Exploring Cities: Skylines 2's Underwhelming University Experience
City: Skylines 2's universities lack the innovative and open-ended features that made the original game's DLC so exciting and immersive, leaving players feeling underwhelmed and restricted in their city-building experiences
Highlights
Cities: Skylines 2 lacks much of the exciting DLC content from the original game, making it feel incomplete and lacking in certain areas.
The education system in Cities: Skylines 2 falls short in comparison to the original game. Players are now unable to construct personalized universities and exert full control over their city's education. The ready-made universities in Cities: Skylines 2 lack vitality and impose limitations, thereby contradicting the game's emphasis on player autonomy and customization. This is a feature that should have been integrated into the core game, just like in the original version.
Cities: Skylines 2 is an improvement over the original game, offering a more immersive simulation experience. However, it has unfortunately left behind some of the DLC content from its predecessor. This is disappointing because the previous game had a lot of exciting content that would have greatly enriched Cities: Skylines 2. Without this additional content, the game feels incomplete in certain aspects. While there is a possibility that Colossal Order may release the missing DLC content in the future, currently Cities: Skylines 2 requires further development.
One particular area that could benefit from additional content in Cities: Skylines 2 is the education system. In the original game, players had the ability to construct expansive universities with great freedom. However, this feature has been removed in the sequel. As a result, players no longer have extensive control over their city's education system, which diminishes the overall experience. Therefore, those seeking the same level of depth and customization may find little reason to explore the sequel at this time.
Cities: Skylines 2's Universities Are Rather Bland
The Campus DLC for Cities: Skylines significantly enhanced the game's education system. This DLC allowed players to utilize the popular area tool from the Parklife DLC to create their own college campuses. They were given the freedom to construct a Trade School, a Liberal Arts College, or a classic University, and could design the layout of these institutions as they pleased. As the colleges expanded, players could unlock new buildings to use. This DLC greatly enriched the gameplay experience of Cities: Skylines, as players could now customize their cities with their own unique colleges. They had control over various aspects of the campuses, such as sports teams, policies, and aesthetics. Furthermore, players could fund research projects for these schools to enhance their prestige and manage the number of staff members. Although not the most advanced feature, the Campus DLC was a fantastic addition to the game.
Colossal Order appears to have removed the feature of creating custom colleges in Cities: Skylines 2, which is disappointing. Instead, players are limited to using three prebuilt universities, alongside other types of education buildings. These include a standard university, a technical university, and a medical university. Although they offer different bonuses and can be upgraded, they lack the vibrancy and freedom of the original game's version. This removal contradicts the essence of Cities: Skylines 2, which prides itself on player freedom. Hopefully, this issue will be addressed, either by including the feature in the base game or as a DLC pack.
Cities Skylines 2 is available now on PC with a PS5 and Xbox Series X/S version launching Spring 2024.
