What if you had the opportunity to fix and clean up your city quickly, easily, and effectively? What if you could slap a parking lot under the ground and erect a wonderful public greenspace for everyone to enjoy? What if these options - and innumerable others - were at the very tips of your fingertips? These are the questions that Cities: Skylines 2 primes us for, and with the game due to launch on October 24, we'll be darned if we don't jump straight into the bugger on day one!

We've been on top of Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order's pre-release efforts for quite a long time now. In fact, we started hyping ourselves up a fair bit ahead of the official announcement, if you can believe that!

The editorial team wondered about whether a Cities: Skylines 2 was coming on at least two separate occasions. On top of that, we also couldn't help but think about all the improvements that Colossal Order could execute upon. Wouldn't you know it, it would take another couple of years before Paradox officially announced the project. And so, with weeks to go before it's fully out, here we are!

READ MORE: All the Confirmed Features in Cities: Skylines 2

How Cities: Skylines 2 Empowers the Player

In case you don't want to watch all of Colossal Order's Skylines 2 gameplay videos - which we highly recommend doing regardless - today we're here to communicate the core idea behind the game. Because, of course, even though this game does aim to be the most realistic city builder on the market for the foreseeable future, there's plenty of room here for personal creativity and sheer fictionalized joy.

After all, Cities: Skylines 2 is a game about building a thriving metropolis against all odds. Why wouldn't you come up with something truly spectacular, filled to the brim with landmark buildings and unique developments found nowhere else? Isn't that what makes a city - any city - special?

Whatever your opinions on real-world cities might be, the simple fact remains: Cities: Skylines 2 lets you develop your own city of any scale, size, or specialty. So, why wouldn't you make a better township in the first place?

Get your copy of Cities: Skylines 2 at 2Game today and score an awesome pre-release discount!

Moving the City-Building Genre Forward

It doesn't take much more than a passing glance at Cities: Skylines 2's gameplay loop to be able to tell how much more comprehensive and streamlined it is than any other competitor. In refocusing from dull organizational drudgery - like the manual setting up of utilities - over to the important design work and functional efficacy, Colossal Order promises a game that empowers you to do more with less.

"If you can dream it, you can build it," says Colossal Order's key sales pitch on the official website, and from everything we've seen so far - that's exactly right.

The thing to remember, though, is that there's no shortage of problem-solving in Skylines 2. Quite the opposite, in fact. As Skylines veterans will recall, the older title would, inevitably, turn into Traffic Simulator in due time. That's due to the specific interactions between the game's progression and difficulty systems that led to a situation where all of a city's problems could be solved - except for traffic.

Skylines 2 aims to resolve this by being the most detailed city builder on the market... with obviously player-centric caveats. Problems will, therefore, always be solvable in some capacity. Whether that means building new parking lots or rethinking an entire city block will depend on you, and the game will allow you to facilitate fixes in a meaningful and sensible manner.

What Competitors, Though?

All of that brings us to an obvious point of content: where is Cities: Skylines 2's competition? Where is the Sim City of the 2020s? Why is no one else making these games?

Sadly, we don't know. The good news, though, is that Colossal Order has the genre pretty darn well figured out. For once, we don't need to worry whether this game will be good or not, as the developer has a phenomenal track record. With Paradox Interactive backing the studio from the get-go, we've no doubt that this game will be the pinnacle of the niche for years to come.

At the same time, it sure would be nice if there was at least one more city-builder on the market, wouldn't it?

Enter a New Chapter of Virtual City-Building this October!

Cities: Skylines 2 is due to launch on October 24, and - as usual - 2Game's got a selection of special deals for you to play the game on day one on the cheap!

Get your copy of Cities: Skylines 2 at 2Game today and score an awesome pre-release discount!

It's worth pointing out that placing a pre-order on Cities: Skylines 2 nets you a whole bunch of awesome exclusives, too:

Moving on, there's the Ultimate Edition of Cities: Skylines 2 as well! For those who, like yours truly, aim to play the game for years to come, then you've got the chance to score a massive selection of extra goodies at a massively reduced price. Here's everything you get with the Ultimate Edition:

The Expansion Pass for Cities: Skylines 2 is, mind, sizeable in its own right:

So, we're looking at a lovely bundle of goodies, however way you flip it. Ultimate Edition of Cities: Skylines 2 is a tad more expensive than the base game, but getting it is still way cheaper than splurging on the Expansion Pass later on. And remember: you can always use the 2Game discount offer to get a few extra bucks off the asking price!

CHECK OUT: How Hard to Run is Cities: Skylines 2?

What if you had the opportunity to fix and clean up your city quickly, easily, and effectively? What if you could slap a parking lot under the ground and erect a wonderful public greenspace for everyone to enjoy? What if these options – and innumerable others – were at the very tips of your fingertips? […]