I went in expecting the worst when it came to the game's performance, but I think I am more underwhelmed by the game's sim aspects. The performance is bad even with a decent PC, and the hitching feels worst. I empathize with Colossal Order, I think they ultimately got carried away trying to render too much geometry and likely had to release the game early and unoptimized due to contracts with Gamepass or Paradox getting impatient and wanting to start their DLC sales cycle as soon as possible. I think the game will always have this cloud looming over them even if a year from now the game will be running fine for most people.

Instead what I think is really troubling is how shallow a lot of the simulation feels after putting some time into it. Obviously Cities 1 had 8 years of patches, expansions, mods, etc. and this game is starting from scratch, but I feel like I've seen what the game has to offer much sooner than I expected. A lot of the improvements seem like they were done under the hood, and aside from a few quality of life improvements, this is highly similar to Cities 1, and there's no way around it. They could have gone further in any direction... making it more simulatory, more arcadey, something... but it's largely the same game.

Ultimately, the game is fine, and it will be a good base for CO to continue to develop on for the rest of the decade, but it does not make the best first impression. They traded in some old problems for some new ones, let's hope these are easier to fix.