Civilization 6 gambling addiction. Civilization VI Game Review
TestedWindows-game version
Created in 1991 by Sid Meier, the game became one of the most important milestones in the history of turn-based strategy games. Since then, instead of being oversaturated with details, complicated rules and new units, the games in the Civilization series have been reinvented by the authors each time. Throughout the series' history, the wait for the next iteration has been accompanied by a number of questions. What changes await us? How will victory be achieved? How much smarter will the enemy become? What about diplomacy? The sixth part was no exception. And, as in previous years, it will take more than a dozen hours to sort everything out.
⇡ Civilization in detail
The first thing that catches your eye is the updated style. Firaxis Games has left the serious appearance of the fifth part in the past, choosing a somewhat cartoonish image for the sixth. Civilization VI is now more like the console Civilization Revolution. Bright units move funny around the smoothly opening map, cells are strewn with catchy icons of resources, and buildings and trees are slightly outlined. During battles, impacts and shots are accompanied by bright effects. Caricatured leaders in the window of diplomacy are a treat for the eyes. All of them are beautifully animated, each in its own way. The details were also not missed - even the same class of soldiers looks different on each side. And this despite the fact that it is still impossible to lower the camera below bird's eye level.
Everything here is still built on little things. As before, the player will have to go through the path from the time of unshaven savages with clubs to the era of skyscrapers, the mass Internet and the launch of space satellites. There are different ways to gain the upper hand over your opponents. They attracted the most tourists - they got a cultural victory, spread their faith across the globe - religious, sent people to Mars - scientific. However, showing Hitler’s habits and committing mass genocide is also not forbidden.
⇡ On the way to dominance
To be in a winning position, you need to think carefully about every move. The authors distinguished between scientific achievements and social institutions - now it is proposed to develop two branches in parallel. A smart step, because, despite some connections, you can get an arena, a zoo or a temple without waiting for the opening of cartography, production or printing. Otherwise, the development trees look traditional. Fortunately, they decided to abandon the crazy labyrinth of technology upgrades from Civilization: Beyond Earth.
By developing social institutions, the head of state gains access to new forms of government. Monarchy, theocracy, democracy, fascism and others require completely different playing styles. For example, a bias towards religion allows you to purchase units for the appropriate points, and communism will give a bonus to production. The choice of political course should be taken carefully - depending on the chosen regime, several military, diplomatic and economic reforms can be organized. Their competent distribution allows you to achieve a significant advantage over your rivals. Adjustments for international relations are especially useful - the benefit of city-states in this case increases significantly.
Independent cities that successfully established themselves in the fifth part ceased to be workshops for the production of soldiers for subsidies. Now small but proud states have a much stronger influence on the situation on the map. Ambassadors compete for their attention. Depending on the number of diplomats sent, the rating also increases. The higher it is, the more generous the reward: gold, science, production - all this is given after each move. Having achieved the title of overlord, grateful allies will gift the feudal lord with rare, or even completely unavailable on the map, resources, which will significantly improve the mood of the townspeople.
Contentment is no longer a separate resource, like science or gold, it is determined individually for each city. They didn’t build an entertainment complex with a stadium in it; citizens are starting to demand spectacles. You won't live long with disgruntled settlers. If you haven’t corrected the situation, you’ll have to suppress the rebellion: several military units will begin to rob and kill. In general, eye and eye.
⇡ Political economy
In Civilization VI, cities are built by districts. The lack of housing is compensated by residential areas, barracks allow you to receive already trained soldiers, and commercial centers will strengthen the economy. You can’t just develop a city like that, because most improvements depend on the type of cell. Egyptian pyramids can be built exclusively on sand, and resort areas will earn more points near the water. Almost every area can be developed with the growth of technology, so traditional farms and quarries, although necessary, often fade into the background. Such restrictions force cities to focus on a certain direction - one specializes in production, another in trade, and so on.
If you are carried away by development, you may miss how a lot of gold was stolen from the treasury, a painting was stolen from a museum, and a scientific center “accidentally” helped a rival in researching an important technology. The espionage system has advanced significantly compared to the previous part. As before, in order to eliminate enemy spies entrenched in cities, you need to send your agents there. If, on the contrary, you want to do some mischief, then the saboteur can be instructed to arrange “force majeure” at someone else’s production. A detected spy is able to use one of the escape routes - go to the airport, escape on foot, or steal a boat. The likelihood of being caught or even killed directly depends on the chosen method of escape, so do not rush to send a valuable agent on a plane - in an attempt to save time, he may say goodbye to his head.
Firaxis Games has significantly sped up the new Civilization. Even at the “marathon” speed of the game, any match can be completed on the same day. Builders improve the cell and erect structures in one turn (but disappear after several works), merchants build roads automatically, great scientists, poets and other figures appear much faster, and they can also be hired. You only have to wait during downloads and lengthy calculations of moves - the authors, unfortunately, have not gotten rid of this problem.
