Never played any of the other civ games? Go for it, you’ll probably have a good time, and should definitely get 10-30 bucks worth of fun. Purists will say Civ V is the only real one, but 6 has its charms if you can get over the aesthetic and character design
I'm curious how long the sentiment of Civ V being the 'real' one will last. I remember when V came out a large portion of the community insisted that IV was the true Civ experience for quite a while. Civ III is the realest for me since it was my entry into the series and I probably still have the most hours logged on that one, but I've liked aspects of each iteration, up to and including 6.
Civ 4 is still the best one to me. It's the culmination of Civs 1-3. Civ 5 went a different direction, I didn't like it but I can see how other people would.
Civ 5 is better in every way
But playing Civ 5 is a dangerous pathway to playing EU4 which will ruin your life
They broke Civ 5 with the latest updates, can't play basic cross-platform with it. And by cross-platform I mean someone on a mac playing with someone on windows/linux.
I think I paid about £20-25 for the full package (I got the base for free) about a year ago and despite not having much time to game these days I enjoyed it and haven't felt short-changed.
I played a lot more of 5, but find myself going back to 6 mostly now. I'm a pretty casual player too, so if you're new I think these points will still stand:
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It's better for playing shorter games if you don't have an entire week to spare.
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The district system rewards planning ahead without being too punishing and it's cool to actually see the stuff you're building.
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If you haven't played Civ before 6 is also much better at easing you in and just explaining things in general. Especially the improved diplomacy and war related stuff.
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The map editor is fun if you don't worry about getting too granular with it.
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The civilisations themselves have a more interesting variety of abilities and play styles, especially some they've add in the dlc (all included in anthology).
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Likewise the climate change aspects in the dlc and improved disasters are interesting. There's also sliders and modifiers so if you want to just try and survive on an apocolyptic movie style planet that's constantly trying to kill you and everyone else you can do that for fun too.
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I haven't even played with the secret societies and cults dlc stuff yet but it seems neat.
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It looks nice and runs well on even my office mini-pc.
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The character art is a bit like big headed puppets which freaks me out a little, but that's probably a me thing.
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As with all Civ games it's
as shit.
- But if you play on PC there's lots of good mods including lots of Soviet civs etc.
- You could probably pirate it instead if you're not interested in playing multiplayer with anyone.
The secret societies stuff is really fun. Its great for once you already understand the game and want to add some pure fun into it. Definitely worth going back and playing with them on when you have time. Vampires are awesome!
I might try it out one evening this week if I can stop randomly falling asleep wherever I am during the mid-evening.
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The Civ series isn't really an attempt at a history simulation like Vicky is, it's a board game that uses history as a theme.
Anyway I'd say it's worth, I've bought and played the piss out of every single Civ entry going back to the first one on DOS.
My advice: not matter which Civ you try, play the base game WITHOUT expansions first. Like any other board game, the expansions aren't needed to enjoy it and are designed to breathe fresh air into the experience after you've already put a hundred hours in, not to be there and be distracting when you're still trying to get to grips with the basics.
I JUST got Victoria 3. Jumped into Persia as the learn how to play game. Played about ten minutes so far. Is it worth it research education as a way to increase the number of qualified people work to in government? Need more points to run government efficiently lol
You need education for the higher-tier jobs necessary for industrialization later so yes it's worth it in general.
Don't research ahead of time, you get penalties the farther in the future the technology you're trying to research is. But otherwise yes.
Generally speaking I've rushed for railroads, followed by skirmish infantry, and then work on whatever needs priority while busting my ass building up enough of an industrial base to field an army and navy that can keep the imperialists off my land while I slowly snowball my economy, gut my landowners and religious factions to pave the way for the bourgeoisie and intelligentsia to take over, strategically move my capital out of easy reach of possible frontlines while being connected to industrialized unincorporated states in order to make roflstomping future revolts among the core states a breeze, and then race for trench infantry and siege artillery so you can roflstomp everyone for a decent chunk of time on land and basically snowball my country into an international soviet dedicated to liberating as much of the world as I can before the end date.
Most casual fans like Civ 5 better, and most die hard strategy nerds who've poured thousands of hours into playing on the hardest difficulty like Civ 4 better, but both tend to think Civ 6 is pretty good.
If you've never played a Civ game before, it's a cool experience, and probably worth the money. It's fun to plod around through history saying "hey I recognize that!" and laughing about who built the Great Pyramid this time. There's a ton of little things to do, and steady drips of rewards and small novelties, so it takes at least a few games to get old. There is a deeper level of strategy buried in there (particularly in 4), but all of them have an awful lot of busywork between major decisions, and I think they're at their best as a fun tour through history in a blender, rather than as a deep strategy experience.
Of course, you could get the first two Master Of Orion games on GOG for the same price.
I fucking love civ. I still play civ6 1-3 times a year. And it was the same with civ5 and civ4 (GOAT!!!). It is too fun. I play on easier modes so i can dominate. But i fucking hate the loading times!!!
