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Squirrel's Pick Squirrel's PickThe best game on this page. If you only try one, try this.
TransportationTrainsCity Builder
Strong Mods Strong ModsA deep, active modding scene extends it past its base content.
$39.99 ~87.7 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 90.3% of 32k
The Squirrel's verdictBoth build transit networks across growing cities, juggling routes, timetables, and vehicle types. Transport Fever 2 widens scope to trains, planes, and ships alongside buses and trams, with more terrain and track-building control than Cities in Motion 2's city-bus focus. Suits players who want cargo and rail logistics layered onto passenger transport, not just city transit.
Not for you if you want deep city-life simulation rather than logistics and route-building, or you're wary of publisher-driven DLC pricing.
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FlightCity BuilderDriving
Strong Mods Strong ModsA deep, active modding scene extends it past its base content.
$29.99 ~73.5 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 83.3% of 11k
The Squirrel's verdictTransport Fever keeps the timetable-and-route planning core of Cities in Motion 2 but expands scope from single-city passenger networks to cross-region cargo and passenger lines feeding town growth. Building rail, road, water, and air routes replaces micromanaging one city's transit; the interface still won't hold your hand, and the world's economy stays largely static once set.
Not for you if you want a lively simulated city population rather than a route-and-cargo logistics puzzle set across a static world economy
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Closest Match Closest MatchThe most similar game to the anchor, by what players say.
City BuilderAutomationTransportation
Strong Mods Strong ModsA deep, active modding scene extends it past its base content.
$24.99 ~29.4 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 79.8% of 2k
The Squirrel's verdictInfraSpace keeps the logistics-planning core Cities in Motion 2 fans like: laying routes, moving goods point A to point B, watching vehicles work. It swaps public transit for a factory/colony-builder loop with production chains and infinite resource patches, on an alien planet instead of a city. Fits players who prefer optimizing supply networks over managing timetables and bus lines.
Not for you if you want city-life simulation or passenger transit systems rather than factory logistics and production-chain optimization.
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Budget Pick Budget PickThe best game here for the least money.
TransportationEconomyCapitalism
$19.99 ~20.6 hr median co-op complexity: moderate 79.3% of 545
The Squirrel's verdictCo-op network design across a broad logistics scale sets Worldwide Rush apart from single-player city-transit games. Players jointly build and optimize routes serving multiple regions rather than a single city's street grid. Released in 2025 with a Mostly Positive rating at 79.3%, it suits players who want collaborative route-planning. Reviewers flag that passenger routing ignores direct paths and that demand data requires navigating several menus.
Not for you if you need passenger AI to choose logical routes, since multiple reviews describe vehicles taking indirect paths regardless of network layout.
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City BuilderColony SimImmersive Sim
$29.99 ~22.1 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 77.5% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictProduction chains — mining, manufacturing, and supply logistics — replace transit networks as the central planning challenge in Highrise City. Where Cities in Motion 2 asks you to move passengers efficiently, Highrise City asks you to move goods so citizen needs stay met. Reviews compare the depth to Anno applied to a modern city setting, with median play around 22 hours. Frequent crashes remain a reported concern.
Not for you if you want transit routing and timetable management specifically, or you can't tolerate frequent crashes disrupting longer sessions.
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City BuilderEconomyPolitical Sim
$24.99 ~18.2 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 73.6% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictCitystate II centers on macroeconomics and politics rather than transit networks: sliders govern immigration rates, inflation, and public debt, with zoning and public services as secondary tools. Players who liked optimizing interconnected systems in Cities in Motion 2 will find the same analytical approach here, applied to a city's fiscal and political balance. Reviews note a Mostly Positive rating at 73.6% alongside reported crashes and a broken autosave.
Not for you if you want infrastructure design as the main loop, or you need reliable autosave and a stable late-game experience.
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TransportationEconomyResource Management
$11.99 ~9.6 hr median no co-op complexity: light 69.8% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictSame core loop: build routes, set prices, manage vehicles moving people and cargo between cities. Transport INC skips road-building and terrain work, connecting cities along pre-set paths instead, which trades Cities in Motion 2's infrastructure depth for simpler, faster route-planning. Fits players who want transport economics without micromanaging pavement.
Not for you if you valued Cities in Motion 2's road and terrain construction, since Transport INC replaces that with fixed pre-determined paths between cities.
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City BuilderEconomyResource Management
$1.49 ~12.3 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 58.5% of 2k
The Squirrel's verdictCities XL Platinum shifts focus from transit networks to full city building, but shares Cities in Motion 2's infrastructure-management core: zoning, utilities, supply-and-demand economics, and inter-city trade rather than cookie-cutter block placement. Reviews confirm large maps and deep systems, paired with performance that degrades as cities grow past a few hours of play.
Not for you if you want stable performance once your city scales up, since reviews report worsening lag and framerate drops as cities grow larger.