Albertan Civfanatic
Albertan Nationalist
I first started playing the Civilization franchise in 1997. My first exposure was to Civilization 1 and I quickly fell in love with the heavy strategic and historical character of the game. Up to that time, I had never role played as a major historical figure and advanced through the ages technologically and militarily like I did for Civ 1. Soon after, while still in high school, a friend gave me Civilization 2, and though I really appreciated the newer feel to the game, the main appeal was its World War 2 scenario, which I must have played at least 100 hours of. Then, around the end of high school, I bought and played Civilization: Call to Power. After I long hiatus, until 2010, I didnt play Civ anymore, but came back to Call to Power. I greatly enjoyed the game. Then, in 2011, I bought Civilization 5 and was greatly blown away by the changes in graphics, game mechanics, and just the overall largeness of the scope of the world compared to the earlier iterations of the game. I put over 1200 hours into Civ 5. Some of my happiest and most interesting hours of gaming were in Civ 5. The Brave New World DLC was amazing and to this day I feel that it is unmatched by any other DLC in the Civilization franchise, past and present. Civilization Beyond Earth seemed to me but a fancy reskin of Civ 5 and thus quickly went down into the ash heap of history.
When Civilization 6 was announced in early 2016, I was elated beyond belief. When I bought and first played Civ 6, I was thrilled with it, mostly because it was a new addition to the Civ franchise. However, my initial excitement quickly turned into a sense that Civ 6 was mediocre. It just didn’t have the right feel to it, especially compared to its much vaunted predecessor, Civ 5. Added to that, the new mechanics and cartoony graphics style of Civ 6 continued to militate against a natural enjoyment of the game. Basically, from October 2016 until the release of the Rise and Fall DLC in February 2018, I waffled in my attitude toward Civ 6 as an interesting iteration but not terribly compelling game. Rise and Fall certainly added new features that were very interesting, but for some reason I continued to view Civ 6 as a younger but boring brother to Civ 5, the older, more seasoned and interesting sibling.
Then came the brief, but explosive revelation in the summer of 2018, that a form of spyware called Red Shell had been included in Civ 6. As an individual that greatly values my online privacy and ethical treatment as a consumer, I was disgusted and felt betrayed by this action by Firaxis. This was the last straw, and consequently, I uninstalled Civ 6 and wrote a scathing, if fairly rational negative review of Civ 6. I went back to Civ 5 as my go to game in the Civ franchise, and it felt like being reunited with an old friend. After all, Civ 5 is an excellant game. After a few hours at the reunion, however, I started to miss the interesting features, if sometimes quirky behaviour, of my ex – girlfriend (ie Civ 6). Then came the announcement from Firaxis that Red Shell had been removed from Civ 6! This made me happy, if still upset that Firaxis would even include such a travesty to privacy, that I quickly re-installed the game. I have been playing it almost non-stop and am loving Civ 6 like never before.
I will now describe my new-found appreciation for Civ 6 and why I have changed my thumbs down recommendation to a thumbs up. Civ 6 simply feels newer, updated and more polished than Civ 5. It includes many of the best aspects of Civ 5, but polishes and perfects them, especially in the areas of religion, diplomacy, and culture/tourism. Well before the Rise and Fall DLC came out in early 2018, Firaxis devoted a considerable amount of time and energy to FREE updates that fixed and developed many crucial areas of the game. The religion system was nearly completely overhauled to a point where I would say the religion mechanic in Civ 6 is much better than in Civ 5. Diplomacy, rightly regarded as undeveloped and simplistic in previous iterations of Civ, has been completely overhauled. It is no under-statement to say that diplomacy in Civ 6 is at its best when compared to previous games. The overhauling of city management, mainly through the introduction of districts, was a controversial but I think great design choice. It has really altered how one approaches city management and I think adds to the overall strategic character of the game. The splitting of the tech/civic trees into two distinctive areas of research was a brilliant decision. This allows for a more advanced and deep sense of technological and political development than was possible before, even in Civ 5. The ability to choose your own government (later eras have a choice between democracy, fascism, and communism) is very immersive to the historically conscious player and is simply a fun and interesting mechanic. I would add to that although I was initially put off by the graphics style of Civ 6, I have really come to appreciate the depth of the level of detail and graphical improvement on the maps. The historical leaders are certainly far more interesting to look at and much more expressive (based on their diplomatic view of you) than in Civ 5. These are the main features that I enjoy in Civ 6. There are others, such as the little things like music, UI interaction sounds, and the trading screen, but I think this is a sufficient list.