Civilization will always be a game that can be enumerated and expanded indefinitely. Civilization V received two large additions and several dozen scenarios. The same fate probably awaits her heir. There is a lot to criticize Civilization VI for - stupid AI opponents, very weak diplomacy, long loading times, slow calculation of moves. But all this does not at all prevent you from spending endless hours conquering the world and enjoying every move.
Advantages:
- a million small details that you want to understand;
- many mechanics have been rethought and reassembled;
- updated visual style.
Flaws:
- short-sighted artificial intelligence;
- long downloads.
| Graphic arts | The picture is neat and pleasing to the eye, although the chosen style may not be to everyone's taste. Attention to detail is evident here too: the new leaders are very attractive, and units of the same class look different among different nations. | 8 |
| Sound | Perfect, absolutely nothing to complain about. Excellent music does not get boring even during long matches, the voice acting of soldiers, the effects of shots, the sea and other elements are simply excellent. | 10 |
| Single player game | Each leader, as before, is endowed with his own skills and bonuses, improvements affect the economy, and the political system allows you to change tactics. You want to explore the game, and that's the main thing. | 9 |
| Group game | In collective mode, everything is the same, only instead of AI, a living person fights with you. It’s a pity that players are mostly still honing their skills in a single-player game - the most interesting things are yet to come. | 9 |
| General impression | Civilization VI is a real drug that eats up all your free time. If you don't have it, don't even start this game - you risk forgetting about everything in the world. | 9 |
We tried to describe the most important changes in detail in our preview, so now, as part of the review, we will try to convey the impression of the game as a whole and the impact of gameplay on sensations, instead of talking about all the qualitative and quantitative improvements and reworkings.
Civilization 6 - game review
The first impression is positive!
Let's start with the fact that for fans of the series Sid Meier's Civilization 6 will seem like a fairly simple game, mastering all the gameplay details of which will take one test game on a duel map on low difficulty. If you have only played the fifth part or Beyond Earth, mastering will take longer due to truly dramatic changes, both in terms of game balance and control.Quite quickly you realize that the game has made a significant transition from tactics to strategy. If previously a player could allow himself to make momentary decisions, build everything as he pleases and in any order, as well as declare and end wars whenever he pleases, now he needs to plan development 7-10 moves ahead, drawing up a little in his head or not a sequence of actions - what goes behind what.
The correct decision of the developers can be called the development of the city with the help of neighborhoods. Only full knowledge of the advantages of each hex, appropriate distribution of areas, taking into account the distribution of resources and standard sawmills-fields-mines for years to come can lead to dominance. Placing districts, improvements and Wonders blindly will be a useless exercise, if not harmful.
IN Sid Meier's Civilization 6 has significantly reworked the expansion tactics and now building cities one next to another makes virtually no sense. Now, firstly, cities are best placed in certain green areas that will provide initial allowance and food.
Secondly, cities process a radius of 4 hexes around themselves, which in itself takes up a huge piece of the map, thirdly, the maps themselves have become noticeably smaller, for example, the “large” map from the fifth part is now called “huge”, and in- fourthly, each city needs to be provided with food and monitored food supply, which is not so easy.
Likewise, the influence and bonuses from Wonders have been reduced, so you should carefully consider and evaluate the possible benefits before starting the construction of any Wonder from the list. And although the player can speed up construction at the expense of workers, but if he stops completely, then with the time saved it is quite possible to build several buildings or city areas, which will give a more obvious and effective effect than an unnecessary Miracle.
An excellent solution would be to replace “Public Institutions” from the fifth part with something like a political system. It is very important to choose the right government and political course in economics, military affairs and science, especially in the initial stages of the game. This way you can speed up progress in any area as long as the player needs it. Of course, it will take a long time to remember the correct combination and luck, so that events in the world do not force them to change.
As for civilizations, there are not many of them, but the developers tried to customize each of them, created a unique visual design for cities and individual units, a unique area or a bonus based on the type of terrain. Leaders have several irritants that can affect their relationship with civilization. The whole thing is accompanied by a suitable soundtrack - for Russia there are 20 variations of Kalinka-Malinka.
Disadvantages that outweigh the advantages
Naturally, all of the above requires a constant count of the number of moves until the end of a particular construction, research, and the ability to change the government and political course. As a result, you quickly get tired of switching through a variety of menus and calculating branches and probabilities. Because of this routine work, it has become noticeably more difficult to play, and only on low difficulty can you let everything take its course.
IN Sid Meier's Civilization 6 research is carried out in two areas - scientific, technical and sociocultural. This is a good improvement and it better reflects reality. But it is not clear why the developers did not make two stages of construction - for buildings and units.
This point is acutely felt as a disadvantage, since young or simply undeveloped cities take an exceptionally long time to build. As a result, the player either has no buildings and areas, but many units, or no units and is simply captured by his neighbors - he has to balance on the brink.
