Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Rise and Fall

 PC
User Score
6.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 151 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 79 out of 151
  2. Mixed: 37 out of 151
  3. Negative: 35 out of 151

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  1. aemfariz
    Aug 17, 2023
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Better improvement, diplomatic scenario, and add some leaders. Must be good on memory… Expand
  2. LT_Gruber
    Dec 28, 2022
    10
    Great expansion for the main game.

    Civilization is one of my all-time favorite games, and the leap from the fifth to the sixth game is epic. It offers new mechanics, tons of stuff to do and build and a fresh new look over the older games. There is some new and relaxing music, more factions and overall, it is a huge improvement over the previous game. Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Rise    Great expansion for the main game.

    Civilization is one of my all-time favorite games, and the leap from the fifth to the sixth game is epic. It offers new mechanics, tons of stuff to do and build and a fresh new look over the older games. There is some new and relaxing music, more factions and overall, it is a huge improvement over the previous game.

    Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Rise & Fall adds a lot more leaders and factions to the game, each with their own unique skills and stories.They are all well balanced and fun to play. It also adds the new era score system.

    The new era score system is a little confusing at first. As you go through the different eras of time, you can either get a dark age (pretty bad), normal age or a golden age. With a normal age, nothing changes, with a dark age, you get some penalties and with a golden age, you get some fat bonuses to give you an advantage. At first, I did not understand at all how this system worked, but after a while, it became clear that you needed to achieve eureka moments and build different building that you did not construct before. Things like discovering villages also helps.

    This DLC is packed with content and worth the extra money.    … Expand
  3. Syhlcam
    May 14, 2021
    9
    L'apport de la gestion des âges d'or et sombre est intéressant et pousse à mieux gérer les gains de points. De même que la gestion de la loyauté, avec un meilleur placement des villes, qui parfois force des interactions.
  4. Gamepoint
    Mar 2, 2021
    10
    quite litteraly the best civ expansion ever, just makes the game a bit more realistic, the loyalty system is great, at least now everyone has a chance to do a great brittain and lose all you power by uprisings
  5. Bloodnes
    Aug 22, 2020
    7
    Очередное дополнение, глобально ничего не вносит в игру 7/10
  6. Iksman
    May 25, 2020
    1
    Какой-то дикий дисбаланс в игре. Построил второй город на самом хлебном месте. Сразу бунт - жрать жителям нечего, хотя пищи в округе тьма. После такого косяка дальше играть смысла нет. Пойду в старую циву играть.
  7. drlowdon
    Jan 3, 2020
    8
    The first major expansion for Civilization VI of course adds the usual new leaders and nations, but its the new 'era' and 'loyalty' mechanics that will be of more interest to fans of the series.

    The good news is they both work well as an extension of the base game, adding extra complexity and ensuring that you have to keep active during peace times and whilst at war. For what it offers    The first major expansion for Civilization VI of course adds the usual new leaders and nations, but its the new 'era' and 'loyalty' mechanics that will be of more interest to fans of the series.

    The good news is they both work well as an extension of the base game, adding extra complexity and ensuring that you have to keep active during peace times and whilst at war. For what it offers it is arguably a little too expensive at full price but there are always plenty of offers on Steam so anyone that enjoyed Civ VI would do well to pick this up.    … Expand
  8. plato1123
    Jul 13, 2019
    3
    They have made some improvements in this add on but they've made the loyalty system much too strong and really confusing so you'll find cities randomly rebelling over and over and over again. And they should have had dissidents appear and try to take your city, instead they appear and they've already taken your city. You really have to read the instructions to figure out what the f isThey have made some improvements in this add on but they've made the loyalty system much too strong and really confusing so you'll find cities randomly rebelling over and over and over again. And they should have had dissidents appear and try to take your city, instead they appear and they've already taken your city. You really have to read the instructions to figure out what the f is going on. I think on some level it's realistic but it's just not obvious playing it what the issue is or what it's happening and it kind of ruins the fun. On cities you've conquered YOU MUST put a governor in the city or the AI will simply take the city away from you... over and over and over again. This is one of the few things that threw me and made me feel crazy and angry. Otherwise it's pretty good.… Expand
  9. NezharMC
    May 3, 2019
    6
    A decent expansion that fixes a bit of stupidity of the AI, although leaving the most glaring holes. A system of loyalty and dark/golden ages. A few leaders to take advantage of the new features and some escenarios. Probably the weakest of all expansions of the history of civilization but cool on discount.

