Honestly, I don’t even remember how my first city in Cities: Skylines II started. Probably with that “I’ll just play for half an hour to relax” mood—you know the one 😅🌆. You open an empty map, there's a river, some grass, and suddenly the world feels quieter. You think: “Okay, let’s keep it small and neat.” And then five minutes later you’re constructing a regional highway because obviously the city needs it 🚗🛣️.

And the problems, of course, arrive before the successes do. 🗑️The power grid flickers, water pipes don’t reach, trash piles up like my desk on a weekday 💡💦🙂. You zoom out and realize: this whole chaotic system is kind of just… you. 🏙️A beautiful idea running in every direction at once. Yet you keep fixing it. A new treatment plant here, a redesigned intersection there, a relocated depot. Not because you have to, but because you want the people here to live well. Even if they’re just pixels ❤️.

Then there comes that moment: you pull the camera back… and the city looks alive. Not perfect. Not symmetrical. But real. Breathing. A little messy, a little flawed, a little yours. 🕊️And you realize — Cities: Skylines II isn’t a game about roads at all. It’s a game about how we try to sort things out inside our own heads. Block by block. Slowly. Without guarantees. Without perfection. Just the best we can do. And somehow, that brings a quiet kind of peace 🌙.