Yes the performance issues are unacceptable.
But also the sim elements of the game are underwhelming. If you follow a citizen around you will see that the kids just stay in their homes 24/7 and don't actually attend school, if someone is going to university they are marked as "student" and may or may not occasionally go to the school and only ever the school. And the working citizens are not much better. So many service building just don't work how you would think. An example is that the incinerator will often take garbage seemingly from neighboring cities rather than prioritizing clearing you own mountains of garbage.
The leveling system is busted because you get a little xp based on population but loads based on building certain buildings, so you can just spam build/bulldoze the same building and have a megacity with under 1000 pop if you wanted. The terrain tools are the worst things to use ever and if you ignore manipulating the terrain all your buildings are going to be sloped and roads are not gonna connect properly because everywhere is so hilly.
BUT WORST OF ALL: seemingly NO autosave?! I haven't had to think about manual saving in years. I lost 2 hours of progress once to a crash and had no idea the game only manually saved.
On a positive note, the progress of unlocking stuff and watching your city grow from a small village to a massive horizon-spanning wall of skyscrapers is quite satisfying and there were times where I was enjoying myself. But that satisfaction is found in any city builder. The elements that were supposed to set this one apart are buggy, computer-crashing, frustrating, or janky at best.
But also the sim elements of the game are underwhelming. If you follow a citizen around you will see that the kids just stay in their homes 24/7 and don't actually attend school, if someone is going to university they are marked as "student" and may or may not occasionally go to the school and only ever the school. And the working citizens are not much better. So many service building just don't work how you would think. An example is that the incinerator will often take garbage seemingly from neighboring cities rather than prioritizing clearing you own mountains of garbage.
The leveling system is busted because you get a little xp based on population but loads based on building certain buildings, so you can just spam build/bulldoze the same building and have a megacity with under 1000 pop if you wanted. The terrain tools are the worst things to use ever and if you ignore manipulating the terrain all your buildings are going to be sloped and roads are not gonna connect properly because everywhere is so hilly.
BUT WORST OF ALL: seemingly NO autosave?! I haven't had to think about manual saving in years. I lost 2 hours of progress once to a crash and had no idea the game only manually saved.
On a positive note, the progress of unlocking stuff and watching your city grow from a small village to a massive horizon-spanning wall of skyscrapers is quite satisfying and there were times where I was enjoying myself. But that satisfaction is found in any city builder. The elements that were supposed to set this one apart are buggy, computer-crashing, frustrating, or janky at best.
Stampede
6 months ago