What is Your Favourite Mainline Civ Game?

[tedhebert]

As I almost didn't play any of 3 and 4 for many different reasons linked to time available, interest in the game and raising my kids stuff, and that I spent close to 3800 hours on 6, I have to say winner is 6, then 2 for college memories and sheer impact of the game, then 5.

 

[TheGrayFox]

V but largely because of Vox Populi

If that mod pack didn't exist, I'd probably still give it to IV

 

[pokiehl]

I think 5 is my favorite overall. Definitely my favorite music is from 5, no contest. Terra Nova is so wonderful as are the civ themes.

 

[Ebon-Hawke-]

I grew up with 3 and 4 as a child, but mostly 4. And I'd say 4 is my favorite and still enjoyable. Played 5 and 6 throughout each of their launches and subsequent expansions and I leaned 5 over 6 for a good while as I wasn't a fan of the district gameplay. But I gotta be honest after Gathering Storm civ 5 is almost impossible for me to back to. Civ 6 just feels so much more complete, while civ 5 I'll get halfway through the game and just get bored. Something about just having cities but not doing much with them, I guess the districts grew on me eventually. I'll also say civ 6 on launch was better than civ 5 on launch, I remember playing 4 before each expansion came out but I don't remember how the vanilla was.

 

[Barbarian King]

Having played every game in the series since Civ II, Civ IV was and remains my favorite. It doesn't do everything right, and every Civ game has some aspect that I like more, but so many of its mechanics are exactly what I want in a 4X game that it is the gold standard by which I measure all others.

My overall ranking would be IV > VI > V > III > II.

 

[Patine]

Civ2, flat out! I still have my original CD-ROM's.

 

[Nikolai II]

Civ2 will always be the top dog for me. But it's old, and last few years I guess Civ6's QoL and new features have made it's the "best" for usual play. Civ2 I play yearly though.

 

[Aeon221]

4 or 5. 6 was definitely a major misstep in the franchise and I'm glad they're correcting appropriately. 3 also has a special place in my heart because the modding community for 3 was spectacular. It was easy to create units etc so people went wild and we got some cool stuff that ended up being expanded on in 4.

 

[Aeon221]

As a Civ-ish game tho, the Call To Power franchise was incredibly good fun and very goofy.

 

[Nikolai II]

As a Civ-ish game tho, the Call To Power franchise was incredibly good fun and very goofy.

CtP was flawed, but had a lot of features later Civ games have adopted.

 

[Kulko]

CIV 3. I really wished they had iterated on that formula more.

It was the last of the series that played like you were leading a civilization instead of trying to become a city state simulator.

 

[Methos]

... and raising my kids stuff, ...

I don't remember which edition of Civ it was, but when my oldest daughter was a baby and she had trouble sleeping, I would start up Civ with the Warlords DLC and just leave it on the title screen. Something about the Warlords main menu music would help her fall asleep.

 

[beorn]

Each was the best when it had it came out. Or, to be more exact, when it had been out for a few months.

But I think 6 and 1 had the most staying power, while 5 had the least staying power. 4 was a bit overshadowed by the Fall from Heaven Mod.

 

[gdr_willter]

Looking at the numbers, I understand why Civ4 gets significant amount of voices - Civ5 brought a lot of changes some people didn't accept. But seeing Civ6 receiving the same love as Civ5 makes me think Civ6 did something wrong - being evolution for Civ5 instead of revolution and being later one, it should be gaining more voices.

I don't think so. My opinion is that the Civ 6 also did the revolution that makes someone hate it, and don't share the big common fanbase with 5.

 

[TheGrayFox]

Each was the best when it had it came out. Or, to be more exact, when it had been out for a few months.

But I think 6 and 1 had the most staying power, while 5 had the least staying power. 4 was a bit overshadowed by the Fall from Heaven Mod.

V had the least staying power?

V sold more than all previous titles, had a larger active playerbase than VI for much of VI's life cycle, and still enjoys tens of thousands of players daily (nearly 1/3rd of VI's active playerbase at any given time) despite being 6 years older. If anything objectively 2- 4 had less staying power than V.

 

[TreVor_ish]

Beep... beep... beep... beep...
CIV I then II then III and then IV was a lovely steady progress and IV is still the best in having empire building feeling.
Then came V, which was unfortunately underwhelming until DLC's and thanks to great folk managing Vox mod is a really enjoyable game.
CIV VI is the first one that made me lose my will to mod it to my liking - made the most changes compared to previous ones and was still not fully satisfied.

 

[Seek]

Each was the best when it had it came out. Or, to be more exact, when it had been out for a few months.

But I think 6 and 1 had the most staying power, while 5 had the least staying power. 4 was a bit overshadowed by the Fall from Heaven Mod.

Hard to judge 6’s staying power since it’s still technically the current iteration, at least for a couple more weeks - need to give it a few years!

Regardless of any other criticism of the game, the lack of major mods (and modding capability?) for 6 makes me think it might not have great staying power.

 

[imperfectpeter]

Regardless of any other criticism of the game, the lack of major mods (and modding capability?) for 6 makes me think it might not have great staying power.

100% agree, I wouldn't love Civ 5 nearly as much as I do now were it not for the still active modding community, and I suspect that's also the reason Civ 4 remains popular. Civ 5 by itself is enjoyable, but with Vox Populi it's absolutely unbeatable IMO.

Also shout-out to Civ 4: Colonisation, vanilla it's somewhat mid but the We the People mod completely transforms it.

 

[Lord Shadow]

You're right; Civ5 was definitely the "breakout" game in the franchise, so to speak.

Civ5 was the first one released fully in the digital distribution era. Which means it got a lot of exposure from the get-go.

As for my favourites, Civ4 of the old era, Civ6 of the new. The 1UPT implementation was far too embryonic in Civ5 to be really enjoyable, challenge-wise.

 

[Serenia]

Civ 5 for me.

I played Civ 1 & 2 when I was aged in my 20s and before I got married. I also played Alpha Centauri as well. I loved that game!!

I missed out on Civ 3 & 4 because I got married and was raising my family.

Once my kids were in school, then I could buy Civ 5 and I LOVED that game.

Played Civ 5 for 9 years (2010 to 2019) and I only lost it when I forced to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

I hated Civ 6 - way too cartoony. So I have NOT played any civ game for the last 5 years.

I have preordered Civ 7 and will be Downloading the standard version next week. Cannot wait!!