1
Squirrel's Pick Squirrel's PickThe best game on this page. If you only try one, try this. Budget Pick Budget PickThe best game here for the least money.
City BuilderImmersive SimBase-Building
$19.99 ~33.7 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 82.2% of 10k
The Squirrel's verdictA fixed 2003 design, SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition uses region-based multi-city play rather than Skylines II's single-city evolving simulation. Traffic network depth and transit granularity are absent, but decades of mods and a still-active community add terrain tools and building variety Skylines II handles natively. Reviews consistently call it the strongest pure city-builder available, with 33.7 median hours logged.
Not for you if you are unwilling to apply third-party patches to make a 2003 engine run on modern hardware.
2
City BuilderSurvivalColony Sim
Jank Tolerant Jank TolerantRough edges and bugs — rewarding if you don't mind them.
$29.99 ~7.5 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 79.5% of 3k
The Squirrel's verdictNew Cycle trades sprawling city-building for tight cycle-based colony management: food and power production chains, seasonal die-offs, and rebuilding after each cycle reset. It's smaller in scope than Skylines II, single-player only, and median playtime sits at 7.5 hours. Reviews describe fluctuating production balance and unfinished tutorial elements as core mechanics rather than late-game issues.
Not for you if you want a long, expansive sim rather than a compact repeating-cycle survival loop with a median playtime under eight hours.
3
Closest Match Closest MatchThe most similar game to the anchor, by what players say.
City BuilderColony SimImmersive Sim
$29.99 ~22.1 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 77.5% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictHighrise City shares zoning, road-building, and city growth with Cities: Skylines II, but shifts the core loop from traffic optimization to supply chains: mining, manufacturing, and production feed resident needs directly. Reviewers compare it to Anno and SimCity 2013 rather than Skylines. Fits players who want resource-management depth over traffic-network puzzles.
Not for you if you want traffic engineering as the main puzzle rather than managing production chains, or you need a crash-free session at 22 hours median playtime.
4
City BuilderEconomyPolitical Sim
$24.99 ~18.2 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 73.6% of 1k
The Squirrel's verdictCitystate II keeps the zoning, RCI demand, and service-management loop of Cities: Skylines II but shifts the weight toward macroeconomics and politics: immigration rates, inflation, public debt, and policy sliders replace detailed traffic and pipe engineering as the main puzzle. It suits players who want city-building framed as governance rather than infrastructure design.
Not for you if you came to Skylines II for detailed traffic and utility engineering, or want a game without frequent crashes and lost progress from missing autosave.
5
RomeCity BuilderHistorical
$24.99 ~17.5 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 70.1% of 643
The Squirrel's verdictPax Augusta narrows city-building to a single Roman settlement, with historical detail running deeper than Skylines II's modern-metropolis scope. Built by one developer, it is smaller in scale but covers zoning, resource chains, and settlement growth within a period-specific framework. Players who want city-building satisfaction with less system breadth and a Roman setting are its clearest audience.
Not for you if you need stable saves — multiple reviewers report a bug that wipes all city structures, with no recovery possible.
6
City BuilderEconomyResource Management
$1.49 ~12.3 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 58.5% of 2k
The Squirrel's verdictZone land, run utilities, manage supply and demand, and watch a city grow — Cities XL Platinum covers the same ground as Skylines II at a fraction of the price. It adds inter-city trade for specialty economies but runs on 2013-era tech. Reviews consistently report framerate collapse once a city grows large, and no patches are planned to fix it. Median playtime is 12.3 hours.
Not for you if your city plans to grow large, since reviews describe unfixed lag and framerate collapse once population scales up.
7
City BuilderDesign & IllustrationLife Sim
$9.99 ~25.9 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 57.7% of 477
The Squirrel's verdictNewCity shares the growth-from-hamlet-to-metropolis simulation and detailed city stats, but drops utility management (power, water, trash) to focus on budget and growth mechanics through different systemic lenses. Huge maps with no agent limit suit players who want scale over micromanagement. Bugs, crashes, and lost saves are recurring complaints, and no co-op is offered.
Not for you if you want the trash-collection-and-utility-grid management Skylines II gives you, or need a stable build free of crash and save-loss reports.
8
City BuilderEconomyResource Management
Strong Mods Strong ModsA deep, active modding scene extends it past its base content.
$1.99 ~9.2 hr median no co-op complexity: moderate 40.7% of 2k
The Squirrel's verdictCities XXL covers basic zoning and city growth but skips the modern simulation depth, modular road tools, and active patch cycle Skylines II offers. Reviews describe it as a barely-updated reskin of 2010's Cities XL — one reviewer noted the windowed mode still displays the old game's name. Content is shallow and the building set is small, with a 9.2-hour median playtime.
Not for you if you want deep traffic or economy simulation, meaningful building variety, or a game receiving active development.