The diplomacy system once again received absolutely no changes. Short discussions were removed completely, trade agreements from Rising Tide will also not be possible to conclude, just as it will not be possible to amass diplomatic capital - this simply does not exist. All you can do is declare war or sudden war, condemn, trade resources and send delegations.
The computer player does not like to bargain and rarely offers a fair deal, often trading in his favor. In a strange way, you can make peace only if you haven’t touched enemy units for 10 turns, but if the military advantage is in your favor, the enemy himself can ask for mercy... by trying to trade the cities you captured back for a couple of dozen coins.
also in Sid Meier's Civilization 6 greatly exaggerates the role of the city and it turns out that almost all the hexes go to its maintenance, and the entire map is just solid cities with neighborhoods, with rare inclusions of countryside, sawmills and mines. Now, if instead of hexagons there were octagons , there would be enough space for both the city and other buildings.
Cooperation with city-states has been greatly simplified - now it is enough to send ambassadors to them, who will automatically increase the influence of civilization. There is no way to buy influence with money, complete a small task, improve a resource, or gift a unit. The number of small states is not large and a situation very quickly arises when all six ambassadors of all states sit in each state.
Militarist Idiot and other gameplay problems
Our story about the single-player mode would not be complete without a description of the strangeness of the work of artificial intelligence (AI) in Sid Meier's Civilization 6. The developers, as if making fun of the player, increased the aggressiveness of the AI so that the leaders seemed to have been bitten by Gandhi.
Any, any little thing can become a reason for war. For example, the player has more culture or science technology, you are competing for influence over a city-state, the player is not developing an army, the player has more cities, wonders, or religious influence. War can be declared on him at any moment, and the higher the difficulty, the sooner this will happen.
The main problem here is that the player may find himself between other civilizations, and will be constantly attacked. The AI is so carried away by war that it completely forgets about the development of its civilization, churning out hundreds of units of the ancient world, sending them to slaughter against 3-4 units of the atomic era.
The intelligence of computer opponents is dull even compared to the first games in the series, and its advantage is achieved through outright cheating. He may still be somewhat capable of attacking, but he is not able to hold the defense. In such a situation, the computer sends its troops on a long detour and it is possible to capture its civilization with virtually no resistance.
The AI also cannot detect danger and is capable of sending transport with ground units under the player’s battleships, or can alternately send elite units to storm the city, instead of attacking at once.
It is also impossible not to mention religion as one of the possible ways to achieve victory. A lot of points of the corresponding type are generated, especially in Russia. So it is quite possible to crush the whole world with clamps©™ and spirituality©™. And although you can buy buildings and units with them, it is more profitable to spread your religion to new states using apostles.
At the same time, the artificial intelligence does not understand that it has converted to another faith, and its religion will not automatically appear after 10 moves in the holy city, as it was in Sid Meier's Civilization 5, so it will send its apostles and missionaries to your cities in order to they spread your religion!
Naturally, after this you can ask only one question: “Did anyone even test Sid Meier’s Civilization 6”?!
Controls, localization, music and sound
One of the obvious disadvantages Sid Meier's Civilization 6 is all about management. The developers seem to have forgotten about personal computer users, asking them to uncontrollably point the mouse or finger at menus, icons and hexes. This is especially annoying when controlling units. It is very annoying when hotkey combinations do not work, but the community is accustomed to the control layout from Sid Meier's Civilization 5 and Firaxis Games should have adapted it.
However, the biggest control flaws come to light in the final stages of the game. After constructing all the buildings in the city, you need to set the type of converted production every 5 turns, simply because it resets. Who had such a brilliant idea? Each turn is also greatly extended due to the fact that armies of preachers and warriors need to be moved all the time.
Sid Meier's Civilization 6 has been completely translated into Russian, so you can read articles from the Civilopedia, listen to videos and dialogues in your native language. The quality of the translation is almost perfect, there are only minor flaws. Thanks to the efforts of the localization studio, the quality of the voiced dialogues and The videos are also almost perfect.In this regard, I can only recommend supporting the authors with rubles by purchasing this game.
The music in Sid Meier's Civilization series has always stood out, so Sid Meier's Civilization 6 was no exception. There are both general themes and personal ones for each civilization, performed for peacetime and wartime. Each melody was recorded with the participation of a symphony orchestra, and therefore they do not get boring and are immediately remembered The total length of the soundtrack exceeds 4 hours! You can listen to each song on the official game page or in the video below.
As for the general soundtrack, here the development team made a mistake compared to Sid Meier's Civilization 5 or Civilization: Beyond Earth, the number of sounds has decreased. For example, there is no signal for the end of the move and the completion of the move calculation, units are silent, important messages are not always played, and so on.Anime? In my "Civilization"?
Separately, I would like to highlight the topic of the new visual style and user-friendliness of the interface. Graphics in Sid Meier's Civilization 6 has really become more anime and cartoonish. Those big eyes of the women in the cutscenes, the “hand-drawn” style of maps and objects, the deliberately lost texture detail of all objects and units - everything looks so unusual compared to past games , that there seems to be a regression here.
