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Recent reviews by Maximus

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Showing 1-10 of 11 entries
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
42.7 hrs on record (26.2 hrs at review time)
update: The game works now! Better late than never, if only Frontier could've waited a few more months to release, then it would've been a hit on release.

Original Review: This game is broken. No way anybody tested this.
Posted 13 November, 2024. Last edited 24 March.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
87.7 hrs on record (2.3 hrs at review time)
This is my second review, I originally reviewed the game positively on launch day and my opinion has really developed a lot since as I've played the game a lot more.

Overall, Cities Skylines 2 has the potential to be a great game. Though in it's current state, the game has many head scratching flaws that prevent it from being the next great city-simulation game. At release, many of the reviews slammed the performance, though I think this issue (or at least the FPS issue) was overblown. I'll explain why I think this game could certainly be the greatest ever in the genre, but why it currently is a major disappointment.

Performance (on my system)

CPU: Intel i5-13600k (mid-high end)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (high-enthusiast end)

Controversial opinion, but I think CS2 preforms fairly well now in terms of FPS. I'm able to get 40+ FPS consistently on 150k population, which is double what I got on release. Empty fields now pull well over 100 FPS for me, when I was barely getting 50 FPS on an empty field at release.

Remember, CS2 does not stand for Counter-Strike 2. You do not need 60+ FPS for a playable game here, 30 is enough.

With that said, I think performance issues certainly exist. Everyone claimed this game to be very well optimized for CPU usage at release, but is it? At around 100k population, I start to see a pretty noticeable drop off in simulation speed and the game slows to almost real time after 150k for me. And the simulation in CS2 isn't even very impressive, as I'll get to next. I would go as far to claim that Planet Coaster might be a better optimized game if we're comparing CPU - at least you can play the game with 20 FPS. In CS2, you might as well quit when the simulation speed reaches a certain level.

The Simulation is Broken

All of the developer diaries promised a revolutionary simulation that would put the original CS to shame, or at least that was the picture the developers tried to paint. And while the simulation (on paper) is definitely an improvement over CS1, there are many bugs and issues.

Exports straight up do not work. Your cargo storage on train terminals and airports will fill up to capacity, and do nothing. But it doesn't matter much, since businesses seem to always make a profit no matter what. Even if exports are non-existent. Also, businesses that seem to rely on imports to function magically work. Goods just seem to teleport around the city.

This game has an unrealistic number of pedestrians that will walk anywhere. Why is a child walking to school from the other side of the city? Speaking of which, I'm definitely never seeing 1,500 children showing up to school in the morning. It seems the cims in the city mostly chill inside their homes all-day or walk around the city like zombies, but somehow are still getting educated or working.

High-density and low-rent residential buildings are broken. Everyone inside the building will constantly be miserable about their small home, despite living inside a high-density building. Then they move into a single-family home that they cannot afford, then promptly complain about the rent being to high. This creates a death spiral of high rent, and abandoned high-density buildings.

Education demand is also broken. Without mods, you'll have tens of thousands of cims needing elementary school education at 100k population, with only a few hundred needing high school education. A large city may have 30 elementary schools, 2 high schools, and 10 colleges/universities. This makes no sense - how are cims climbing the education latter if nobody is attending high school?

One of the few things SimCity 2013 did right was it's simulation. Garbage trucks and school buses would go out in the morning, kids would be school from 8AM to 3PM, and you would have a morning and evening rush hour. CS2 feels very similar to CS1 with people going to work and school at completely random times throughout the day, with actual simulation of time of day. Traffic is pretty much constant throughout the day.

Other issues with the game:

- Mail service is broken. At higher populations, you will never have enough sorting capacity as the sorting facilities just don't seem to function.

- Industrial taxes/subsidies are broken. At random, an industry will begin randomly either generating 100m in tax revenue, or losing 100m in subsidies. Also at random, taxes and subsides may flip and you lose money on taxes and gain on subsidies. Just set the tax rate to either -10% or 10% and you're now playing on infinite money.

- Speaking of money, there is almost zero thinking involved in financial management in this game. You will always be in the red for the first few milestones (but still make money since milestone progression grants you money), and will always be making a profit once you start bringing offices in. The game is way to easy.

- All these issues and NO (easily accessible) MODDING FOR WHO KNOWS HOW LONG! I get wanting a modding platform that console players can access, but to shut off modding completely until that is released when the game is in such a poor state is crazy. CO devs explicitly stated that the modding platform would be available days after release, and we're 3 months in now.

- Chirper and the in-game radio are absolutely useless. Cims will constantly complain about non-issues on chirper. Citizen health above 80%? Well, Lisa on chirper will still get 10k likes when she complains everyone is sick! Build any industry in your city? Chirper warriors will complain about air pollution that has no effect on any residential or commercial area.

- I did not cover everything, these were just the most notable issues.

