Categories: Reviews

Review: Civilization VI is the best in it’s class, maybe even best in all classes

Verdict

Civilization VI is an improvement in almost every single way and by far the most complete launch game in the genre. Civilization V needed a whole expansion just for religion, here it comes with the base game and with a victory condition for it. Everything from how buildings and districts work, to spying, and to how the AI has been improved really makes Civilization VI an amazing game and one of my personal favorites of all time. Everything feels more natural in Civilization VI.

Though there are some minor issues and exploits which can impact multiplayer games but those will likely be patched out soon, but just the fact that multiplayer games worked at launch is a big plus for Civilization VI, Civilization V had some big issues with multiplayer for quite some time.

If this review was about everything that is new or improved in Civilization VI it would probably become a lengthy novel, there are just so many new things to explore and experience. Civilization VI truly is a great game and both long-time fans of the franchise and newcomer will enjoy it for hours upon hours, guided by the soothing voices of Sean Bean and Natasha Loring.

Civilization VI has much to offer for a long time to come and is the best in the genre, maybe even outright the best game this year.

Great people and spies

Civilization VI also improves and changes how both spies and great people work, bringing further depth and immersion to this already amazing game.

Great People are still earned with great people points from certain buildings and wonders but now players can also get those points from Civics cards. But that is not the biggest change, the biggest change is how they are used.

Now great people have to be recruited and they are all unique and have their own effects. Instead of Great Scientists providing a certain number science they now have individual effects. Charles Darwin, for example, gives 500 science per natural wonder he is adjacent to while Dimitri Mendeleev provides a Eureka for chemistry and one other random technology from the Industrial era. Other great people like the Writers and Artists now have more uses, providing more than just one work of art. They can also be outright bought with either gold or faith, giving players another battlefield to fight on and providing more tactical gameplay than in the past.

Spies and spying have also been improved. Firaxis took the concept they implemented in Civilization: Beyond Earth and polished it before putting it in in Civilization VI. Instead of just magically getting a spy and then him getting replaced a few turns after he gets killed they must now be built like any other unit then player have to send it to any of the previously discovered cities. When the spy arrives players gets to pick missions for him, similar to Beyond Earth by more polished. If the city has a Campus district (science) spies can destroy libraries or universities, lowering the enemy’s science output and forcing him to spend turns repairing it. Spies can also destroy parts of the space ship, steal gold, or works of art, things that can hit the targeted enemy really hard. Instead of just gathering intelligence or stealing tech the spy now feels more alive. Once a mission is completed players also get to pick an escape route, each with its own pros and cons. Spies also don’t immediately get executed upon discovery, players can use them as bargaining chips in trade since building them would cost precious turns.

Another interesting mechanic is that spies no longer are the only reliable way of getting information from the world, now traders can set up trade posts in cities players trade with and report the news back home, like if the Civ they are in is building a certain building or wonder, trades with someone else, or is building up an army. Depending on the era players “reporters” or “Lady in Waiting” hears news or gossip from around the world, sharing what is going on even with Civs players have not officially met, making the game much more dynamic and alive.

AI and combat

Just like in any good sequel the AI has been improved quite a bit, it feels more unique and has a more proper historical characteristics thanks to Civ specific "agendas". Previous games might have had customized AI for each Civ due to their unique units and Civ traits but in Civilization VI each and every Civ has two agendas, one of which are Civ unique. Each game of Civilization VI feels fresh and new since one agenda is fixed and one is hidden. For example, Egypt always has an agenda which likes Civs with a high military score and will try and become allies with them but dislikes Civs with weak military score, then Egypt randomly gets one of 23 neutral agendas like sympathizing with barbarians while hating those who killed them or get a agenda which focuses on Culture while hating on Civs who does not focus on Culture. This makes each new singleplayer game feel unique.

The new agenda system also makes AI controlled Civs less erratic than in the past since players can read the AI a bit better. That being said, the AI will still randomly backstab the player after being super best friends the turn before while the rest of the AI world does not care at all. But if the player goes to war, even with Casus Belli (a new system of going to war without getting too high a warmongering penalty), every AI turns against the player. Though that usually does not matter too much on any difficulty bellow King.

Something that has also gotten a much-needed facelift is the combat system. Civilization VI comes with a lot of new units as well as unit types making the combat less of a rock, paper, scissors fight. The new units will also make players for once feel a difference between units from different eras and Civilization VI is better at bridging the gaps between units than before. The biggest change to combat is the “support” units like the battering ram, siege towers, or the observation balloon. Such units can be stacked on regular combat units so for example, battering rams can’t attack by themselves but they can be linked to melee units and when they attack a city the attacking unit does full damage to the city walls. Siege towers negate the walls altogether when a linked unit attacks, and observation balloons gives bombards extra vision range. The addition of support units brings combat to a whole new level and makes the otherwise early game much more intense.