This is indeed the case and why Firaxis Games took such a step is still not clear; the developers’ explanations do not seem justified. If all Civilizations were like this, the series would not have achieved its current success and popularity. On the other hand, you can get used to all this quite quickly - it’s clear that people worked on the graphics and there are no such jambs that the eye would cling to.
From a technical point of view Sid Meier's Civilization 6 cannot be called a completely polished game - calculating moves takes a lot of time, especially at the end of the session, loading times are extremely long (and this is with such weak graphics!), and sometimes units think for a long time before taking an action. We hope that the developers will fix these bugs.
As for the interface, frankly speaking, it turned out to be inconvenient. In addition to the control problems noted above, the icons of the units are too large, the fonts are small and poor, the color scheme is dark on dark, which together led to poor readability, and read in Sid Meier's Civilization 6 will have a lot. Some of the control elements have been moved to new, not the most successful places.
Network play and balance
Naturally, all of the above causes indignation among good players who go looking for their equal in multiplayer and find adventures to their liking, experiencing problems with the network part that are typical for the series. And even if this is not the most popular mode
- The game will be released October 21 2016.
- Lead designer: Ed Beach. Known for being the designer of the Gods & Kings and Brave New World add-ons for the fifth Civa, and also working on AI.
- Main artist is Brian Busatti. He was also an artist on the mobile Civilization Revolution. That’s why the sixth Civa has such a “cartoon style”
- The main producer is Dennis Shirk.
- And where, exactly, is Sid Meier himself? And, as always, it’s in the name of the game!
Peculiarities
According to the developers, the “engine” of the sixth Civa is completely new and created from scratch, and not cosmetically improved from the fifth. Unlike most previous initial ("Vanilla") versions of the game, Civ VI will immediately include ALL game mechanics that were previously added only with paid DLC. That is trade routes, religion, archeology, espionage, city-states, tourism And works of great people will be available immediately. How will poor Firaxis make money from us? Judging by the fact that there are initially 18 civilizations in the game, they will sell nations for the price of a hamburger;) Well, although all the game mechanics have been redone for the new engine, the gameplay will still be basically similar to that of the fifth Civ.
« We transferred everything that players liked about the fifth Civa to the sixth and added new gameplay", - Dennis Shirk.
“The most important thing you need to know is that Civilization VI does not use the previous engine. All mechanics, all gameplay has been completely rewritten and redone. We took special care to ensure that the gameplay can be changed flexibly. Artificial intelligence has been rewritten from scratch using the data we received from the fifth version of the game. Therefore, many problems with combat will be solved,”— Ed Beach.
Cities
Cities are now no longer tied to one cell, but I can spread out over the entire radius of the city (as in Endless Legend). Some buildings can be built in the central area of the city, while others will need to be built in specialized areas. In addition, all miracles are now built on individual cells (again, like in Endless Legend). For detailed information on cities in the sixth Tsiva:
Technologies
In general, science works the same as in the previous version, but each technology has a so-called “Eureka”, a goal or mini-quest - by achieving which you can speed up the discovery of this technology. For example, “meet another civilization” or “build a quarry.” As soon as the condition is met, you immediately receive 50% of the science necessary to discover the technology (I bet that this will be one of the first parameters that will rule the patches after the game is released)! It doesn’t matter whether you research this technology or not. As in the fifth civ, you cannot exchange techniques. For more detailed information, please contact . 
Civics (Social policies)
Social policies are now very similar to the technology tree: each new civic gives the opportunity to accept the next ones when enough culture has accumulated. Within each new civic there may be several additional options: social policies, districts, buildings, wonders and government types. Each government type has several different colored policy slots and you can decide which policies to place in these slots. The initial type of government - Chiefdom - has only one military and one economic policy slot. With the discovery of new types of governments, you will be able to get more slots. There are currently four known types for slots: military, economic, diplomatic and wildcard. For more detailed information, please contact . 
Religion
Apparently, religion in the new Civ will work exactly the same as in the fifth. First the pantheons, then the prophet founds a religion. You can call your religion differently, choose an icon, as well as different beliefs and bonuses. It is known that you can choose different buildings for your religion: a mosque, a cathedral, a synagogue or just a house of worship. Religion will spread with the help of pressure, as in the fifth civilization. All details - tables of pantheons and beliefs - can be found on. 
Diplomacy
Over the course of the game, communication with other civilizations will change from primitive early interactions, where conflict is a fact of life, to the intricacies of alliances and negotiations.
Civ VI uses the Casus belli principle. In other words, you will have less diplomatic penalties if you have reasons for war. If you declare war before denouncing your opponent, it will be considered a “surprise war” and will entail additional diplomatic sanctions.
There will be no world congress in the sixth Tsiva. This is one of the few mechanics of the fifth Civa that they decided to get rid of in the sequel.
