Players tasked with guiding civilisation through the millennia in new video game

PUTTING the player in charge of one of many historical civilisations, they are tasked with guiding said civilisation through the millennia.

AS the Zeus in the pantheon of deities making up the Four-X genre, the Sid Meier’s Civilization series has been the definitive incarnation of the style since it first appeared 25 years ago.

Putting the player in charge of one of many historical civilisations, they are tasked with guiding said civilisation through the millennia by founding cities, researching technologies, building units, exploring the world, fighting barbarians (and other civilisations) and then achieving victory by various means including taking over the world, becoming head of the UN, or successfully getting a rocket ship to another planet.

Developed by Firaxis and published by 2K Games on PC, Civilization VI is the latest iteration in the turn-based series and it’s an excellent game, with a host of changes and tweaks made to the formula which enhance the game noticeably.

The graphics have been brightened up and the world map now sports a delightfully “Age of Discovery”-esque theme, right down to drawings of mythical beasts on unexplored areas.

The biggest — and most significant — gameplay change is that cities now sprawl across the map instead of occupying a single tile as in previous iterations. Districts such as a theatres, university campuses, holy sites, neighbourhoods and aerodromes can be constructed, adding different functionality to cities, but at the cost of taking up a tile space.

This means careful consideration needs to go into planning each city — they can’t be all things anymore, which changes the gameplay in an important but positive way.

Government can also now be customised via a series of “Civics” researched in a parallel tech tree, religion and espionage mechanics are in the game out of the box too, and military units can now be combined to make armies.

The game that puts the weight of the world on your shoulder.

Narration is also provided by Sean Bean, best known for being the titular character in the TV series Sharpe and also being in some other popular TV show with dragons and naked people and gratuitous violence.

Also, Wonders of the World — impressive engineering projects with significant benefits — now come with a form of animation on completion again — a nice touch sorely missed from the previous game.

Despite my long-time love for the series, I’ve encountered a handful of issues with Civilization VI — nothing game breaking, but still present nonetheless.

Firstly, at time of writing you can’t rename your cities. A patch to rectify this was in the works, but frankly it’s such a trivial thing to include it’s astounding it wasn’t available in the released game, especially as it’s been present in every other game in the series.

Secondly, while the Civilization series AI has never been in the running for passing a Turing test, I’ve encountered some issues with Civilization VI’s AI behaving inconsistently — for example, denouncing my civilisation for sending missionaries into its lands despite the fact my civilisation doesn’t have any missionaries, or declaring war on my globe-spanning empire after centuries of friendship because I have more Wonders of the World than them.

This random oddness isn’t unexpected for Civilization veterans — in some ways the unpredictability is good for keeping players on their toes — but logic would still dictate that a tiny civilisation with three cities and a technology level not much further past cave-painting shouldn’t go about declaring war on an empire with 20 cities and access to atomic weapons. Yet they do.

This is a very complex game and not all of the features are immediately intuitive, either. Sure, it’s nowhere near as complex as some of the Grand Strategy games released by Paradox Interactive — I’m pretty sure the hours I’ve put into Victoria II probably count as RPL for a postgraduate degree in something to do with 19th Century colonialism — but I can see a complete Civilization newcomer being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to keep track of in Civilization VI.

Having said all that, Civilization VI really is very good; it’s by far and away the best Civilization game to date — building on the changes in its predecessor yet still bringing something new to the table; no mean feat considering the series is old enough to have car insurance which doesn’t cost more than the vehicle it covers.

What impresses me about Civilization VI is the depth. This is a serious, meaty game you can really get stuck into for a very long period of time.

Just one more click and then I will go to bed.

The AI has its own agendas and goals — for example, one leader likes peaceful civilisations, another dislikes civilisations with small militaries, a third respects strong espionage networks — which creates for some interesting game dynamics. The game even has a multiplayer mode, which offers a completely different set of challenges on account of your opponents being other people.

City states — effectively single-city civilisations which don’t compete for dominance on the world stage — also make a reappearance, although how much impact they have will depend on your playstyle and whether you can be bothered trying to keep them in your sphere of influence or not.

As always, there’s also a variety of playstyles catered to in the game. Want to play a warmongering imperialist who crushes their enemies under the feet of their unstoppable armies? That’s doable. Want to play a technology-focused civilisation who will be laughing all the way into space while the remaining civilisations squabble over the few remaining available resources? Go right ahead. Want to build a trade empire that amasses so much gold it causes a small shift in the planet’s axis? Have fun!

Civilisation VI’s endgame has been noticeably strengthened too. Instead of becoming a slog from the point it’s obvious you’re going to win to that moment when your spaceship blasts off to establish an off-world colony or your Secretary-Generalship of the United Nations is approved, there’s plenty to keep you occupied — resources to acquire (and fight over), new mechanics to explore and different ways to tweak your civics to get the most out of your government.

I’ve found my time with Civilization VI to be rewarding, engaging, satisfying and a lot of fun. The “just one more turn” element continues unabated and I think the game is rightly destined to become a key part of any strategy enthusiast’s games library.

If you liked Civilization V, there’s more than enough that’s new and different here to justify getting the new game. If you haven’t played any of the series before, this is the place to start.

Just clear your schedule before you start playing. You’ll be busy for a while.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @RoyceWilsonAU

Originally published as Players tasked with guiding civilisation through the millennia in new video game