The Good

I will end this review on a high note. While I have slammed this game, I still actually have fun playing it. I'm just frustrated with the issues that hold this game back from being one of the greatest of all time. Here is what the game does right:

+ The original CS1 without assets looks pretty bland, and even if CS2 isn't outstanding graphically, it looks WAY better and much more realistic than CS1.

+ The road system is FAR SUPERIOR in CS2 over CS1. I could finally build proper on-ramps without needing to go download 50 mods/assets, and that is amazing.

+ The map's look great, and their size is perfect. Can be expanded even more with mods in the future.

+ The progression system is far superior in CS2 than it was in CS1.

+ This game has much more vanilla content than CS1, and you can play for hours without getting bored. CS1 is practically unplayable without mods.

+ The addition of seasons is amazing, and really gets you immersed in your city and it's atmosphere.

+ Modular buildings are a cool addition, and one of the few things SimCity 2013 did right.

Overall 6/10 in the game's current state, which is not worth the price.
Posted 24 October, 2023. Last edited 13 January, 2024.
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53 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
2
0.0 hrs on record
This is a solid *free* DLC - its small but adds nice features. The only issue is with selecting doctors if you have a large hospital since the menu is far too small to list them all - that means you'll need to build a new hospital to make sure you get your Doctors added. Devs should consider adding a button on the doctor card or a revamped selection menu.

Other than that, it's worth adding.
Posted 26 November, 2019.
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2 people found this review helpful
2.5 hrs on record
This game is probably going to be very good.. eventually.

Right now there are just way to many bugs and issues for me to enjoy it. Breeding is impossible because half of the time it just flat out doesn't work.

The camera is horrible - randomly breaks/freezes and requires a restart.

Lack of overall content - no official blueprints. Not many rides, little management.

Random crashes

NO TUTORIAL - hard to play when you have no idea what you're doing.


Overall bugging, confusing game lacking content. Will probably be fixed later - until then, hold off.
Posted 12 November, 2019.
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1 person found this review helpful
5 people found this review funny
31.1 hrs on record (2.9 hrs at review time)
Early Access Review
Severe preformance issues. Doesn't work despite PC meeting all requirements.
Posted 6 January, 2019.
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2 people found this review helpful
611.0 hrs on record (17.4 hrs at review time)
While the game definitely wasn't designed for the masses, it remains an excellent indie game with a very caring and active development team. Its so feature rich and contains many realistic diseases and symptoms that are always fun to treat.

That said, I've only ever played sandbox and have heard about issues outside of it. There are still some negatives, but overall, this game has been one of my favorites. Very fair price.
Posted 30 October, 2018. Last edited 22 August, 2020.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
60.0 hrs on record (13.3 hrs at review time)
This review was previously negative. Thankfully, they fixed a lot of stuff (mainly my biggest concerns) which I struk out.

Concerns:

- No sandbox mode
- No ability to build your own hospital from scratch
- The "kudosh" system makes this game feel more like a mobile game instead of a PC game.
- Not very feature rich
- The AI isn't very smart. Tired of seeing people get stuck in random places. Tired of needing to place 100 radiators around the place.
- Queues are a mess, always get backed up.
- Wards only work half of the time. They can be very messy.
- Limited hospital space, SimCity 2013 problem.
- Bugs
- The fun stops at about the 50 hour mark

I really hope this is all fixed. If not, Project Hospital is right around the corner and looks to fix most of this.

PROS:

- Great humor. Announcer and radio are both perfect.
- The research function is very nice, especially since you can go back to previous hospitals to expand on this.
- Its really fun... for about 50 hours at least.
- This game has a lot of potential and only needs some fixing from the developers.
- Best hospital simulation since TH.
- SANDBOX MODE - FINALLY!!!!!
- Feature rich
- Kudosh system is good now. Doesn't matter in freeplay, good in regular game.

Overall: Good game. I previously left a negative review, but they've fixed a good amount of stuff.
Posted 28 September, 2018. Last edited 27 October, 2018.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
7,041.0 hrs on record (1,665.0 hrs at review time)
2020 Update:
Bots are all over the place, never gets updated anymore. Still a very fun game and still my all time favorite, but, Valve doesn't really care anymore.

Review from my 2016 self:
After bashing this game over the meet your match update, i am glad to say its better. Its now worth a good review again. Its still and will always be my all time fav game.
Posted 7 October, 2015. Last edited 22 September, 2020.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
491.9 hrs on record (345.0 hrs at review time)
Such a good game. :) Hopefully RCT4 on PC is good. Well done Atari! Don't fail RCT4!
Posted 14 August, 2014.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
54.9 hrs on record (54.9 hrs at review time)
Its OK, but it needs events, like fire, crime, health problem, and a tornado or something. Another problem is that YOU DONT NEED HUNDREDS OF FIRE, HEALTH, AND POLICE STATIONS! But besides those problems, its a good game!
Posted 14 August, 2014. Last edited 1 June, 2015.
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Showing 1-10 of 11 entries