The goal of Cities: Skylines 2 is to build a city that's as attractive as possible. This includes good healthcare, a solid police force, and plenty of entertainment venues like parks and sports fields. Some commercial buildings also provide entertainment, but in general it's best for players to handle this citizen need themselves.
The Parks and Recreation menu unlocks once players reach milestone four, Grand Village. This comes with a few small parks, but players will need to buy everything else using development points. Players should do so sooner rather than later since small parks can only provide so much entertainment value in Cities: Skylines 2.
Park Maintenance
The first upgrade in the Parks and Recreation tree is Park Maintenance. This unlocks a special building that's responsible for keeping every park and public venue in the city in good condition. If players let parks rot, their entertainment value will drop. This means they won't provide the same benefit to citizen wellbeing, which is the purpose of every park and recreation building in the game.
One park maintenance building won't cost much and can handle a lot of parks, but it does so by sending out trucks along the road network. This means they rely on good traffic throughout the city to do their jobs on time, but as city vehicles they can travel on pedestrian roads and other areas that regular vehicles can't go.
Entertainment and Population Density
As players replace low-density residential zones with medium and high-density areas, they may notice that the parks they place don't cover as much of the neighborhood as they used to. Essentially, every family in a building increases the building's entertainment demand, and so what works for a sprawling suburb won't cut it for a skyscraper. Players must build more and better parks and rec buildings if they want to boost the entertainment wellbeing of a densely packed neighborhood.
The buildings players get for free are small parks. These will do for low-density areas, but they simply stop working when players rezone for high density.
|
Building |
Cost |
Upkeep |
Recreation |
Attractiveness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Small Park |
10,000 |
2,000 |
+1 Outdoor |
1 |
|
Small Plaza |
20,000 |
4,000 |
+1 Outdoor |
5 |
|
Small Playground |
5,000 |
1,000 |
+2 Outdoor |
1 |
|
Dog Park |
10,000 |
2,000 |
+2 Outdoor |
1 |
|
Campfire Site |
30,000 |
6,000 |
+5 Outdoor |
10 |
Note that while the Campfire Site has superior stats, it's also much bigger than the other small parks. The last stat, Attractiveness, represents how likely tourists are to show up and use the facility.
The next two park types are Large Parks and Sports Parks. Players can unlock them for two development points each after buying the Park Maintenance building.
|
Building |
Cost |
Upkeep |
Recreation |
Attractiveness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Large City Park |
42,000 |
8,500 |
+3 Outdoor |
10 |
|
Large Plaza |
56,000 |
12,500 |
+5 Outdoor |
15 |
|
Large Playground |
14,000 |
2,500 |
+5 Outdoor |
5 |
|
Building |
Cost |
Upkeep |
Recreation |
Attractiveness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Tennis Court |
14,000 |
2,500 |
+5 Outdoor |
5 |
|
Outdoor Gym |
15,000 |
3,000 |
+5 Outdoor |
5 |
|
Skate Park |
15,000 |
3,000 |
+5 Outdoor |
5 |
|
Basketball Court |
14,000 |
2,500 |
+5 Outdoor |
5 |
The sports parks each have similar stats, but they come in different shapes players can take advantage of to fit them into neighborhood grids.
After unlocking both previous park types, players can buy Large Sports Parks for four development points.
|
Building |
Cost |
Upkeep |
Recreation |
Attractiveness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
American Football Field |
160,000 |
30,000 |
+20 Outdoor |
25 |
|
Soccer Field |
160,000 |
30,000 |
+20 Outdoor |
25 |
|
Community Pool |
80,000 |
16,000 |
+20 Summer |
15 |
"Summer" means that the Community Pool only provides its recreation bonus during the summer months. Similarly, all the "Outdoor" qualifications mean that these parks lose much of their benefits when it rains or snows.
The last upgrade in the Parks and Recreation tree is Tourist Attractions. It costs eight development points to buy, and while the buildings provide good recreation boosts, the real point in building them is to boost the city's Attractiveness.
|
Building |
Cost |
Upkeep |
Recreation |
Attractiveness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Observation Tower |
3,200,000 |
320,000 |
+75 Indoor |
40 |
|
Bronze Statue |
3,200,000 |
320,000 |
+25 Outdoor |
50 |
|
Water Park |
800,000 |
80,000 |
+25 Summer |
75 |
|
Medieval Castle |
4,800,000 |
480,000 |
+20 Outdoor |
85 |
The last tab in the Parks and Rec menu is for landmarks. Landmarks don't cost any development points to unlock, but players are unlikely to buy them early on thanks to their insanely high cost and upkeep values. Still, they make a good way to personalize a late-game city if players decide to invest their money.
|
Building |
Cost |
Upkeep |
Recreation |
Attractiveness |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Nasinneula |
4,800,000 |
480,000 |
+75 Indoor |
115 |
|
Grand Hotel |
1,600,000 |
160,000 |
+75 Indoor |
115 |
|
Ferris Wheel |
5,600,000 |
560,000 |
+75 Indoor |
110 |
|
National Gallery of Art |
3,200,000 |
320,000 |
+100 Indoor |
120 |
|
Notre-Dame |
5,600,000 |
560,000 |
+125 Indoor |
175 |
|
Namdaemun |
5,600,000 |
560,000 |
+100 Outdoor |
125 |
|
Botanical Garden |
1,600,000 |
160,000 |
+100 Outdoor |
125 |
|
National Diet Building |
5,600,000 |
560,000 |
+100 Outdoor |
125 |
|
Bell Tower of Xi'an |
5,600,000 |
560,000 |
+100 Outdoor |
125 |
Needless to say, players can only build one of each landmark in a city.
Cities: Skylines 2 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Cities: Skylines 2
- Released
- October 24, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Colossal Order
- Publisher(s)
- Paradox Interactive
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- City Builder