    It adds a bit more of strategy on warmongering.
  10. DrHasslich
    Mar 11, 2019
    8
    AI still sucks. Way to many push notes for uninteresting stuff. Otherwise i like the changes.
  11. ChoicestGames
    Feb 15, 2019
    8
    Rise and Fall is to Civ VI what Gods and Kings was to Civ V: it's not as huge a paradigm shift as Brave New World was to the previous Civ but it does add an extra layer of complexity (which some may or may not like) with the addition of new gameplay mechanics involving Golden Ages, Historic Moments, Governors and Loyalty. The expansion also brings along what you'd expect in a CivRise and Fall is to Civ VI what Gods and Kings was to Civ V: it's not as huge a paradigm shift as Brave New World was to the previous Civ but it does add an extra layer of complexity (which some may or may not like) with the addition of new gameplay mechanics involving Golden Ages, Historic Moments, Governors and Loyalty. The expansion also brings along what you'd expect in a Civ expansion, including more leaders, more civs, more wonders and more improvements. Is it enough to make you ignore some of its shortcomings? I think so and that's why I still enjoy playing Civ VI: I'm definitely looking forward to the new expansion which is just around the corner.… Expand
  12. NeoNarco
    Jan 1, 2019
    1
    CIVILIZATION VI IS THE WORSE IN THE SAGA.
    It´s bad, it´s just plain bad, you click on the right, and points to the left. Select a unit and it will open a menu that doesn´t have anything to do with it. Oh, you have units available, how about I tell you to go to the next round? You just conquered a city? oh don´t worry, you can keep it, if the war finishes in the next 3 rounds.
    Was this    CIVILIZATION VI IS THE WORSE IN THE SAGA.
    It´s bad, it´s just plain bad, you click on the right, and points to the left. Select a unit and it will open a menu that doesn´t have anything to do with it. Oh, you have units available, how about I tell you to go to the next round? You just conquered a city? oh don´t worry, you can keep it, if the war finishes in the next 3 rounds.
    Was this programed by a blind monkey with parkinsons?
    FCK THIS GAME. FCK THE DEVELOPERS. FCK 2K FOR PUBLISHING CRAP LIKE THIS.
    They´ve taken a beloved saga and turned it into the biggest dissapointment of 2018, since Civ IV that they can´t do a good game (maybe they are too focused on SCREWING THE FANS UP instead of making a decent game).
    Hey 2K, Firaxis, next time you are going to rape your customers, at least give us something good, just something, because not even the ost keeps the same volume from one song to the other, which by the way are AWEFUL, some gutural song, some chinese harp and the plain base melody just to mention a few.
    I still can´t believe something like this exists...and not only that, they even have the balls to publish and release an expansion....to make this crap into a tiranosaurus crap.
    What a waste of time.    … Expand
  13. TsukasaHiiragi
    Nov 26, 2018
    0
    The loyalty system sucks, completely obliterates many fun aspects of the original Civ 6 and adds frustrating elements which punish the player 100 times more, and the AI does not seem to be effected by the same changes. You could place down a city and have it rebel in several turns without you ever having the opportunity to give the citizens what they want, then have it in a constantThe loyalty system sucks, completely obliterates many fun aspects of the original Civ 6 and adds frustrating elements which punish the player 100 times more, and the AI does not seem to be effected by the same changes. You could place down a city and have it rebel in several turns without you ever having the opportunity to give the citizens what they want, then have it in a constant state of revolt/capture/revolt until you just give up and raze it in disgust.

