I played SimCity 2000 off of GOG a few months ago (around when I was also playing City Skylines). A few things:
1. SimCity2000 has much higher relative costs for infrastructure. Roads, Police, Firefighters, etc. etc. cost lots of recurring money, to the point where a typical player even on $20,000 "Easy" mode will probably fail the first few times they play. I've never run out of money on City Skylines, literally never. But even with all my experience on SimCity 2000, I can "fail to bootstrap" on medium ($10,000) or hard (Bonds/Debt) mode. (Especially if an unlucky early game fire disaster happens). In contrast, the recurring costs in Skylines is so puny that I forget about that aspect entirely.
2. Disasters in Sim City 2000 force you to rebuild occasionally. Or at least, carefully consider the placement of your items. (Ex: low-lands may flood, getting destroyed. Airplanes may crash, causing fires near airports). Despite being a pain in the ass, the chaos of disasters grossly changes the feel.
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Ultimately, Skylines has more similarities to Rollercoaster Tycoon and/or Tropico than SimCity. Skylines simulates every individual sim (with HEAVY emphasis on traffic). The emergent behavior of each individual sim following simple rules is a particular style of gameplay.
However, SimCity was more of a abstract economic simulator, where larger decisions had more pronounced effects. Opening commercial roads to neighbors would create trade between cities. Airports and/or seaports need to be managed with your neighbors. This style of gameplay: a "big picture" city simulator, ultimately plays extremely differently than City Skylines.
In City Skylines: building an airport or seaport causes a traffic spike that you need to manage. In SimCity, building an airport or seaport causes an increase in commercial demand and/or industrial demand. Its just fundamentally different.
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Really: its just that one thing: Skylines's infrastructure costs are laughably low. There's no worry about ever running out of money... no matter what you build, you're always flush with cash.
In SimCity, you'd worry whether or not you've saved up enough cash to bootstrap a new section of your city. In Skylines, you just build it, and if it doesn't work (unforeseen traffic issues or whatnot), delete it and build it again.
1. SimCity2000 has much higher relative costs for infrastructure. Roads, Police, Firefighters, etc. etc. cost lots of recurring money, to the point where a typical player even on $20,000 "Easy" mode will probably fail the first few times they play. I've never run out of money on City Skylines, literally never. But even with all my experience on SimCity 2000, I can "fail to bootstrap" on medium ($10,000) or hard (Bonds/Debt) mode. (Especially if an unlucky early game fire disaster happens). In contrast, the recurring costs in Skylines is so puny that I forget about that aspect entirely.
2. Disasters in Sim City 2000 force you to rebuild occasionally. Or at least, carefully consider the placement of your items. (Ex: low-lands may flood, getting destroyed. Airplanes may crash, causing fires near airports). Despite being a pain in the ass, the chaos of disasters grossly changes the feel.
------------
Ultimately, Skylines has more similarities to Rollercoaster Tycoon and/or Tropico than SimCity. Skylines simulates every individual sim (with HEAVY emphasis on traffic). The emergent behavior of each individual sim following simple rules is a particular style of gameplay.
However, SimCity was more of a abstract economic simulator, where larger decisions had more pronounced effects. Opening commercial roads to neighbors would create trade between cities. Airports and/or seaports need to be managed with your neighbors. This style of gameplay: a "big picture" city simulator, ultimately plays extremely differently than City Skylines.
In City Skylines: building an airport or seaport causes a traffic spike that you need to manage. In SimCity, building an airport or seaport causes an increase in commercial demand and/or industrial demand. Its just fundamentally different.
--------
Really: its just that one thing: Skylines's infrastructure costs are laughably low. There's no worry about ever running out of money... no matter what you build, you're always flush with cash.
In SimCity, you'd worry whether or not you've saved up enough cash to bootstrap a new section of your city. In Skylines, you just build it, and if it doesn't work (unforeseen traffic issues or whatnot), delete it and build it again.