« We've completely redesigned the way computer opponents interact with the player. In previous versions they acted almost identically. Now AI has VERY different key behaviors, which we call “Agendas”. The agenda for each leader in the game is based on the historical paths of development of a particular civilization. Some “agendas” will be clear to you immediately upon meeting civilization. Others, secret ones, you can find out only through espionage. Thus, the diplomatic landscape becomes much more diverse," - Ed Beach.
« Hidden agendas might be something like “Industry Lover” or “Culture Fan.” These are the basic things. For example, you generate a lot of science and the hidden science lover likes it. Or vice versa, you build too many miracles and your opponent doesn’t like it," - Dennis Shirk. 
Gossip
Merchants, ambassadors and spies gather rumors. About the same as it was in the fifth Tsiva, when we planted a spy in a strange city. In this way we can find out the intentions of another civilization and its activities.
« Eventually you will receive rumors about all the AI activities in your civilization. Even if you have a wonderful relationship with him, you still need to keep your finger on the pulse", - Dennis Shirk.
Diplomatic delegations
Sending a delegation (costing 25 gold) can slightly increase relations with other civilizations. The number of delegations and ambassadors (are they different things?) is limited.
Espionage
Spies in the sixth Civ will be real units on the map. However, they can still be sent to enemy cities.
Agenda
AI leaders now follow “agens” (Agendas) that help influence their behavior. Each leader has a fixed historical agenda (see the Civilizations section) and a randomly generated hidden one. Some examples of random hidden agendas:
- The leader wants to have the largest fleet in the world.
- The leader wants to focus on culture throughout the game.
Trade routes
The trade route system in the sixth Civ is similar to that which appeared in Civilization V: Brave New World. A merchant can create a permanent trade route between two cities. Income will depend on the resources processed by the city and the number of districts.
However, there are a few additions. Most importantly, traders now create roads along the trade route! In addition, it was noted in the interface that merchants now have a strength parameter. Apparently, now “robbing the Korovans” will not be as easy as in the top five. 
Victory Conditions
There are five ways to win in Civilization 6:
- Military: you need to capture the capitals of each opponent.
- Scientific: three conditions must be met:
- Launch satellite
- Land on the Moon
- Found a colony on Mars
- Cultural: you must attract more visiting tourists than any other civilization will have domestic tourists at home.
- Religious: More than 50% of cities in all civilizations must be followers of your religion.
- By points: Whoever has the most points at the end of the game (500 moves at normal speed) is the winner!
Let me note once again that there is no world congress in Civilization VI, and therefore there is no diplomatic victory.
Interface
It is certain that the beloved 2D map mode will remain in Civ VI! As well as an overlay of data called Lenses. If you don’t know what it is, then, apparently, you haven’t played in 2D mode in the fifth Civa. These lenses turned on in the lower right corner near the minimap. 
The top panel shows counters for science, culture, faith, money, trade routes, all resources (not just strategic ones), turn number, real-time clock, civilopedia and settings menu. Second row of buttons on the left side: research, social policies, government, religion, great people and masterpieces. On the right side are four small icons: diplomacy, city-states, espionage and trade. Right in the center: icons of leaders (the one whose move is slightly lower), and on them are indicators for current relations (war and peace for Cleopatra and Teddy, respectively).
The mini-map (bottom left) includes controls for overlaying data, switching map settings (yes, this is where I will be asked under every video for the next few years: where to turn on the display of resource icons on the map? ), “map pin function, which allows you to place markers on the map, as well as switch to a 2D mode, similar to what was in the fifth Civa. The multi-function screen (bottom right) includes action buttons for the selected unit, city information, preliminary battle summary, etc. 
Day-and-night cycle
Yes, the engine now supports changing the time of day. True, apart from visual joy, we won’t get any impact on the gameplay. In the settings, you can set it yourself: after how many moves day will give way to night. In general, this option can not be disabled.
Fog of war
Uncharted territory and fog of war (territory that is not "exposed" to your units) is now rendered in a video of an ancient map drawn on parchment. 
Rotate the map
I don’t know how convenient this will be in a turn-based strategy and whether it’s necessary at all, but yes, now the map rotates freely!
Civilizations
IN Sid Meier's Civilization VI originally 18 civilizations. Another one - Aztecs - will be available immediately after the game's release to everyone who pre-orders, and for the rest - after three months. In addition, we know about at least four more nations that will appear in future addons.
Each civilization has five unique properties: fixed historical goal(as well as a second hidden one randomly generated), unique ability, unique unit, leader bonus(which could be an ability or other unique unit) and unique infrastructure(this could be a building, improvement or area). Read more: 
Barbarians
They play the same role as in the fifth part. However, the algorithm for attacking barbarians has been changed: they send scouts. If the scouts discover your cities and return to the barbarian camp, then after a while the barbarians will attack.
