Earlier this week, the much-talked-about city-building game, Cities: Skylines 2 was launched, only to disappoint its players with crippling performance issues. However, the game developer, Colossal Order, swiftly swung into action and rolled out an immediate patch that brought about remarkable improvement. Despite the patch, the game still isn't running as smoothly as players had hoped.
The full details of the changes bridged by the hotfix are duly reflected in the patch notes. Essentially, the patch comprises myriad optimizations and tweaks that are intended to enhance the game experience and make it more streamlined. Among the many notes, two particularly caught my attention: "optimized stutters when buildings spawn/level up" and "optimized various stutters across all systems."
I think it's fair to regard these stutters as the most significant of the many technical glitches plagueing Cities: Skylines 2. As I pointed out in my review of Cities: Skylines 2, there were often long durations in my larger cities where every five seconds or so, the game would freeze for around half a second, rendering it virtually unplayable. Thankfully, after the patch, these stutters occur less frequently; only once every few minutes. Although still not ideal, this change has made the game play somewhat bearable, marked a departure from the 'unplayable' state that it was in.
According to the feedback garnered from the patch on platforms such as Reddit and Steam, a large proportion of players have witnessed tremendous improvements in general game performance. Associated game experience appears to fluctuate, contingent upon individual game set-ups, there is a broad consensus on the overall improvement of frame rates. Based on my experience, at 1440p on an RTX 3080, I was able to occasionally reach 60 FPS, but only when I positioned my city at a precise angle and on a low setting.
Unquestionably, technically, Cities: Skylines 2 is not anywhere near satisfactory. However, the introduction of a performance-enhancing patch so soon after the game's launch gives me optimism. It raises hope that Colossal Order may be able to rectify the persisting issues progressively, resulting in a much more improved experience.
Although it would have been more desirable if the game had been launched in a robust state, the fact that it is improving to meet user's expectation is quite encouraging to its players. For players who are holding on for more updates to Cities: Skylines 2, it would be interesting to explore other top-notch city-building games available in the meantime.
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