Update: Cities: Cities: Skylines 2 may be UE5-based, but Colossal Order has confirmed a Unity release (opens in new tab). Nevertheless, the remaining Easter eggs noted by City Planner Plays could still materialize. Time will tell.

Original Story In the recent Cities: Colossal Order's Cities: Skylines 2 announcement trailer, one creator seems to have uncovered an exciting Easter egg: City Planner Plays has confirmed that these upcoming City builder's sequel is being made with Unreal Engine 5, as well as several other features the developers seem to be teasing, he believes.

The first and biggest spot City Planner Plays talks about is the desert gas station seen in the first scene. It is clearly marked "GOLDEN." City Planner Plays took this as a sign, both literally and figuratively, and set out to do a little snooping (opens in new tab). [GOLDEN Desert Gas Station (open in new tab) was created by Joakim Stigsson to show what can be done in UE4 and has now been updated for use in UE5, so it is possible that Cities in Unreal Engine 5 (open in new tab) 2 in Unreal Engine 5 (opens in a new tab), as it has now been updated for use in UE5.

While certainly a leap forward, it would frankly be discouraging for developers not to take advantage of the graphical capabilities of this newly evolved game engine. the idea of "Cities" appearing in UE5, if true, is a big one and would be a great addition to the franchise in terms of graphical quality, and could lead to wild changes in the franchise.

The very shiny windows in the "Cities 2" trailer may be a bit much to expect from the game, but it has been stated that the trailer does not show actual gameplay footage. The biggest and best of these would be in the form of nanites.

This UE5 feature may result in a distinct lack of LOD in Cities 2. In other words, the model will not be strangely moving in and out when zoomed in. Instead, UE5 allows for a dynamic level of detail, and the nanite feature simply reduces the polygon count of individual meshes as you move away from them.

Combine this feature with all the other benefits UE5 has brought us, such as Lumen's lightmap creation-free magic, and you can expect something truly beautiful from the upcoming sequel to this much-loved city builder.

After all, the graphical fidelity we're seeing may require a bit of an upgrade from the GTX 1070 Ti we've been embracing for the past half-decade, because UE5 presents a 10 billion polygon dog (open in new tab) without breaking a sweat, You may not have to rush out and buy an RTX 4090 (opens in new tab) to enjoy Cities: Skylines 2

Thank you, Lord.

According to City Planner Plays, there are several other features. The trailer suggests more literal possibilities for scenarios based on real cities, such as Wisconsin. There is also the possibility of customizing mixed-use buildings and distinctive infrastructure. [Personally, I haven't been this excited about a game in years, and I'm as excited about "Cities" as "Cities" lover Chris is: Skylines 2 (opens in new tab).