« Barbarians can create scouts. If you don't touch their camp for a while, it spawns a scout. The Scout explores the area just like you. But he is looking for suitable targets. If a scout has approached your suburbs, then he knows that you are here, and he will go back to tell his leaders about the new target. It's important to keep track of this in game. You might think, “Okay, if the scout walked from his camp in 4 turns, then he won’t get back until later, and then they will spend another 5-6 turns preparing the army.” But in fact, after 10-15 moves, this scout report may turn into problems for you. On the other hand, you can prevent it. You can send some fast troops to intercept and block his way home. The barbarians did not simply become more powerful. It's more a matter of strategy. Barbarians are not what they used to be; they no longer wander aimlessly around the world. They're a little smarter. If they return, they bring with them an army of melee and ranged units. Barbarians can give you a hard time", - Ed Beach.
Tsiva is a kind of chess from the world of video games. The game is timeless. Simple in appearance, but deep in its essence. A game with a minimal amount of graphics that devours dozens of hours of free time, in short, you have already heard all these epithets.
It is much more interesting to consider the nature of the phenomenon of “Civilization”. This is important, at least for understanding why the sixth part became a real triumph for the series, which has a history of 25 years. Civilization has always lived at the junction of two worlds: desktop and computer. The first part was an almost direct adaptation of the board game of the same name from Hartland Trefoil, and later Sid Meier bought the right to use the name from the British for a fixed sum. In this regard, “Civa” has always leaned more towards moves, dice and other board problems, only “dressing” very complex calculations in automatic algorithms and turning cards and chips into a convenient gaming interface. After the legendary first Civa, the success of the series directly depended on how well Meyer (and later a group of designers on his behalf) managed to balance the “desktop” and “computer” elements.
To be honest, it worked so-so. While it's hard to screw up such a perfect core mechanic, the third and fourth parts of the game, given time and experience, felt very contrived and overloaded. Yes, they introduced players to a lot of interesting ideas that lingered in the main series for a long time, but at times it felt like you were completely losing track of what was happening. The most annoying thing in this regard was Civilization 4, the first 3D game in the series. You could build a strategy as cunningly and cleverly as you wanted, but the algorithms were hiding behind your back and ruining the whole picture. You couldn’t keep track of everything at once, so much “Civa” became “computerized”. This was especially true not even of the economy and disasters, but of war. Combat in Civ 4 turned into protracted battles on the topic of “who can stack the most units in a narrow isthmus” and, as a result, you tried to win back any victory other than conquest. In short, Civ 3 and Civ 4 dictated your playstyle. Yes, they were fascinating, but in the last years of the “four”’s life, a distinct feeling began to arise that the series was drifting very far from its tabletop roots. Well, you know, in the wilds of Crusaders Kings 2 and other games, where tables the size of three screens are even fun in their own way.
The first serious work on bug fixes was Civilization 5. Yes, the release version, terribly poor in “chips,” made a lot of mistakes and the “five” finally took shape only after two additions. However, this game managed to do the main thing - to return Civilization to the rails of “computer chess”, that is, to restore the balance between “computerization” and the tabletop heritage. The playing field was laid out in hexagons familiar to the table, war became fast and even fun, and the tree of social institutions provided flexibility. Do you want to be a military power? Choose the necessary development branches. Colonist or trader? Balance between war and economy. Subsequent additions made the game even more manageable and interesting, and therefore, initially coldly received by fans, Civilization 5 ended its era in the pantheon of 4X strategies. At the same time, the attempt to transfer this entire model into space did not gain much popularity and Beyond Earth is now remembered only in the context of the success of Civa number five (although the author of the review really liked BE).
As you can understand from the opus above, the six will have to jump over their heads, and do it right at launch. Cutting out a series of interesting features for the second time simply because the designer was unable to adapt everything on time would be simply disgusting. AND? And How? Spoiler alert: exhale.
Civilization VI is the peak of the series at this point, the culmination of the efforts of Sid Meier and countless designers who spent 25 long years improving the series. The mechanics, aesthetics and pacing of the sixth part can be looked at as if in a mirror, almost every element turned out to be so polished. Take the same graphics: according to the first screenshots, we were frightened by a sort of animated version of Clash of Clans, while in reality the picture in Civilization 6 is the most beautiful, clean and pleasant in the 4X genre. The units are beautifully animated, the game “hexes” are full of detailed models of cities and farms, and the playing field itself is generally a work of art. It works like this: while your unit is on the cell, we see standard three-dimensional graphics, but as soon as he leaves, the explored area turns into a hand-drawn section of a medieval map. It's hard to describe, just see it on YouTube or in the game yourself.
Everything related to sound and appearance in the “six” was done very expensively, especially compared to the frankly Spartan fifth part. In the menu you are greeted by the majestic song “Dream of Flight” written by Grammy winner Christopher Teen, in-game quotes are voiced by Sean Bean, and each new wonder of the world is accompanied by a stunning time-lapse of its construction.