Overall, I now can safely say that I genuinely love and appreciate playing Civ 6. It may even be Game of the Year for me personally. I really could not go back to Civ 5, because the direction that Civ 6 has taken the franchise is simply too well developed and polished for me to go back. Yes, the AI can be improved and some of the choices of historical leaders and civilizations are affected by an overdose of political correctness. But no game is ever perfect. I would have to give Civ 6 a solid 9/10 and recommend it.
When Civilization 6 was announced in early 2016, I was elated beyond belief. When I bought and first played Civ 6, I was thrilled with it, mostly because it was a new addition to the Civ franchise. However, my initial excitement quickly turned into a sense that Civ 6 was mediocre. It just didn’t have the right feel to it, especially compared to its much vaunted predecessor, Civ 5. Added to that, the new mechanics and cartoony graphics style of Civ 6 continued to militate against a natural enjoyment of the game. Basically, from October 2016 until the release of the Rise and Fall DLC in February 2018, I waffled in my attitude toward Civ 6 as an interesting iteration but not terribly compelling game. Rise and Fall certainly added new features that were very interesting, but for some reason I continued to view Civ 6 as a younger but boring brother to Civ 5, the older, more seasoned and interesting sibling.
Then came the brief, but explosive revelation in the summer of 2018, that a form of spyware called Red Shell had been included in Civ 6. As an individual that greatly values my online privacy and ethical treatment as a consumer, I was disgusted and felt betrayed by this action by Firaxis. This was the last straw, and consequently, I uninstalled Civ 6 and wrote a scathing, if fairly rational negative review of Civ 6. I went back to Civ 5 as my go to game in the Civ franchise, and it felt like being reunited with an old friend. After all, Civ 5 is an excellant game. After a few hours at the reunion, however, I started to miss the interesting features, if sometimes quirky behaviour, of my ex – girlfriend (ie Civ 6). Then came the announcement from Firaxis that Red Shell had been removed from Civ 6! This made me happy, if still upset that Firaxis would even include such a travesty to privacy, that I quickly re-installed the game. I have been playing it almost non-stop and am loving Civ 6 like never before.
I will now describe my new-found appreciation for Civ 6 and why I have changed my thumbs down recommendation to a thumbs up. Civ 6 simply feels newer, updated and more polished than Civ 5. It includes many of the best aspects of Civ 5, but polishes and perfects them, especially in the areas of religion, diplomacy, and culture/tourism. Well before the Rise and Fall DLC came out in early 2018, Firaxis devoted a considerable amount of time and energy to FREE updates that fixed and developed many crucial areas of the game. The religion system was nearly completely overhauled to a point where I would say the religion mechanic in Civ 6 is much better than in Civ 5. Diplomacy, rightly regarded as undeveloped and simplistic in previous iterations of Civ, has been completely overhauled. It is no under-statement to say that diplomacy in Civ 6 is at its best when compared to previous games. The overhauling of city management, mainly through the introduction of districts, was a controversial but I think great design choice. It has really altered how one approaches city management and I think adds to the overall strategic character of the game. The splitting of the tech/civic trees into two distinctive areas of research was a brilliant decision. This allows for a more advanced and deep sense of technological and political development than was possible before, even in Civ 5. The ability to choose your own government (later eras have a choice between democracy, fascism, and communism) is very immersive to the historically conscious player and is simply a fun and interesting mechanic. I would add to that although I was initially put off by the graphics style of Civ 6, I have really come to appreciate the depth of the level of detail and graphical improvement on the maps. The historical leaders are certainly far more interesting to look at and much more expressive (based on their diplomatic view of you) than in Civ 5. These are the main features that I enjoy in Civ 6. There are others, such as the little things like music, UI interaction sounds, and the trading screen, but I think this is a sufficient list.
Overall, I now can safely say that I genuinely love and appreciate playing Civ 6. It may even be Game of the Year for me personally. I really could not go back to Civ 5, because the direction that Civ 6 has taken the franchise is simply too well developed and polished for me to go back. Yes, the AI can be improved and some of the choices of historical leaders and civilizations are affected by an overdose of political correctness. But no game is ever perfect. I would have to give Civ 6 a solid 9/10 and recommend it.
