Civilization VI Review

The series that cemented the 4X strategy formula continues to stand the test of time with a stellar entry that adds richness and depth in expected places.

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[Fillduck]

I hope that Sean Bean doesn't die in this game.

[Luqman]

been play civ since civ 3...still don't have a clue what I'm doing

[chaselenoel]

9's here, there, every fucking where

[benjieleshansky]

"Captured on PC"
No shit man

[DihStyle]

a lot of 9's lately, uh? i ain't rich man, chill

[VARIOUShorses]

Gee, Gamespot can't win. Go a while without a 9 or 10 and you'll be called negative or picky, give out a few in a row and it seems like you're too soft. No doubt if they were to give an even distribution they'd be called inconsistent.

I guess that's why I prefer to not leave a number at all, but I can't deny that numbers are a staple of reviews and critiques for a reason, they're awfully helpful as a summation of your point.

[wotan]

I find it strange that no one is mentioning the MASSIVE issues with AI, diplomacy and lategame balance right now. I'd say that the AI is straight up broken in its current state. I'm not sure if all the people who give these near perfect scores ever fought any proper wars or if they just ignore issues but right now the game is pretty far from a 9.

Here are just a few major issues:

1. I have seen an AI civ invade a city state with enough units to take it 5 times over and fail utterly because they did not attack the city itself but kept chasing some stray units while getting picked off by the city. They even had an catapult and a 2 guys with rams but none of them ever attacked the city.

2. The AI nations don't seem to know how to pillage. I once got invaded by Spain with 15 warriors while my army was away, they went through half my territory so they could attack this one small weak town i had, didn't pillage a single improvement along the way and got picked off and made to run away by the 2 archers and 1 warrior i had defending as they tried to take that one crappy town. I've been pillaged by barbarians, but even those have ran over a bunch of improvements without taking the free loot.

3. The diplomacy AI seems to be bugged to all shit because I have seen them take actions that should be straight up IMPOSSIBLE. For example, I've had one nation I had a friendship declaration with declare war on me, which is something that should not be possible according to the description and I certainly could not do so myself because the game straight up removes the options for all hostile actions while the declaration is in effect.

4. Lategame balance seems completely fucked when it comes to navy and air force. It seems that land units that turn into transport ships have full or even higher defense while at sea. I have seen one mechanized infantry unit survive attacks from 2 battleships and 2 destroyer fleets. Furthermore, carrier fleets still have the capacity of just a single carrier and bombers are a complete fucking joke because they do less damage to land units than fighters and barely even scratch cities.

5. Another mid/lategame issue is that the AI is slacking at troop upgrades despite having the gold to do so. I have seen enemies coming at me with anti tank troopers accompanied by the basic fucking warriors with stone clubs. This problem is made worse in midgame due to the absurd scarcity of strategic resources. I have played games where I owned half a continent on huge maps and still had only 1 source of iron and horses.

[GalacticAstroparticles]

Seems to me like it's just very minor improvements/changes since Civ 5, a game that came out more than 6 YEARS AGO, or even the "Gods and Kings" expansion that is more than 4 years old.
If this was any other franchise, it would be ripped apart for improving/changing so little after 6 years, but Civilization is SOOO like-able and sweet, you can't really fault it.

[robertreichle]

I like almost everything about it, but I still find myself not wanting to start it up very often already. The one thing that is bothering me about it is how SLOW everything feels. Units move slowly. Waiting for your next turn takes forever. The required attention to detail is good, but also seems to just add to the already slug-slow pace of the game. I've played over 2, 000 hours of Civ V, and I usually didn't complain about game pace until I approached the Industrial Age. This feeling of slowness is a big problem for me because even if I LOVE everything about the game, I'm still sitting there feeling like it's dragging me down instead of being as fun as it should be.

[DAFTnYOUNG]

Apart from the still ugly UI and unsurprisingly limited AI (understandable considering the amount of choices AIs have to make every turn for hundredth of turns), this is a massive improvement over Vanilla CIV V and a great one over CIV V + DLCs. I was afraid the Eureka system would tunnel players into completing the same mini "quests" with every new civilization, but it really feels like all the stuff they've added makes for a huge variety from one game to the next (at least when avoiding lower difficulty settings).

Those who expected more changes will probably keep being disappointed as Firaxis need to keep a balance deepening the gameplay and maintaining accessibility. I have played CIV 3 through 5 with all DLCs and CBP but this already feels like the biggest step in the learning curve I have seen in the series. Can't wait to see how it plays out in games and what future improvements and added features they can bring too.

[Nadhriq]

Civ 6: where God(s) smite thunderbolts for every religion equally.

[killer]

The biggest drawback from civ 5 is the lack of options one had in comparison to when civ 5 was first released. There is not even a earth map....

[madzmedia]

That little cutscene at the end was awesome.

[kingty]

I want this and battlefield so badly and now I know both of them are excellent games

[zthompson]

I've one two culture victories now, they're not that difficult. My first one was accidental, I was going for domination and accidentally triggered it after killing the second to last civ. The second one was intentional as I was playing as France and dominated with mid game wonders. Currently playing a game as Gorgo, it's 150 A.D. and I've more or less wiped out the Arabians. Gave them peace for a bit so I could get the cities rebuilt.

[steveszymanski]

5 was amazing... with the DLC. I bought Civ5 out of the gate and it was ok, but it really taught me to wait for the GOTY edition the next time I buy. Sure, it looks good now... but if I buy it in a year with the first expansion/DLC... it'll be great.

[StrideRunner]

Bf1, Civ6, Titanfall 2, Planet coaster, all must buys... Rwby and unbox also made my list

[Ganruut]

I like how he is casually driving his tank around dudes with slingshots and catapults without a mention....

[alexbarbatei]

Nice to see in a game castle peles at 5:40, a symbol of my contry

[RazvanRogozMarketing]

I'll be damn if I know who to believe. Half of the gamers on STEAM complain about the AI and lack of proper feedback mechanisms. Yet, 90% of all reviews on YouTube make it look like a masterpiece.