Games like Cities in Motion 2

The Squirrel's verdictBoth let you build road, rail, and transit networks to move people through a growing city, but Skylines wraps that inside full zoning, budget, and service management rather than treating transit as the whole game. Reviewers confirm strong mass-transit tools and heavy DLC support; expect a broader city-builder, not a transit-only sim.

Not for you if you want transit-network design as the core focus rather than one system inside full zoning, services, and budget management.

The Squirrel's verdictTransport Fever 2 spans trains, planes, ships, and road vehicles across multi-region maps covering both passenger and cargo delivery, with terrain sculpting and track-laying as central tools. Median playtime runs close to 88 hours. Reviewers with 1,000-plus hours praise the sandbox depth; others raise concern over Paradox's role as publisher and the direction of post-release DLC.

Not for you if you want city-life simulation rather than cross-regional logistics, or publisher-driven DLC pricing is a dealbreaker for you.

The Squirrel's verdictTransport Fever keeps the timetable-and-route planning core of Cities in Motion 2 but expands scope from single-city passenger networks to cross-region cargo and passenger lines feeding town growth. Building rail, road, water, and air routes replaces micromanaging one city's transit; the interface still won't hold your hand, and the world's economy stays largely static once set.

Not for you if you want a lively simulated city population rather than a route-and-cargo logistics puzzle set across a static world economy

The Squirrel's verdictInfraSpace is a colony builder set on an alien planet where the main challenge is designing production chains — extracting resources, processing them through factory tiers, and routing vehicles to meet colonist needs. Infinite resource patches remove scarcity pressure, shifting the puzzle toward layout and throughput optimization. Median playtime is around 29 hours; some reviews flag that active development has slowed.

Not for you if you want passenger transit systems or a living city simulation rather than factory logistics and production-chain management.

The Squirrel's verdictCo-op network design across a broad logistics scale sets Worldwide Rush apart from single-player city-transit games. Players jointly build and optimize routes serving multiple regions rather than a single city's street grid. Released in 2025 with a Mostly Positive rating at 79.3%, it suits players who want collaborative route-planning. Reviewers flag that passenger routing ignores direct paths and that demand data requires navigating several menus.

Not for you if you need passenger AI to choose logical routes, since multiple reviews describe vehicles taking indirect paths regardless of network layout.

The Squirrel's verdictProduction chains — mining, manufacturing, and supply logistics — replace transit networks as the central planning challenge in Highrise City. Where Cities in Motion 2 asks you to move passengers efficiently, Highrise City asks you to move goods so citizen needs stay met. Reviews compare the depth to Anno applied to a modern city setting, with median play around 22 hours. Frequent crashes remain a reported concern.

Not for you if you want transit routing and timetable management specifically, or you can't tolerate frequent crashes disrupting longer sessions.

The Squirrel's verdictCitystate II centers on macroeconomics and politics rather than transit networks: sliders govern immigration rates, inflation, and public debt, with zoning and public services as secondary tools. Players who liked optimizing interconnected systems in Cities in Motion 2 will find the same analytical approach here, applied to a city's fiscal and political balance. Reviews note a Mostly Positive rating at 73.6% alongside reported crashes and a broken autosave.

Not for you if you want infrastructure design as the main loop, or you need reliable autosave and a stable late-game experience.