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It doesn't take a genius to be able to tell that Cities: Skylines 2 is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year. Now that the dust has slowly settled on 2023's Paradox Announcement Show - where the title was announced - we can't help but wonder about the specific features in the game - what's new in Cities: Skylines 2!
After all, the sequel to one of the most highly acclaimed city-building games of all time needs to come out swinging, does it not? To that end, it may be worth keeping an eye out for all the novelties that the developer, Colossal Order, may have already confirmed for the game. That, as it were, is precisely the point of this featurette.
Down below, we've assembled a pre-release list of all the notable new features that Colossal Order has verified for Cities: Skylines 2. Some of these are a big, big deal, too. They don't necessarily paint a whole picture about the city builder, however. Colossal Order and Paradox are keeping the proverbial cards close to their chest, so we'll need to wait and see regardless. In the interim, let's theorycraft away!
READ MORE: Cities: Skylines 2 is Coming in 2023!
Cities: Skylines 2 - What's New?
Here's a summary of what's new in Cities: Skylines 2 compared to Cities: Skylines, as of December 25, 2023:
- Reworked power, water, and sewage distribution systems
- Improved progression features
- Improved taxation systems
- Better info-maps across the entire user interface
- Better funding control for city services
- New and improved road tools
- New and improved zoning options
Now, let's go into more detail. But first, for a more in-depth overview of Cities: Skylines 2's dedicated gameplay systems, we've got special featurettes, too!
Game Pass Availability
First things first, you won't need to splurge a huge wad of cash to play Cities: Skylines 2 on day one! Indeed, C: S2 will be a day-one Xbox Game Pass title, meaning you'll be able to simply subscribe to the service and play away! Those who'd like to get an actual copy to keep permanently will be able to do so on October 24, 2023. In fact, if you'd like to save a few bucks, you can place your pre-order via 2Game to get 10% off.
Massive Size Increase
Cities: Skylines 2 aims to up the ante in virtually every way. The sheer scope and size of a given city will, therefore, expand as well. It's a tad difficult to illustrate what Colossal Order is doing with the scale of the game's simulation here, so let's compare what we know to how the cities were limited in the first game!
It's simple, too: Cities: Skylines lets players expand their cityscape sandbox to up to 9 squares or tiles by default. Each tile is 4 square kilometers, meaning you've got 36 square kilometers of room to work with by default. An awesome player mod expanded upon this limitation by a huge margin, allowing the users to use up to 81 squares or tiles. This, note, came with a huge performance malus!
Now that we've got some context, let's kick things up a notch. Cities: Skylines 2 will feature a whopping 150 squares on day one. 150! This ensures that the game has plenty of room to breathe, making it the most realistic city builder on the market, with its handling of AI citizens, traffic, and other underlying systems.
Note, too, that we do know that Cities: Skylines 2 will be extremely hardware-intensive. Building a thriving metropolis set in a dynamic world where the natural forces and a living economy constantly interrelate with one another is no small feat, after all!
Seasonal Progression
No, no, not that kind of seasonal progression. Battle passes don't really have a place in a city-building sandbox such as Cities: Skylines 2. Instead, the game will feature a proper change of seasons, which should affect your cities in a wide variety of different ways. For a practical, if admittedly questionable, example of how that might go down, look no further than Microsoft's own Forza Horizon games.
Whereas the first Cities: Skylines game only really had dedicated snowscape maps and the like, the introduction of seasonal progression from Spring to Winter is sure to make things far more interesting and dynamic. In fact, if Colossal Order really amps the simulation up, we may end up with an ever-evolving list of challenges to tackle on the go!
District Specialization
Some leaked achievements have revealed that it's going to be possible to assign city services to specific districts in Cities: Skylines 2. This is a huge and potentially game-changing new addition that promises the sort of depth we never really had in the original title. The specifics remain to be seen, of course, but the ability to min-max a city's services (firefighters, garbage disposal, etc.) to such an extent is extremely promising.
In fact, since traffic was always a problem in the first Skylines title, being able to direct particular service members to particular districts could free up huge stretches of road for the regular traffic to course through. We'll need to wait and see, however, just how far this feature might go in-game.
Intermittent Disasters
Possibly the biggest hinted-at feature we've seen so far is the presence of realistic disaster scenarios. These used to be map-limited in the first Skylines game, but now, players will seemingly need to contend with a huge variety of disasters ranging from rat infestations all the way to rampaging super-tornadoes. The goal, it appears, is to add more dynamism and life to any given cityscape simulation. Turning a city inside out with a meteor is certainly one way of doing that, we'd say!
These would need to be quite ingrained with the rest of the game's features to actually make sense, of course. The aforementioned infestation of rats, for one, would have to affect food supplies, morale, and the like to make a difference. Could be very interesting indeed!
Superior Customization
Once you've tackled all the challenges and built out a successful city, it's time to take in the sights and customize! After all, what good is a town that looks like a min-maxed monstrosity? Thankfully, Paradox and Colossal Order understand this. According to Paradox Interactive CEO Fredrik Wester, Cities: Skylines 2 aims to offer "unprecedented amounts of customization and player control" in the grand scheme of things.
Our best guess at this time is that we may end up seeing a more expansive, varied version of the Content Creator Packs for Cities: Skylines. Re-skinning buildings is the obvious thing to do, though, so it's entirely possible that the devs have got a few more surprises in tow, too.
Check Back In Often!
Surprisingly enough, there's really not that much information out and about on Cities: Skylines 2 as of yet. We do expect a deluge of exciting new info in the coming weeks and months, however, so your best bet is going to be to visit this page often. As soon as the first press releases hit, we'll deploy updates and keep you in the loop. So, stay tuned and remember to check out the rest of our content repertoire!
This game has the potential to be the single most realistic city-builder we've seen yet, and we cannot wait to build our own thriving metropolis late this October. If you, too, are excited about the release of an all-new Cities: Skylines base game, stick around and stay tuned. We've got our ear to the ground and are eager to explore the dynamic world and deep simulation that Colossal Order is baking into Cities: Skylines 2.
Get in the Game ! 
