Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Review — An Intimate Arena For Veterans

As the most likable series among strategy-driven games, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI emerged as the latest arrival, ensuring the success of the series and delivering the best gameplay improvement and overhaul to its fans. Selecting a faction and leading it from a mere settlement to an overpowered empire is something I found most commendable in a strategy game, which is perhaps this game’s strongest aspect.

The core theme focuses on decision-making done on each turn given to the player. Despite following the detailed guides provided in the game, I struggled to get a grip on even the basics of the game as a newcomer.

Gameplay

Civilization VI is a turn-based strategy game that involves base-building and leading your troops to a remarkable victory. The game features a map that’s size depends on what the player selects before the matchmaking. The uncharted map will reveal its surroundings as you move your troops around the map, tile after tile each turn.

Turn-based strategy complements the gameplay well as it’s innovative and gives players a fair chance to think about every action they perform.

The tile mechanic is essential to understand as your decisions revolve around its availability. Your units will move only one tile per turn, and once all units are given the order, you can end your turn. 

Also, each tile holds various resources you can gather by assigning specific units. Expanding your civilization also relies on the area you own. Extend your property by purchasing tiles and building structures upon it.

After playing strategy action games like Age of Empires, I consider Civilization VI a slow-paced game. However, turn-based strategy complements the gameplay well as it’s innovative and gives players a fair chance to think about every action they perform.

Build To Conquest

The game has an in-depth mechanic for building a strong empire. Each structure offers unique benefits and unlocks new resources or units. 

This means that other than forcefully engaging your battle units to siege enemy walls, you can focus on growing your civilization’s economic aspect. This enables the players to think of various ways to prosper and work their way to victory without using repeating tactics.

Each leader presents unique traits which you can pick according to your playstyle.

One of the most appealing features I adore is selecting the Leader. Each leader presents unique traits which you can pick according to your playstyle. Every civilization has at least one unique unit and building. 

However, the game being turn-based creates a hassle for rapid progression. I would take many and often too many turns building just one structure or completing a Research. Besides that, there are a lot of terms to acquaint yourself with to get a hold of how these perks work here if you’re a new player, like availing perks through the Religion and Government aspect

Overall, it’s clear that Civilization VI is a welcoming title for its veterans alone. Despite being slow-paced, the game perfectly intrigues the quick-thinking capability of the players, as there are a lot of tasks to tend to simultaneously.

Visuals And Performance

Civilization VI has a lot of visual improvement compared to its previous titles. The new animation overhaul makes certain things in the gameplay understandable. Explicitly, knowing which extraction and resource sites function just by looking at them is ideally satisfying and helpful.

The previous title implemented realism in its visual outlook, whereas Civilization VI has turned more toward goofy art characters that I still consider complementary.

The game’s 3D graphics overhaul is very distinctive from Civilization V. The previous title implemented realism in its visual outlook, whereas Civilization VI has turned more toward goofy art characters that I still consider complementary.

During the gameplay, there is a ton of UI to click through on your screen. Now, being a newcomer, I honestly find the UI pretty user-friendly. However, the features that UI contains are so vast in numbers that it requires in-depth knowledge about the dynamics from the very beginning. Following this, a tutorial is present in the gameplay as Civilopedia that you can access anytime during the match.

Regarding the game’s performance, it delivers a smooth experience. The game appears completely polished without any major or minor bugs to encounter during the gameplay. I played the title on maximum settings using RTX 3060 and the metrics were flawless.

Verdict

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is an innovative sequel that has flawlessly attracted its hardcore, veteran player base. However, this does mean that new players will find it challenging to grasp the game’s diverse and complex mechanics anytime soon.

Overall, the game has done profoundly well in delivering a compelling strategy game to its audience. It carries on its engaging game design from its prequel but remains innovative compared to them. 

All I want to say is that Civilization VI should be more inviting to the new player base as the game explicitly absorbs the player’s attention and provides a competitive, mind-boggling, and strategic environment.

This concludes my review of Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. While you’re here, consider checking out some of the other reviews:

• Metroid Dread Review
• Horizon Zero Dawn Review
• The Planet Crafter Review
• Sons of Valhalla Review