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Not Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 0.3 hrs on record
Posted: 5 Dec, 2024 @ 8:48pm
Product received for free

Generally speaking I don't like to do reviews, I know they're beneficial for the community and they help buyers decide, but return policies exist for a reason, and that reason is so that people can try it, decide if they like it on their own, and then return it. That being said, when something is in such a state of horror that it defies logic, I think it's my duty to save you, the reader, from making the same mistake I did...

I have been playing City Builder games since before a lot of you were born, I started with the first Sim City in 1989 and have been an avid fan of the genre ever since. I love how the genre evolved over time and the games became more complex and at the same time more rewarding. It's my idea of a perfect saturday afternoon, sitting down, listening to some chill music, and watching as my planning unfolds into this megalopolis that was in my head. I love it so much that I had even started my 4-year-old daughter down the path by having her sit with me and picking and choosing where we placed certain things in Cities Skylines 1 and showing her how the different mods worked..

When I saw the advertisements for Cities Skylines 2 I foamed at the mouth with excitement, and my daughter was over the moon that we were going to get a new, better game that promised many more hours of enjoyment. We decided to purchase the top package that guaranteed us the most bang for our buck and the not yet released but announced DLCs that would add stuff as we started a new city together. We stayed home on game release day to make sure we were among the first to download and start building our new shiny city together. Much to our dismay however, the game was slow, clunky and basically unplayable on a Threadripper 3960X w/ 128GB Of DDR4 and 2x RTX 3090's. We were sad to say the least, but we still had hope.

People started sharing settings, then official announcements came with other settings, and we finally stopped having 13fps and got it up to 30fps. So it was playable, right? Well, not really. There was still masssive stutter from time to time, especially when inside of game menus... I mean, they're menus, why on earth are they causing the FPS to plummet and dropping dozens of frames? It was, and still is so bad, that it randomly causes the USB to reset and the famous Windows chimes that tell you when a USB has disconnected, and reconnected play through the speakers. And then a patch was announced that promised to fix some of the biggest problems with performance, so we stayed home again, only to be let down once again. There was maybe a 5 percent performance increase overall, and the menu's were still causing massive game lag. CO admitted fault and released patch after patch after patch in quick succession, that we were overjoyed that soon we would get to be able to enjoy the game... But that time never came...

CO stopped patching, but promised that they would not release any of the DLC and more paid content until they got the base game right, because that is what was most important to them... Another promise... another let down... Now, not only did they release a paid DLC before fixing the game, they had to gall to charge $9.99 for it. Bare in mind here, I paid for the deluxe edition, so it was "free" for me, but it also let me know how much extra I would really be getting for the extra money I spent, and it doesn't seem like much...

If I had one piece of advice for anyone looking to buy this game in its current state, it would be to run, very fast, in the opposite direction of your computer screen... I cannot n good conscience recommend that anyone buy this game. Instead, take your family out for a dinner, go see a movie, go spend your money on anything else, just don't buy this game. I would recommend spending the night in a trap house or a shooting gallery before I would recommend you purchase this game...

So thanks Colossal Order, for not only stealing my money, but also disappointing my daughter... Shame on you and Paradox interactive for releasing such a steaming pile of garbage..
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