Platforms: PCs Running Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
Release Date: October 21, 2016 (Windows Only)
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Predictably, the stars of the show in Civilization VI are the civilizations themselves.
While Civilization VI won’t have the sheer number of civilizations that Civilization V had by the end of its run, the civilizations it will have will be highly differentiated, all leading to very different bonuses during a game, and very different styles of play. Playing as two different civilizations will always lead to very different games each time because of the variance in play styles that each civilization will favor.
The civilizations that have been confirmed for Civilization VI so far are:
- America
- Arabia
- Aztec
- Brazil
- China
- Egypt
- England
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- India
- Japan
- Kongo
- Norway
- Rome
- Russia
- Scyth
- Spain
- Sumeria
Watch these videos for all the first looks at the Civs available!
Civilization 6 continues to complete rethinking of the various conventions of the Civilization series that began with Civilization 5. While fans of the series, and especially of Civilization 5, will ultimately find themselves to be at home with Civilization 6, there’s a whole lot new going on here that will probably take you a fair bit to come to terms with:
- Civilization 6features the ‘unstacking of the cities. No longer are cities developed exclusively in one tile- instead, players must pick and choose specific hexes around the city as ‘districts’ of certain kinds. Picking a district favors some improvements, and discourages others (for instance, making a commercial district may be great for wealth generation, but will do a number on farming and agriculture). This introduces a new layer of city simulation and management metagame to Civilization, as you now have to manage the growth of your individual cities to go along with the rest of the game’s intricacy.
- Rebalancing the game to make social and cultural victories more viable. While Civilization 5 made great strides towards this with the introduction of Tourism, a separate upgrade tree the Civics tree, has been introduced to Civilization 6- this includes cultural improvements, such as Drama and Philosophy, which were previously a part of the Tech tree, but now belong to it. Unlocks are made on the Civics tree by using Culture generated from cities. Completing certain Civics will then unlock policies towards the civilization's government. The government is decided by placing earned ‘policy cards’ into slots divided between Military, Economic, Diplomatic, and Wildcard categories, all of which decides the direction your government will take.
- Inter religious conflicts are now a thing in Civilization VI.
- Research has been improved to reflect the improvements built in cities. For instance, having an observatory will lead to quicker research for astronomy, while having access to a quarry will lead to quicker masonry.
- AI Agendas help keep the AI consistent, and yet unpredictable. Each AI player gets one visible agenda trait, consistent with how they were in real life, as well as one random trait that is generated at the start of each game, and is kept hidden from the player at first. Cumulatively, this should lead to AI that is consistent, and yet harder to outsmart, especially on higher difficulties.
That’s not all, either! A whole lot of features are returning from Civilization IV and older games in the series, that were excised in Civilization V. These, coupled with the improvements that Civ V made, should all make for the ultimate Civilization experience.
- Happiness is now local to each city instead of being local. Not only does this encourage expansionist play for players who like that style (since they will no longer be penalized for founding new cities), but in trying to keep each city happy, adds further to the city sim element of the game.
- There will be multiple leaders per civilizations- or at least for some of them.
- Unit stacking is back! At least in a limited form, at any rate. While making military stacks of doom, or indeed, military stacks of any kind, is still not viable, players now can stack, say, a worker unit and a warrior unit, to ensure the worker is protected by the warrior (similar to how a worker can garrison in a city during times of attack)
The general mechanics of Civilization all stand in Civilization VI- you are still making your own empire, starting from the early, ancient, prehistorical ages, and developing your empire through all the ages of history, and into modernity and beyond. As always, multiple victory paths will be available to the player, including military (by conquest), cultural (social victory), scientific (technological victory), and diplomatic (political victory). Players will be forced to deal with all the nuances of society - from population to disease, education to politics, science, religion, culture, trade, economy, diplomacy, and more - as they navigate their civilization to victory in the ultimate turn based strategy game.
That’s not all, either! A whole lot of features are returning from Civilization IV and older games in the series, that were excised in Civilization V. These, coupled with the improvements that Civ V made, should all make for the ultimate Civilization experience.
- Happiness is now local to each city instead of being local. Not only does this encourage expansionist play for players who like that style (since they will no longer be penalized for founding new cities), but in trying to keep each city happy, adds further to the city sim element of the game.
- There will be multiple leaders per civilizations- or at least for some of them.
- Unit stacking is back! At least in a limited form, at any rate. While making military stacks of doom, or indeed, military stacks of any kind, is still not viable, players now can stack, say, a worker unit and a warrior unit, to ensure the worker is protected by the warrior (similar to how a worker can garrison in a city during times of attack)
Current Metacritic: 92/100
Many thanks to the_master_race for keeping me posted on review scores.
Gamespot - 9/10
Civ 6 has a few rough edges, but they’re pushed far into the periphery by spectacular strategic depth and intricate interlocking nuances. Any frustrations I experienced were immediately eclipsed by my desire to continue playing. Just one more turn, every turn, forever.
PC Gamer - 93/100
Sight, sound, and systems harmonise to make Civilization 6 the liveliest, most engrossing, most rewarding, most challenging 4X in any corner of the earth.
Telegraph - 5/5
For such a complex and in depth game to feel so intuitive is impressive, but for such a game to remain fun, exciting and unpredictable after forty, sixty, one-hundred hours of play? That’s joyous.
PCGamesN - 9/10
It'll take a few balance patches and expansions before it achieves absolute perfection, but the list of wholesale changes Civ VI brings to the storied formula makes for an instantly sumptuous strategy treat.
GameCrate - 9/10
This is a deep, massive, complicated game in the best traditions of the franchise, and though it doesn't do everything right, it's likely that strategy fans are going to be very pleased with what they get with Civlization VI.
Trusted Reviews - 4.5/5
Log in to comment