’s districts feel like they have been forgotten about.
For starters, players will quickly notice that they can no longer paint the districts onto their cities. Instead, the districts must be constructed in a rectangular shape with no option to deviate from that right now. That may not ruin the feature much, but it does hold players back from making whatever shaped districts they want, which hurts thefreeform nature ofCIties: Skylinesa bit. Even if Colossal Order re-added that feature in a future patch,Cities: Skylines 2’s districts seem to have a lot more problems currently.
As of now, there are very few district policies. AfterCities: Skylinesgot countless new policies, it would have made sense for the sequel to carry them over. Instead,Cities: Skylines 2does not even have half the district policies that the original game had. Plus, the policies that the game has are hardly as interesting as the previous title’s version. On top of that, there are not even unique taxation policies or specialization features, which seems like an odd choice after the original put so much emphasis on that. Though this may all be fixed with future DLC packs, currently the districts feel rather pointless.
Cities: Skylines 2is available now on PC with a PS5 and Xbox Series X/S version launching Spring 2024.
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