It's a 5.5/10 without mods. With mods you can make it as fun as you want it to be. It'll always have some down sides though. Traffic is by-far the biggest issue to making the game enjoy-able. Since it's more a traffic manager than it is a city builder.

Where to start? Have to download Paradox launcher and then get reminded to register every time you start the game. Ridiculously intrusive user agreement. Useless "tutorial". Game looks terrible even with everything set to max. Appears to be one of those games where they milk their players with endless DLCs because the base game has very little meaningful content. Catch some other sucker, I'm refunding.

One of the most unintuitive city builders out there, for the 16gb cost of entry used by the base game i'm really not sure where its all going considering the game looks like ass and the features provided on the base game are so barebones it 'forces' your hand to buy hundreds of dollars of additional dlc. Don't forget that you are going to need a high quality computer to even make the game playable probably to render every little pedestrian wandering the city. Rather than the developers spending time on important content they made sure every individual person has their own little life. Its an interesting feature although hardware intense because of the large scale of it, but not that revolutionary when Sim City 4 allowed you to do the same thing on a smaller scale with the dlc.

The primary and only competitor to the game is Sim City 4, a game released almost 20 years ago that barely takes 1gb and can run on any modern machine when it runs as intended somehow contains far more content and some of the most interesting and engaging gameplay. Not to forget it comes in at around 7 dollars with the dlc included. Although the dlc isn't required unlike in City Skylines.

Speaking of 'Skylines' this game simply doesn't have one, the tallest buildings you will get come at around 6 stories tall on the max level. Leaving you with a flat plain after hours of work, unless you cough up a few dollars for skyscrapers that only serve as a 'tourist attraction' and serve zero purpose. The poor textures due to the primitive 3d models, and mediocre building designs and variety really leaves myself questioning why this game is an 'industry standard'. Theming is also an issue with no particular direction for the building designs, giving you only two design choices both looking awful. Sim City has building 'eras' that you could select and mix and match to your liking. Oh don't forget policy! Although it seems policy was forgotten in City Skylines, giving a list of generic policy that you can enforce (spend a bit of money each month, residents get happiness boost or alternatively skimp out and make more money but make residents sad.) Once again comparing to sc4 the system given is a little more advanced and in depth. Although I do appreciate the policy zoning systems. No neighbourhood commercial either since the game is based within the individual save rather than a global region like sc4 that allowed your cities to connect with each other. The traffic system is the only interesting aspect of the game, leaving you constantly puzzled and stuck managing your roads constantly leaving you frustrated after making a ♥♥♥♥ up 6 hours ago. Building for growth is a primary focus, though poorly implemented as you need to force rapid unplanned growth to even access half the facilities you need while trying to save as much money as possible.

I have not brought any dlc as i didn't want to spend even more considering a payed full price for the game. But you shouldn't need dlc to make the game enjoyable. I am really disappointed that a 'modern' AAA title can't hold a flame to the game it was originally trying to 1-up that being sc4.