The Cities Skylines 2 photo mode and cinematic camera are beautiful. In the wake of so many updates on the Colossal Order and Paradox city-building game, including roads, services, traffic, and the economy, changes to the camera may feel less significant – but don’t be fooled. As the Cities Skylines 2 release date approaches, the CS2 photo mode and cinematic camera are doing exactly what we wanted, taking some of the best features from Cities Skylines mods and putting them into the base version of the sequel. We’re getting close now to the actual launch of Cities Skylines 2, and it seems like everything for which we’ve been hoping.
You’ve got your PC humming along with the full Cities Skylines 2 system requirements. You’ve slowly cultivated one of the most impressive and expansive Cities Skylines 2 maps. Now, naturally, you want to show it all off. But although the free camera mode from Cities Skylines was helpful, it didn’t have the huge range of functionality to really capture your creations’ beauty. That’s all just changed.
First off, the camera has two modes: cinematic and free camera. The free camera is your standard photo mode, whereby you can move anywhere within your city and grab a few stills. Cinematic is where Cities Skylines 2 really comes into its own. Here, you can make all kinds of adjustments, changing the lens type, the shutter speed, and the focal length. You can fine-tune visual effects like motion blur, vignetting, grain, and contrast – there are dozens, and all are available from one menu in the base version of CS2.
And it doesn’t stop there. Say it’s autumn, and your city is beset with some glum, seasonal rain. You don’t want that in your album, but you also don’t want to wait until spring rolls around. So, in the Cities Skylines 2 photo mode, you can completely customize the weather, environment, and type of day. Make it shine. Make it dark. Drop a storm in there, an aurora, a load of fog. You can doll up your city any way you like.
After that, there’s video mode. Videos in Cities Skylines 2 can be constructed and edited from within the game itself. Set up a camera, capture some footage, and then hit pause. You can now set up a new camera position, or even rotate or pan your existing camera, and resume filming from a whole new angle.
CS2 even lets you alter the speed of your city, so if you want to create a Philip Glass, Koyaanisqatsi-style montage, you can do that. And here’s a nice plot twist – all of the Cities Skylines 2 videos that we’ve seen so far have been created using these new in-game tools. Clearly, they’re very good.
If you want more Cities Skylines 2, check out our exclusive interview with Colossal Order on how it is trying to balance all of the game’s many systems. Alternatively, take a look at some of the other best management games on PC.