To make war a little bit more painful there is the new “war weariness” system. Basically, going to war slowly reduced players’ amenities which slows down science, production, and lower happiness which in turn spawns barbarians. It is a vicious cycle that does not work to one hundred percent but it is still a good way to indicate that the civilians actually don’t enjoy war that much.

Also, watch out for barbarians this time around, they send out scouts and when they report back to their barbarian camp you will be in trouble. The barbarians are not just annoying in Civilization VI, they will mess you up and if you’re unlucky it can ruin your whole game. These barbarians on steroids are yet another reason to build and try out all the new units before trying them out on neighboring Civs.

Platforms: PC, Windows (reviewed on), iOS

Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Price: $59.99

Introduction

The Civilization games have always held a high standard and been regarded as a quality franchise amongst the strategy games community, but the latest installment holds an even higher standard than fans of the franchise are used to. Civilization VI might even be the best Civilization at launch ever!

Civilization VI is new yet familiar, it is the classic build a city > build buildings > trade > get confused about why the AI goes to war with you when you did nothing wrong > build units-> go to war > win formula. It may sound like Civilization VI is just a re-skinned version of the previous games in the franchise but it is not, it is improved in so many ways, both big and small.

Civilization VI is a great game for longtime fans of the franchise but it also manages to let new players feel welcome as well.

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Like coming home, but it's new and improved

People who expect a new story with a captivating narrative that builds on the earlier games have come to the wrong place. Civilization VI improves on almost  everything, if not everything.

One of the worries I had before the launch of Civilization VI was how they were going to improve the tech tree and what building and units they would add to the game, how were they going to make it feel fresh, you can’t really get "new" technologies or flip around where you get them, it's based on history after all.

This is something Firaxis improved in ways which feel logical but were never thought about before and one of the ways they do it is with the “Eureka”, or boost, system. Doing certain actions boosts certain technologies, like settling on the sea boosts sailing, this makes it feel like your civilization can actually think a bit for themselves like “hmm, it would be sweet if we were able to go out on the water we live next to, maybe we should try something”. These Eurkekas also cuts the research time in half making boosting vital for success. There have also been several additions to the tech tree to bridge the gaps or some have replaced others.

The tech tree is not the only thing that Firaxis improved, they also changed around how culture works. Now culture gets the same treatment as technology and players have to pick the next culture “technology”, Civic, they want. When a new civic has been discovered players also have to pick if they want these new civics to be a part of their government, something which has been re-introduced in Civilization VI. Once a new civic policy has been discovered players gets a new policy card and they have to choose whether or not they want to spend it on one of their limited Military-, Economic-, Diplomatic-, or Wildcard card slots, giving further depth to the game.

The technology- and civics tree are both entwined making it harder to only focusing on science or culture, forcing players to broaden their game more than in Civilization V. Units like the Privateer is locked in the civics tree, things like Drama and Poetry used to be in the science tree in Civilization V but in Civilization VI it  has been made into a civic, and Eurekas for respective tree at times come from doing something from the other tree, making for a more tactical gameplay experience.

Be strict with your district

Another big change to Civilization VI is the district feature. Earlier players could build practically everything they wanted and the restrictions on building buildings were few. Earlier players just built everything in the city center and wonders were just placed randomly around the city they were built in, now players have to think carefully what they want their city to specialize in because the number of districts players can build are limited to their population and districts take up a tile of their own.

As if forcing players to pick what district they want to build while waiting to reach the next population milestone wasn’t hard enough, players also have to think carefully about where to put them, districts also both gets and provides adjacency bonuses. Should you put the Theatre Square (cultural district) down where you get three more extra culture per turn but it removes a resource? Or should you put down the Industrial Zone on that tile where it gets 2 extra production, but it provides 3 adjacency bonuses or should you put it down further away where it gives you five extra production but no adjacency bonuses? A lot of thought needs to go into the placement of districts and the decision on which one to build, adding yet another layer to this already amazing cake.

Wonders also take up a tile this time around making world wonders feel a bit more special while it also removes the wonder rushing that Civilization V had a lot of. Now wonders don’t give players anything if they fail to complete them in time and they all have their own criteria that need to be fulfilled before they can be placed, making wonders much more high risk; high reward.

Some wonders are rather straightforward, the Oracle, for example, needs to be placed on a hills tile while other wonders like the Great Zimbabwe are a bit more complicated and must be built next to a Commercial Hub with a bank in it and also be placed next to cattle. This finally makes the wonders in Civilization feel a bit more realistic, they now take a whole tile and you can’t put the Pyramids in a marsh next to a rainforest anymore. But to reward players who manage to build a wonder they get a short animated movie of the building process, so that’s something .

Atle Williatham

i like games, i write about games. i also have a twitter in case anyone is interested @SweAtilaa

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Atle Williatham

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