Cities: Skylines 2
Shares rank 11 of 21 city builder games by recommenders
People recommend it for its in-depth city simulation and built-in mod tooling, though critics say it launched with poor optimisation and heavy performance demands.
People recommend it for its in-depth city simulation and built-in mod tooling, though critics say it launched with poor optimisation and heavy performance demands.
34 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 27
- approval share
- 21%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Built-in mod tooling
“CS2 allows for even deeper code mods because they have mod tooling built right into the game unlike CS1.”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “The Cities Skylines Paradox: how the sequel stumbled” “it has built-in modding which is what brings out this type of detail work”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “City building games have a Soul Problem pt.2”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor optimisation and heavy performance
“They actually did a really bad job of this for Cities: Skylines 2 and it was a big reason why the game was so sluggish on release.”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “City building games have a Soul Problem pt.2” “on launch Cities Skylines 2 was extremely demanding in respect of its graphics due to very poor optimisation”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “SimCity 3k in 4k” “very heavily GPU bound, due to very unoptimized meshes and a poor culling implementation”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “SimCity 3k in 4k” - Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Updating Gun Rocket through 10 years of Unity Engine”
- Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM”
- Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “City building games have a Soul Problem pt.2”
Overly detailed rendering wasted resources
“But people don't play a game became its simulating a city accurately right down to individual teeth in every citizen.”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “45% of Enthusiasts 'Seriously Considering' Leaving Sony for PC” “wasn't it rendering every pedestrian's teeth in detail as well? hilarious oversight”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Linux 7.3 improves performance when running out of vRAM” “render the full polygons of every individual's teeth no matter the distance”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “What to Learn to Be a Graphics Programmer” Rushed development and team problems
“was too busy buying sports cars and partying to deliver CS2”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “City building games have a Soul Problem pt.2” “They fumbled it so badly, a new developer got put on it.”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “City building games have a Soul Problem pt.2”
Other city builder games people recommend
The four most recommended other city builder games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SimCity 3000 | 23 | 2 | 92% | 5 | — | Approved |
| SimCity 2000 | 20 | 7 | 74% | 11 | — | Approved |
| SimCity | 20 | 12 | 63% | 9 | — | — |
| Cities: Skylines | 20 | 18 | 53% | 9 | — | — |
| Cities: Skylines 2This page | 7 | 27 | 21% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
31 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“His most valid complaint is that the games don’t do much to obscure the exact property lines”
“was too busy buying sports cars and partying to deliver CS2”
“I thought I'd been hurt too many times (CS:2, SC2013, [..])”
“it has built-in modding which is what brings out this type of detail work”
“They actually did a really bad job of this for Cities: Skylines 2 and it was a big reason why the game was so sluggish on release.”
“one of very few games I need frame generation to run even passably”
“They fumbled it so badly, a new developer got put on it.”
“we're literally the ones distributing the malware to you via our first party mod store”
“wasn't it rendering every pedestrian's teeth in detail as well? hilarious oversight”
“The release version of City Skylines 2 had enormous issues due to this problem.”
“You'll take Skylines 2 and you'll like it.”
“Better than Cities: Skylines II turned out to be.”
“It's (was) a poorly optimized game”
“But people don't play a game became its simulating a city accurately right down to individual teeth in every citizen.”
“render the full polygons of every individual's teeth no matter the distance”
“very heavily GPU bound, due to very unoptimized meshes and a poor culling implementation”
“on launch Cities Skylines 2 was extremely demanding in respect of its graphics due to very poor optimisation”
“Cities Skylines II is such an immense resource hog compared to what it actually does.”
“the way the game is implemented buildings only have rectangular footprints”
“There were some beautiful results, but the traffic jams were astounding”
“they think cars should be free from a parking standpoint”
“Cities skylines 2 works for me so I can't complain about it”
“the gameplay is so shallow”
“I think they need to design a long-term monetization strategy that does not require new major releases”
“CS2 allows for even deeper code mods because they have mod tooling built right into the game unlike CS1.”
“What you are limited by is churn in the internals of the game engine”
“the simulation is much more in-depth: pops have a real job where they commute to”
“Instead we get this... 0/2”
“sequel inherits AAA scope without AAA staff”
“I still don't know why we needed a sequel”
“clearly unfinished and unoptimized”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.