    Lets talk about settling on a new continent? Nope~ better bring an army and keep recapturing that city. In a nutshell, this is borderline broken and at best just annoying content that adds more frustration to the 'average' civ player, this is purely for the elitist neckbeard players who take the game so incredibly serious and micromanage everything down to each and ever square, everyone else be damned, this DLC is basically that - not for casual civ players period.

    Loyalty is best explained as removing the players ability to build cities remotely near other cities period, further reducing the ability to have sprawling multi-Continent spanning civilizations otherwise the punishments for the player are so severe, it wastes the players time considerably. But what if you start close to multiple rival civilizations? Then expect to run into loyalty based problems constantly, and for the most part - the player is always on the losing end of those battles.

    Domination mode suffers too, no more sending over a large army to capture an enemy civilization, because it'll just loyalty flip within 5 turns -constantly- forcing you into pretty much razing city after city unless you want to micromanage loyalty so carefully as you can find an opening so you could actually keep a city for yourself and start a foothold.

    I could go on and on, just read the more critical responses and you'll see why the harsh comments, it's going to boil down to one factor, how much micro-managing are you willing to put up with, how much frustration are you willing to put up with, this expansion makes VI somehow makes the game worse - please, do yourself a favor and just pick up Civilization V and the expansions, those are so much better.    … Expand
  14. Sh4rk82
    Nov 24, 2018
    7
    I appreciated new features. They make gameplay more deep and interesting. The new expansion is base on mainly on the introduction of loyalty and dark/golden age progressing through the ages. Raise and fall introduce new civilitations also. Maybe no an essential expansion but if you want expand and make your game bit better you should buy it. In general I am happy of Civ Raise and Fall.
  15. SneakyBasterd
    Nov 21, 2018
    1
    Overpriced DLC for biggest Civ failure, unplayable and horrible Civ 6. Rise and Fall changes almost nothing. They just want more and more money, Now they charge 40 EUR for every DLC, it means whole game costs like a used car. Dont buy it.
  16. Redstripe420
    Aug 20, 2018
    10
    This games great, ive played Civ 5 and this one. This ones hands down better, looks way better, and the game mechanics work better too.
  17. Jamppa
    Aug 1, 2018
    8
    I love that they brought a completely new part of gameplay. The game needs to evolve for it to be fun to play and this dlc added about 30 hours to my time in this game and the game was more enjoyable then before. The dlc wasn't revolutionary or amazing, but i think it was successful enough to give it a 8/10.
  18. chicoruso
    Jul 19, 2018
    0
    I gave 1 for Civilization 6, so I will give 0 for Rise and Fall. The developers resolved none of the problems that existed in Civ6:
    - Cartoon Graphics
    - stupid Civics Tree that makes gameplay really ridiculous, so one can have Computers without even knowing Elecrticity lol. - Useless Wonders (instead of revising them, they introduced even more useless Wonders) - just in case you don't    I gave 1 for Civilization 6, so I will give 0 for Rise and Fall. The developers resolved none of the problems that existed in Civ6:
    - Cartoon Graphics
    - stupid Civics Tree that makes gameplay really ridiculous, so one can have Computers without even knowing Elecrticity lol.
    - Useless Wonders (instead of revising them, they introduced even more useless Wonders) - just in case you don't know why they are useless - they are too costly and the placement of them is so ridiculous, basically there is no need to bother building more than 1 or 2 (and there are more than 20 in the game), so more than 90% of them are absolute waste of... whatever.
    - Game is not really user friendly and countavle - counting the religious influence from other cities you have to look for those arrows, same things refers to the external tourism output - you can see it, but how it grows you basically have to calculate yourself (and this is a Culture vistory main prerequisite).
    - Religion victory is impossible in multiplayer, cause any military unit can kill your missionaries (in a single player game the AI is sooooo stupid that it won't do that), which makes religious victory a step back vs diplomatic vistory in Civ5 (that at least had sense).

