Highlights October 2023

Cities: Skylines 2: A Highly Anticipated City-Building Sequel

October 2023 is jam-packed with new releases, including Cities: Skylines 2, a highly anticipated city-building sequel from Paradox Interactive. Cities: Skylines franchise has become a standout in the city-building genre, filling the void left by SimCity’s pitfalls. Cities: Skylines 2 introduces exciting features like a new progression system, climates and seasons, deeper city services, map changes, and new zones and signature buildings.

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October 2023 is packed with new releases. From Assassin’s Creed Mirage at the beginning of the month to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder releasing as October nears its end, there will be no shortage of new experiences for gamers to choose from. Included in this very busy month is Cities: Skylines 2, a new city-building experience from Paradox Interactive. Following up on the success of the first entry, Cities: Skylines 2 looks to expand on the series’ formula and give players more options to build the city of their dreams.

The Success of Cities: Skylines Franchise

The Cities: Skylines franchise has emerged as one of the best in the city-building genre. After the pitfalls of SimCity several years ago, Paradox Interactive has swooped in to fill the vacuum. Now the developer is taking everything it learned from the first game and applying it to a full-fledged sequel, after near-constant support for Cities: Skylines in the form of DLC packs and other tinkering. The development team has spent weeks updating eager fans on new features through in-depth video breakdowns, and with only a month until launch, the full picture for Cities: Skylines 2 is clear. All the new features confirmed in Cities: Skylines 2 are as follows:

• New Progression System
• Climates and Seasons
• Deeper City Services
• Map Changes and Themes
• New Zones and Signature Buildings

New Progression System

In Cities: Skylines, players had to grow the population of their city in order to progress and unlock new services, such as alternate power sources and larger fire stations. Now, Cities: Skylines 2 relies on an XP system for progression, where players gain XP both passively as their population grows, and actively as they build new structures. There’s also what C:S2 calls ‘Development Trees’, which are essentially skill trees for certain city services. Now players will have the choice to invest Development Points into their desired trees, adding a layer of personalization to the experience.

Climates and Seasons

The weather in Cities: Skylines was standard across each map, regardless of whether it was a coastal area or something more inland. Cities: Skylines 2 is overhauling its climate mechanics with weather cycles unique to each map. Some areas will experience heavy rain, others will be rather dry and arid, while some may be regularly blanketed in snow.

Deeper City Services

City services are growing in Cities: Skylines 2. Instead of building multiple of the same building, players can now upgrade one building to enhance its utility. There will also be additional services to make city-building more realistic, like the new internet and telecom towers.

Map Changes and Themes

Players will have more options than ever before with maps in Cities: Skylines 2. Maps are now five times bigger than they were in Cities: Skylines and map tiles don’t have to be connected. There will also be new themes for certain buildings, with North American and European architectural styles to choose from.

New Zones and Signature Buildings

C:S2’s zoning options are getting more granular as well, with residential zones getting a particularly robust enhancement. Now players can choose between various medium-density housing options when building their population. New signature buildings are also available in Cities: Skylines 2 to help boost the value of specific zoning areas.

Cities: Skylines 2 has the challenge of launching at the tail-end of a very dense month for new releases, but its extensive list of new features should help it stand out. Cities: Skylines has built up a dedicated fanbase over the years thanks to Paradox Interactive’s attention to detail, and the developer appears to be flexing that attention to detail once again with the impending sequel. Luckily patient fans won’t have to wait much longer before they can design the metropolis of their dreams in Cities: Skylines 2.

Cities: Skylines 2 releases October 24 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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