It’s no exaggeration to say that Civilization 6 is the most exciting PC game launch this fall; after all, the series is far and away the biggest and most influential voice in the strategy genre. Thankfully, the new installment is incredibly promising: the game feels great, has tons of great new ideas and evolves on the best parts of Civ V. It’s truly a cause for excitement.
Civilization 6 Gameplay: The Perfect Fusion Of Old, New And Older
Traditionally, the Civilization series changes by leaps and bounds between each installment—but also takes a step back every time. Each game added huge new ideas, but dramatically changed many of the big ones from the previous games. Each iteration evolved, but left some parts behind. Aerial combat and terraforming, for instance, were best in Civ II. Diplomacy reached its peak in Civ IV, as did strategic warfare. Tactical combat peaked in Civ V, but diplomacy took a hit. And big new ideas in Civ V—like trade, tourism, city states and limited resources—replaced other big ideas in Civ IV—flexible civics, the ability to build sprawling empires.
Civ VI is changing the traditional Civilization paradigm. The game plays and feels a lot like Civilization V—far more than most other games in the series feel like their predecessor. And it turns out that that’s a good thing. Civ VI uses the skeleton of Civ V to create something entirely new, and—in my limited experience so far—something far better. By building on Civ V’s superstructure, Civ VI can keep what was best about the game and push it forward. Civ VI ditches mechanics like global happiness and the strict adherence to the “one unit per tile” rule, and finds a happy medium between the deterministic diplomacy of Civ IV and the more personal but more erratic diplomacy of Civ V.
Civ VI won’t be a perfect game, of course, but it looks set to advance the Civilization series in meaningful ways. It will feel a lot like Civ V… but it’ll feel a lot like Civ IV too. But, most of all, it will feel like its own thing. And that’s very promising indeed.
