I was so excited for Cities: Skylines II, and it is a shell of the former game. So many systems seem to fake the economy, and it also feels impossible to make your city fail.
Waiting until I see evidence of a good game post-release before I board any kind of hype train.
I still haven't bought that, and looks like I won't be for a while at least, maybe never if it doesn't pan out. I was so excited for Victoria 3 but reading the reviews they indicate that it's also a shell of the former game. Waiting until the game is fully released before letting in any hype has served me well lately.
Vic3 certainly isn't a shell of Vic2. It's a considerably more complex and interesting game.
There are however some frustrating and obtuse mechanics, particularly related to warfare. It's not even that bad once you get into it properly, but as a new player it's definitely a bit frustrating and it's definitely different from what players were used to from Vic2.
You can still play the game offline and single player just fine. Multiplayer has never been a core feature for my playthroughs. I don't think it ever worked particularly well.
I liked the first one alright but I remember it being a bit easy, and putting it down for rim world, a much more challenging game in the same vein. Guess I'll wait and see on this one.
I think the artstyle is ok in a vacuum. It does look bad if you look at it as a direct sequel of prison architect 1. As for paradox, it would be a new low for them if they managed to fuck up the performance for this game by releasing it early, the only problem I can really see are bugs and they usually aren't gamebreaking (for the pdx games I've played at launch - c:s2 and vic3). I just hope it isn't treated as a cash grab by the higher ups. As long as they don't release it before it is ready the game will be fine, but we know paradox will crunch the developers to release early. I'm mainly just worried about the dlc.