But even the most gorgeous picture can't save a bad game. And here Civilization VI is so good that if it came out with 2D graphics, it would still be played for hours. Civilization VI continues the drift into board games taken by the “fifth” part, and in the tutorial it even honestly says: “Civilization VI is like a board game that you play with friends.” The changes are superficial in appearance, but in essence they are so fundamental that you have to learn to play all over again. Literally.
The first thing you should pay attention to is that, in keeping with tabletop games, Civ VI has made much more active use of hexes on the playing field. Now urban development is your key focus. Gone is the “computer” convention, in which you could expand the city without regard to the environment and build buildings in batches with impunity. Now each city has a limited number of districts in which you can build strictly defined buildings. The districts themselves are located on cells close to the city, and therefore sticking something in just anywhere won’t work. As a result, this pushes for the constant growth of the empire, since one city can only support a few districts. Cities now have real specialization: scientific, cultural and industrial. By combining the bonuses of territory and cities, you can get such a powerful empire that you don’t have to fight with anyone. This same “district” system gives Civilization 6 players incredible flexibility when planning the type of victory they will achieve. Science fans will fill their empire with campuses, while militarists will focus on military personnel and production.
The second significant difference from the fifth part is social institutions. Now these are not short branches in which you get abilities for points, but a full-fledged research tree. Moreover, here everything is also implemented with an eye on the table: as the main tool, players have a choice of social system: autocracy, democracy, fascism, and so on. In fact, the system is a “back” for social property cards. Each type of government differs in the number of cards that are issued for specific purposes. Cards can improve military affairs, diplomacy or economics. So “fascism” gives more slots for war cards, but greatly reduces bonuses from the economy, and the “merchant republic” simply does not have slots for war cards. Research in the tree of social institutes open new cards and shirts (there are 9 shirts in total in the game). It sounds a little confusing, but in the game itself this system allows you to rearrange the priorities of your empire very quickly. Do you want to trade? Shuffle the economy cards! Do you want bonuses from the war? Just drag the cards you need into the shirt. It's purely a tabletop system, but it's perfectly tailored to the needs of Civilization VI and works in perfect harmony with the rest of the mechanics. And most importantly, it is absolutely transparent and understandable. At the same time, diligent players have a chance to significantly speed up their progress along the technological and social branches. Almost every technology has bonus conditions under which development is accelerated. “Irrigation” is accelerated by building three farms, “military tradition” by building warriors, and so on.
War and religious institutions have also undergone changes, but since they were well implemented back in Civilization 5, it’s not worth focusing on these aspects. The main differences: now you can unite troops into “corps” and “fleets” of a maximum of 3 units of the same type, and “great people” are also bought for money, and not just for faith points.
But it wouldn’t be very fair to keep silent about the game’s disadvantages, especially after such a wave of epithets. The first is AI. Gandhi, of course, does not throw nuclear missiles at the map, but the artificial idiot of “Civilization” has not become more accommodating or smarter. Often you can run into aggression from some nation without a significant reason or not receive support from a neighbor with whom you were friends throughout the party. Suffice it to say that the author of the material was unable to conclude a single friendship agreement with any nation in five games, although he tried very hard. Another problem (fixable, however, in the coming months) is balance. The barbarians are too aggressive in the early stages, the conditions for scientific victory are insane (40 moves for each stage), and the economy is not as transparent as we would like. And of course, bugs, where without them. The game tends to freeze and really doesn't like ALT+TAB, which is a serious drawback for a PC exclusive.
However, these flaws hardly overshadow what Civilization 6 is. At the moment, this is, I repeat, the peak of the cult series. The most flexible, obedient, understandable and transparent 4X strategy on earth, from which you get tons of fun. And most importantly, it is an ideal entry ticket for beginners. And then – sleepless nights, red eyes and “one more move”...
Maxim Zaretsky
Civilization, probably the most famous strategy series on the planet. The first part was released in 1991, and since then all its sequels have attracted constant attention. A quarter of a century later, the sixth “Civilization” still delights almost all fans of the world’s best alternative history simulator. And for good reason.
It’s worth saying right away that Civilization 6 has almost completely shifted its emphasis and has changed conceptually in many ways. Not beyond recognition, but if in all previous parts of the series you wisely turned off the built-in assistant so that it would not interfere, then it’s worth leaving it here. Of course, not everything is so complicated, but it will be much easier to deal with the huge number of innovations. However, the basic mechanics are still in place. The whole point of the game is still to develop your state. The construction of buildings, the founding of new settlements, the hiring of troops - all this is and will be familiar to everyone who has seen at least one of the parts of “Civilization” at least once in their life. If in the fifth part there were only a few conceptual changes (and quite controversial ones), now there are many more of them, and they look quite natural. You get used to them very quickly and begin to understand that all this is not without reason.