    Instead of focusing on what's matter - Firaxis just added more ridiculous stuff
    - Golden/Dark ages - just more graphics at the end of every Age and a small and useless bonus on the top of that.continue
    - Governors - another complicated and quite useless concept that just make the game less countable.

    Resume: another project that just want to get more money from the famous franchise. Don't waste your money. Seriously, just don't.    … Expand
  19. Ru677
    Apr 28, 2018
    0
    Such a disregard for his game and fans of the series is a disgrace! How can this be ?!
  20. Ganoba
    Apr 21, 2018
    4
    Civilization is my favorite franchising, but this game have so mane bugs and it seems that the developers don't care to fix ....
  21. Isengardtom
    Apr 14, 2018
    9
    Great addition to an already great game.
    I love the loyalty mechanic and how it all glues in together with the other 2 major new features: ages and governors.
    Also 8 new civs and 9 leaders were added. As well as new (natural) wonders, new spy mechanics, a new government building. Other new features include the change in Alliances and the emergency system. All great additions, although    Great addition to an already great game.
    I love the loyalty mechanic and how it all glues in together with the other 2 major new features: ages and governors.
    Also 8 new civs and 9 leaders were added. As well as new (natural) wonders, new spy mechanics, a new government building. Other new features include the change in Alliances and the emergency system. All great additions, although the emergency system needs a bit more tweaking in my view
    What’s good about Firaxis is that they continue to update and rebalance the game and listen to a lot of feedback. Since launch in February there’s been one update already and another coming very soon.    … Expand
  22. YaBoiRoice
    Apr 8, 2018
    6
    This expansion has added a lot to Civilization VI and I like a lot about it. The loyalty system makes the game way more realistic and while it can be annoying sometimes I like it overall. Governors can really improve a city and have a large impact on your game, which I really like as well. The eras feature is original, but I have some issues with it. I feel like in some occasions you don'tThis expansion has added a lot to Civilization VI and I like a lot about it. The loyalty system makes the game way more realistic and while it can be annoying sometimes I like it overall. Governors can really improve a city and have a large impact on your game, which I really like as well. The eras feature is original, but I have some issues with it. I feel like in some occasions you don't get era score when you really deserve it and the bonuses you get out of a golden age aren't really game-changing. The ways to get bonus era score after you've gone through a normal age are very limited and don't have a large impact. Overall, I think the era system would've worked better with more variety regarding ways to get era score and rewards you get after a golden or heroic era. The new leaders and troops are interesting and fairly balanced - I don't have complaints in that regard. My last problem with the expansion is that it didn't improve the AI, especially the combat AI - it's still horrible. To summarize Rise or Fall is an OK expansion to a great game, but I feel it could've been even better.… Expand
  23. Tomle1202
    Apr 5, 2018
    8
    Rise and Fall soars with newly added features and minor tweaks, but does not bring about enough changes to complete the flawed title of Sid Meier's Civilization VI.
  24. acmehne
    Apr 3, 2018
    4
    This game has many of the same problems that civ 5 has: glitching/freezing, AI that will act ridiculously (in my first game I was at peace with the english while they were attacking me). Like in civ 5, terrain that produces production is disproportionately valueable in the beginning. Like in civ 5, there is no functional map editor to create starting positions and what not to playThis game has many of the same problems that civ 5 has: glitching/freezing, AI that will act ridiculously (in my first game I was at peace with the english while they were attacking me). Like in civ 5, terrain that produces production is disproportionately valueable in the beginning. Like in civ 5, there is no functional map editor to create starting positions and what not to play made-up scenarios, which even civ 2 had. like civ 5, the graphics are fancy. happiness is city level, which (with housing) makes growing cities more difficult, favoring ICS strategy. Definately not worth the $.… Expand
  25. raadoo
    Mar 11, 2018
    5
    it's a dlc at best, not really an expansion. guess they put most resources into the promotional video... basically you get "eras" which is nothing more than "choose your (not that significant) bonus for this era". and "loyalty", meaning "don't settle to close to other civs", and the borders system in civ4 worked much better - here borders don't change - it's all or nothing. there are alsoit's a dlc at best, not really an expansion. guess they put most resources into the promotional video... basically you get "eras" which is nothing more than "choose your (not that significant) bonus for this era". and "loyalty", meaning "don't settle to close to other civs", and the borders system in civ4 worked much better - here borders don't change - it's all or nothing. there are also minor other changes which are good (like the casus belli for breaking a promise) but most of them should be in the base game from the beginning (like, what's the point of promises if there's no penalty for breaking a promise). braindead ai, poor diplomacy, lacking ui, questionable artistic choices, boring end-game are still here. the whole game is still decent (that's why i gave 5) but if next "expansions" are so irrelevant as this one, civ6 will never be better than 5 or 4. the magic is lost, you no longer feel you're leading a civlization trying to outsmart your opponents and making strategic choices, you feel you're playing a dumb board game with simple rules that gets boring after you survive early game...… Expand
  26. Miguelon
    Mar 5, 2018
    3
    A pesar de la expansión ésta es la peor de todas las series de civilización, el problema para mí sigue siendo el mismo, en cuanto la partida avanza un poco lo único que puedes hacer el pulsar el botón de siguiente turno, cada cosa que construyes tarda una cantidad ridícula de turnos, una partida de civilización 6 se puede resumir en tres palabras, click, click, click....
  27. Ectomorph
    Mar 4, 2018
    8
    I like the new mechanics. There is a heavy focus on loyalty. It is a pressure system applied by citizens and can be affected by the new grand ages and governors. You have to be careful keeping your pressure high, also considering it when founding new or capturing enemy cities.
  28. ametist_pro
    Mar 3, 2018
    0
    1. New content on 2-3 hours gamplay...
    2. They called it not DLC, they called it "Expension". Good marketing move Firaxis, but no.

