Millennia

Millennia is a good turn-based strategy experience that has the potential to become great after some updates and, possibly, expansions. The core idea of alternate historical ages is engaging but needs to be expanded on, with more options and more interactions. The rest of the mechanics are familiar but have just enough tweaks to keep turns interesting. The combat sequences need to go and the title should expand its diplomatic elements and trade system. The development team is planning to add modding support before the end of the year. Millennia isn’t a revolution for the 4X genre but has good ideas, even if they aren’t always matched by the execution.

Millennia is the most serious competitor of the Civilization series since 1991.

Despite its flaws, though, Millennia’s gameplay is compelling enough to keep me coming back. It’s better than Humankind (which I say as an unapologetic Amplitude fanboy), and on par with Old World, but it doesn’t quite dethrone Civilization. However, its introduction and implementation of new takes on genre staples puts the ball in Firaxis’ court.

Millennia starts like Civ, but offers good mechanics such as alternative eras and construction sim elements. Weak AI and graphics.

A genre diamond in the rough that unfortunately still suffers from balance problems and strange decisions, but could definitely blossom into a real Civ 6 alternative.

Millennia delivers a classic 4X strategy experience reminiscent of Civilization, featuring engaging gameplay and innovative ideas such as alternative Eras and city management improvements. However, it falls short due to its cumbersome interface and unbalanced difficulty, which hinder its potential for greatness. Despite its flaws, Millennia offers addictive gameplay and promises future improvements through patches or sequels.

It's far from being the first game of the genre you should try. As it stands, it's just a nice, temporary alternative.

Millennia ventures into new territory within the stale genre of turn-based strategies, and often, it pays off. The rotation of diverse eras, fundamentally refreshing gameplay, is excellent. Similarly, the enjoyable micromanagement of regions and incremental improvements to your civilization are engaging. It hooks you in with the familiar motto: "Just one more turn," and doesn't let go. However, aggressive artificial intelligence, unattractive graphics, and technical issues in later stages of the game, especially in multiplayer, are disappointing. Otherwise, it's an entertaining departure from traditional Civilization-style games.

Millennia is a budget 4X-strategy, the creators of which tried to improve the work of competitors. The result was not ideal, but the game still has that "addictive trait" that makes you want to keep experimenting.

Millennia is an interesting, if flawed, take on the civilization-like experience that could be so much more with polish and time taken to it. It’s worth experiencing if you like these types of games, but it’s not going to revolutionize the genre, or dethrone Civilization anytime soon. With some polish and the right updates, it can get better, but for now it's a good, but flawed experience.

Here comes a heavyweight of a 4X game, but at the moment it can't hold a candle to the primus Civilization 6. Compared to the last challenger Humankind, Millennia is already ahead of the game: more new ideas, more well thought-out strategies, more possibilities. Even if the balancing is still in its infancy.

A good turn-based strategy game with interesting ideas that falls short of its potential. More polish and time would have helped. Still worth a look for Civ fans.

Millennia is a perfectly adequate 4X strategy game that will be easy for players to pick up and play. It does not try to reinvent the wheel, for better or for worse.

Millennia is a fresh take on the 4X genre that offers a reactive approach to building your nation throughout history, but a few key issues keep it from greatness.

The genius of Civilization 3 was in its simplicity. Then Firaxis began piling on additional mechanics and interconnections, losing that spark in the process. Millennia tries to fix that. [Issue#264,p.62]

Millennia does try to at least partially differentiate itself from the Civilization series, but despite some good ideas and tweaks, it's just another less successful clone. The transition to new periods, which may be different, is especially interesting. However, it is spoiled by poor AI and shortcomings, for example in the diplomacy.

Truly, a game of paradox (pun intended). The concept of Ages is exciting but the way it is implemented forces players into science-focused gameplay. The system of resources is meant for hardcore player, but others like diplomacy and international economy are half-baked to say the least. This game wasn’t ready for release.

A rough-edged but worthwhile spin on historical 4Xs that oddly leaves Civ's greatest flaws untouched.

Millennia is a 4X game that's bursting with new ideas and ways to tackle the historical strategy genre. I enjoyed how regions grow and sprawl across the map, the management that this provides, and the alt-history ages provide some fun twists on reality, but Millennia also comes up short in some key areas and a number of concepts aren't fully explored. In particular, the aesthetics of the UI and the combat visualisation are very rough, the diplomacy lacking and there's certainly areas that C Prompt can and will hopefully improve.

Millennia’s take on the historical 4X formula is fascinating, but the wonder wears off soon due to misplaced priorities and omissions that are hard to overlook.

I felt the same way finishing up a game of Millennia as I did finishing a game of Humankind: It made me want to play Civilization 5 again. Several have tried to claim the turn-based history crown at this point, but none have done it better than Firaxis. And while things like city needs, National Spirits, and production chains allow Millennia to stand out, they don't really let it stand up under its own weight. I think Percy Shelly said it best: Round the decay of that colossal wreck, limited game set-up options, horrid late-game performance, and a cumbersome tile economy, the lone and level sands stretch far away.