Perhaps the main change in the new “Civilization” is that the game finally fully utilizes the area surrounding the city. Urban planning must be approached wisely as cells are now being used to construct buildings. In the city itself, which is now called the urban center, practically nothing can be built. Instead, specialized areas can be created on the cells surrounding it, in which buildings will appear. So, all libraries and universities will go to the scientific quarter, factories and factories will begin to smoke in the industrial quarter, and your citizens will be able to pray in churches in the religious center. Considering that the number of available cells around the city is limited, you need to think twice about where to build a particular block.
Construction now takes slightly longer than in previous parts. Creating an ordinary factory, even in the capital, can easily take several dozen moves. The same goes for miracles - be prepared for the fact that the decision to create the Colossus of Rhodes can stop production in your city for fifty moves.
In addition to the blocks, wonders are also moved outside the center, which also occupy their own cell of the territory. Most of them require certain conditions for construction. Thus, pyramids can only appear in the desert, and the Bolshoi Theater can only appear on a square adjacent to the theater district. Considering that most wonders are revealed as technology advances, you need to plan their locations hundreds of years in advance. Agree, it’s not easy. There are often situations when you get the opportunity to build, for example, a National Park (a special cell improvement in the atomic age), but it turns out that you have already cut down almost all the forests necessary for this.
Plus, the location of the settlement plays a much more important role. The times when it was possible to found a city almost in the Arctic for the sake of a seedy source of oil are gone. Now such a settlement will almost certainly become a burden with a population of only a few people. The fact is that there are not many buildings in the game that produce food - you get almost all of it from working on the cells. Not to mention the fact that the same aqueducts require a water source located nearby. Probably for the first time in Civilization, completely unsightly pieces of land appeared, remaining uninhabited throughout the game.
The game has an indicator of the amount of water on a particular cell. It also determines how quickly and to what size the city can grow.
The new construction mechanics led to changes in the process of military operations. Raids began to play a huge role. With one daring reconnaissance detachment you can go behind enemy lines and ruin almost all of his plans, damaging neighborhoods and improvements. True, they can be repaired. As one might already understand, proper defense of one’s territories also became important. A certain semblance of defensive lines has appeared, when it is impossible to do without lining up troops on the border, since the enemy can come to your rear.
In general, the meaning of military action has somewhat diminished, and fighting has become more difficult. Or rather, less profitable. Raids very quickly undermine the economy and set you back. Not to mention, you need a compelling reason to start a military conflict, otherwise it could have serious diplomatic consequences and you could end up in an unwanted war with all your neighbors at once.
Troops still occupy one cell, but now several units can be combined with each other to increase their effectiveness. Two detachments form a corps, three detachments form an army. This increases their strength, but at the same time reduces their ability to control the map.
Diplomacy has become deeper, although all its capabilities will not be available immediately. The number of possible agreements will increase as new discoveries are made in the field of social policy. To do this, you need to conduct research, which costs culture points. At later stages of development, you will even get the opportunity to hint to the enemy that they should not settle with your cities, or completely prohibit the spread of their religion to your territories.
Plus, your neighbors have developed unique diplomatic specializations that show the aspirations of a particular nation. Thus, the Romans respect large states and despise small ones. And Americans treat better those who do not create conflicts on their continent. Sometimes it is not entirely clear why this or that leader is angry with you, but when these national directions open up, everything falls into place.
The meaning of social policy has remained largely unchanged. You can get certain bonuses for culture points, as was the case before. True, the method of obtaining them has changed. First you study, for example, communism. Using it gives you certain bonus cards that can be inserted into the corresponding social policy slots. For example, a merchant republic will give you as many as three slots for the civilian sphere, two for diplomacy and one for the military. In these slots you can insert, for example, previously researched discounts on the maintenance of troops, acceleration of the construction of wonders, or additional points for attracting great people. True, they will not despair of visual beauty and convenience - just text in a frame. Boring. However, the game has no other problems with the visual side. Unlike the fifth pseudo-realistic part, they decided to make the sixth more colorful, reminiscent of the console Civilization Revolution. Even the fog of war was replaced by painted pictures in the style of late Renaissance maps.
Despite the fact that Firaxis introduced such an abundance of new elements into the sixth Civilization, the developers managed to create an almost perfectly calibrated game. Of course, there are some rough edges, but not too serious. The problems mainly concern a somewhat uninformative interface and a couple of technical errors. So, immediately after the end of the enemy's turn, you can select a unit and try to give it an order, but at this moment the game may think that there is something more important to do and switch you to another. If you don't pay attention to this, your settler may make a move instead of a soldier. And not always in the most convenient way. Sometimes it's the other way around - they forget to switch you to the currently active character. But this is quite rare.
Sid Meier's Civilization 6
Reviewed version of the game: PC
Pros:
- Working with the outside world;
- Reworked diplomacy system;
- State planning for the years ahead;
- Flexibility of social policy;
- Visual design;
Minuses:
- Slightly inconvenient interface;
Grade: 9.7
Verdict: We got an almost perfect sequel to Civilization. However, no one doubted this, right?
