What have they done to the game?

As my city slowly filled up with buildings and residents, it also began to feel a bit empty—especially when compared to the original game which has been fed with dozens of DLC packs over the past seven years. With a mere 20,000 citizens and the designation of “Small City,” the milestones had already run out of new features to unlock. There are only three different tourist attractions to build, and while there are several sports parks they’re all small, the sort you might find in an average-sized town. Skylines 2 has nothing like the huge gleaming sports stadium from the first game that feels suited for a major city.

Zooming in close to spy on my city revealed a few other disappointing changes. In the original game it was fun to watch city services at work: firemen would race to a fire, get out of their trucks, and hose down the burning buildings with wee little hoses. Adorable and live-saving! For those less fortunate citizens, coroners would drive up to a house and then wheel out a sad little body bag to their hearse before heading for the cemetery. I was disappointed to see that in Skylines 2, fire engines and hearses pull up to the buildings they’re servicing but there’s none of those wonderful little animations. A moment later the fire simply goes out or the deceased citizen is teleported to the hearse, and the vehicle departs. Bummer.

Really seems like they made a worse game than the first one…