Civ 4 Vs Civ 5 Vs Expectations for 6

[Omincron]

Hi All,

I have played for Civ for years (more than most probably).

I have now played 5 enough to be comfortable with it but I am still not sure if it was a better "Civ" experience than 4 (Based on game expectations developed in 2 & 3).

That said, I acknowledge that many improvements were made between 4 and 5 and that overall, 5 is probably a better "game" than 4.

For reference, I am comparing each version as it was at time of completion (with all expansions).

If there is a thread that already talks about this I would be happy if someone could point to it as I could not find it.

If not, I would like to hear your opinions, after having a similarly long time with each, of what was lost and what was gained.

I want to love 5 like I did 4 but I find that no matter what, I just kind of like it as a friend.

Why?

 

[poom3619]

Comparing nebulous expectation to a past civ game will probably favor toward the expectation until we actually get to play the game.

At least, I see every suggestion in Reddit call itself "Civ VI Idea"

 

[rastak]

I liked 4 but not as much as 3 overall. It was a good game but 5 for me was the most fun I've had since Civ 1.

I expect I'll really like 6 as Ed Beach is a very good game designer all the way back to his board game "Here We Stand" days.

 

[Shafi-is-back]

For me the fun in playing the game was being able to build large empires either peacefully or through conquest, playing with 4 cities just ... well just doesnt make you feel like you are ruling an empire.

So for me 4 was better than 5, but having said that i still put in about 1200 hours in to 5.

I think i like the changes coming into this game and something new is always nice, no matter how good a game is you do tend to get bored with it, and once people figure out the optimum way of playing it, kind of gets stale.

SO im definitely looking forward to something new.

 

[Aquila SPQR]

I liked Civ III but it had the annoying corruption mechanic (I think that's how it was called). Civ IV was perfect - I play it to this day. I had also a very high expectations for Civ V, but... it was not it. Game had very cool changes (hexes, 1 upt, units using resources) but also absolutely outrageous ones (global happiness). And I think that mostly this global happiness killed it for me - for me it's an extremely dumb idea.

That's why I have no high expactations for Civ VI, I fear Civilization will face the same downfall like many other games I loved - Total War (Medieval II is still the best one in my opinion) or SimCity (2013's edition fail is famous). I'm sure their devs were also certain that "new features" are awesome, and good marketing and nice graphics conviced many that it'll be great. But... it was not it anymore in my opinion.

And I'm not looking for something new. I'm looking for something good. New isn't always good or better.

 

[ddd123]

Tbh the expectation from 4 to 5 and for the 6 are nearly the same, and even the revealed gameplay mechanics are good in both cases.
Civ 4 was a great game but stack of dooms made it unplayable when i heard of 1upt i was super happy and nothing else mattered cause they fixed the biggest flaw of civ4.
Now it is different cause civ 5 with expansions doesnt have big flaws but apparently they fixing many small things and also not cutting features like that did in civ 5 vanilla.

Now what will make or break the game as usual will be multiplayer if its gonna be finally a playable online game ok otherwise it will be another fail like civ 5.

 

[Cristoval]

Civ 4 was a great game but stack of dooms made it unplayable

I wouldn't say unplayable, SoDs were in every iteration of civ until civ 5. I will never understand the hate for SoD and the preference for CoDs since they are more cumbersome to micromanage, and gives us an AI that is heavily handicapped when it comes to actual combat.

 

[JtW]

I didn't play 4 until after all the expansions (I used to play Civ2 instead even after Civ4 was there) so I compared 5 to the full 4 experience. I was very hyped for Civ5 before it came out, and I enjoyed the new features but I am still unhappy about it not being all that moddable - as evidenced by a relative lack of overhaul mods.

I was also very unimpressed by the AI.

I am cautiously optimistic for 6 - although I am a little worried the AI will still suck and the modding will still be crippled.

The thing I am the most excited for is the culture "tech tree." It is something I'd wanted for years - I first thought about it back in the days of Civ4 or maybe even earlier. So I'm glad it's finally a thing.