Cities: Skylines II is free to play until December 9

If you’ve been on the fence about buying the urban landscape sim Cities: Skyline II (and given the response following its launch, who could blame you?), here’s your chance to take it for a free test run. Paradox Interactive announced on Bluesky that players can play the city building game for free for a limited time.

Cities: Skylines II is available to play from now until December 9. The free version is available to download and play for free on Steam and GeForce NOW.

Colossal Order and Paradox’s sequel to its hit city construction experience got off to a very rocky start more than a year ago. Despite having a dedicated base of fans who provided a lot of insight into the development of Cities: Skylines II, the response to its release was far from positive.

Fans were upset that Cities: Skyline II only launched on PC instead of a simultaneous PC and console release. There was also criticism over the increased spec requirements a month before the game’s launch. Players with powerful PCs experienced problems with the game even months after the initial release. Colossal Order CEO Mariina Hallikainen wrote a blog post the following January describing a “growing tendency of toxicity in our community, something we have not experienced to this extent before.”