Cities: Skylines II It’s a game I’ve been waiting for since before it was even announced.. I’ve been playing the first one for years, I’ve bought more DLC than I care to admit, I’ve collected some achievements less than 1% of players got (in 2019 I unlocked “Higher Education” which only 0 , 40% of players got) and as time went by , it was increasingly likely that sooner or later Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive would give him the compensation he deserved.

So, When it was announced in early March, I was overjoyed.because I was expecting a good update to a game that, despite its imperfections (which I can attest to, having suffered through them) was a breath of fresh air for those of us who enjoyed the first SimCuy games years ago and subsequently didn’t understand why Electronic Arts they decided to destroy the sensational work done years ago by Maxis.

We can be quite sure that once again We find ourselves face to face with a game where DLC will be a huge means of monetization. They were with the first version and they will be with Cities: Skylines II, which is why its introductory price (49.99 euros for the standard version and 89.99 euros for the Ultimate version) seems excessive to me, but hey, what are we as shown and said so far , was aiming very high, so it might have been justified on that side.

The game went on sale today despite known performance issues. But the developer and distributor didn’t care and subsequently The launch version of Cities: Skylines II is an absolute disaster in terms of performance. First-person accounts are already starting to be published, from users who have systems equipped with the latest generation of high-end components, and who are achieving simply terrifying frame rates. Example? In the video you can see above this paragraph, you will see that a system equipped with an Intel Core i-13900KS OC and a Radeon RX 7900 XTX, its playback in 4K condemns the user to an average of 15 frames per second. Want a different combination? In the video at the end of the news you can see it on a PC with Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Geforce RTX 4090, the result is not able to reach 60 fps in 720p. Those responsible for these tests confirm this even Cyberpunk 277 with path tracing is not that demanding.

Now the problem isn’t that it’s challenging. This is something that is evaluated positively if it is the result of pushing the limits that offer a spectacular experience. We saw exactly this with Cyberpunk 2077 with path tracing, but also with other titles such as Microsoft Flight Simulator or, to give a great historical precedent, Crysis, with which the popular NASA computer meme appeared. They demand, yes, but they offer something very clear in return. And yes, Cities: Skylines has made an important leap over its predecessor, no one is denying that, but it is not a leap that justifies this nonsense.

The reason, and the studio itself admitted it, is the lack of optimization, which is the very reason why its launch for current generation consoles is delayed until 2024. But if you are aware of this problem, if you know that there is a lot of work to be done in this regard , and therefore, if they know the launch is going to be so bad, why the hell don’t they delay the release of the PC version as well? I personally interpret it as a metric of the lack of respect developers and distributors have for their players. And as someone who originally planned to buy it, I will of course act accordingly.