Is Millennia worth getting on sale?

[KayAU]

There is a Steam sale, and Millennia is part of it. I am pondering whether it's worth getting for me. I remember liking elements of the demo, like the production chains and national spirits. However, other parts of the game seemed very barebones: the map looked bland, nations had nothing to distinguish them other than their names and flags, and combat seemed primitive. I was surprised when the game was released shortly after the demo, because it seemed unfinished to me.

Now some time has passed, the game has been expanded and improved, but I'm wondering how much, and in which areas. I am also wary that recent reviews on Steam are worse than all time reviews. Are there any active players here who could give me an opinion? These days I am mostly playing Ara, which I like quite a bit. There are some similarities, like the production chains, which I enjoy.

Also, if I were to get the game, should I get the DLC as well?

 

[Thormodr]

I wasn't super impressed with Millennia, to be honest. Some interesting ideas, certainly, but all in all just not that fun for me personally. However, I haven't played it since shortly after it came out so I may have to revisit it in the near future to see if it has gotten better.

Civ VI, Ara, Victoria 3 and Old World have my attention currently. Also eagerly anticipating EU5, which looks excellent. So many games, so little time.

 

[KayAU]

Thanks for your input. Maybe I'll give it a chance anyway, as I generally am in favor of more competition in the genre, but it's concerning that no-one really wants to pitch the game.

I have another 4.5 hours to decide.

 

[Lazy sweeper]

There is a Steam sale, and Millennia is part of it. I am pondering whether it's worth getting for me. I remember liking elements of the demo, like the production chains and national spirits. However, other parts of the game seemed very barebones: the map looked bland, nations had nothing to distinguish them other than their names and flags, and combat seemed primitive. I was surprised when the game was released shortly after the demo, because it seemed unfinished to me.

Now some time has passed, the game has been expanded and improved, but I'm wondering how much, and in which areas. I am also wary that recent reviews on Steam are worse than all time reviews. Are there any active players here who could give me an opinion? These days I am mostly playing Ara, which I like quite a bit. There are some similarities, like the production chains, which I enjoy.

Also, if I were to get the game, should I get the DLC as well?

I tried Ara, and it was playable, but a mess. Try it if you can, then get a refund if you don't like it.
I also got Humankind completely for free on Epic, it's now back to 9 eur.
I played yesterday some 200 turns and it has been a little fun, untill some barbarian Mongols decided to raze all my cities...

 

[KayAU]

I tried Ara, and it was playable, but a mess. Try it if you can, then get a refund if you don't like it.
I also got Humankind completely for free on Epic, it's now back to 9 eur.
I played yesterday some 200 turns and it has been a little fun, untill some barbarian Mongols decided to raze all my cities...

I was asking about Millennia.

I have both Ara and Humankind. Ara I quite like, Humankind I have mixed feelings about. There are some things I enjoy about it, but something about how it flows, especially towards the end when the urban sprawl covers most of the map, just doesn't work for me. It's a game I like to play for a single playthrough from time to time, but I don't really feel compelled to do another playthrough after.

Anyway, I did end up buying Millennia, but haven't played it yet. In part I bought it out of curiosity, in part I bought it to support new Civ-style 4X games, as I think there is a need for more competition.

 

[Chiyo]

I have played some Millenia but did not really like it. My main points were that there are no leaders so the opponents feel pretty bland and that if you found new cities they start as vassels meaning you only really control your capital and from time to time can add a vassel as a city but it means that development moves slowly. I have finished one game where I managed the early victory but have never seen the latter stages of the game. Of the new Civ like 4x games since the release of Humankind only ARA had me returning for further playthroughs. I wished they would improve diplomacy, then it could become a long term game for me.

 

[ariosto]

I did like the Millenia. It has a lot of negatives - bad UI, bad encyclopedia, almost nonexistent diplomacy, imperfect balance so I would call it very unpolished. With that being said, the age system is very fun, the empire development full of actually meaningful choices, production chains are cool and I DO like the national spirits system. So despite bad UI and all of that once I started the game I couldn't get away from it.

I think because of the production chains and bad diplomacy this game is more like Sid Meyer's Colonization, but with ancient to future timespan

 

[kent77]

It has some issues (balance and UI) but it also has some real strengths and innovations that make it a lot of fun. I still hope it will be resurrected for further development (probably a naive hope) or redone by a new team. What I loved is that effectively every player starts with a blank slate civilization that they can choose to specialize in layers though the national spirits. The spirits interact with the variant ages to change the best way to play multiple times through a playthrough—so lots of interesting choices and replayability. I wish they’d marketed it differently to make clear what it was about (a kind of evolve-your-civ sandpit, starting from the same initial seed each time).