    Total: garbage DLC + Big price = great disappointment.
  29. mazz0
    Feb 24, 2018
    2
    It just doesn’t add anything of any significance. The biggest addition is city loyalty, which basically boils down to don’t build a city nearer to more rival cities than to your own. That’s the single biggest new gameplay concept you’ll have to consider in this expansion, everything else is just minor (completely irrelevant in most cases) effects applied pretty much arbitrarily. NotIt just doesn’t add anything of any significance. The biggest addition is city loyalty, which basically boils down to don’t build a city nearer to more rival cities than to your own. That’s the single biggest new gameplay concept you’ll have to consider in this expansion, everything else is just minor (completely irrelevant in most cases) effects applied pretty much arbitrarily. Not randomly as such, but just as a result of things that happen regardless, so they don’t give you anything new to plan. To break it down:

    Ages (Dark, Golden): The only notable effect of these is to increase or decrease city loyalty. This comes in to play if you have a city that’s outnumbered by nearby rivals - you might lose it (or gain a rival’s) in a dark age. This is something you can plan for, and is the only new thing in the expansion that you’ll have to think about (ie don’t put your own cities out on their own where you’ll lose them, and if a rival settles on bearish to you, on its own, you could try to take it by building your own cities nearby, if that fits your overall strategy, or you think it’s owrth changing your strategy just to take one city).

    So how do you get dark and golden ages? Through “era points”, which are rewards for doing stuff you’d do anyway, like clearing barbarian camps, building wonders, being first to discover things, changing government, etc. It doesn’t alter how you think about the game, it just happens. It also seems totally unbalanced to me - every time I’ve played I’ve got golden eras in the first one or two, mostly thanks to killing barbarians, then a dark age as there was bugger all I could do to get era points.

    Governors. You can recruit these and give them little perks, and put one in a city to increase loyalty there. The perks are mostly ignorable, as is the loyalty most of the time. Nothing to actually plan for with these, save one that unlocks some new improvements which are slightly cool.

    And that’s it. Bottom line - it doesn’t make the game any deeper. It alters it slightly, and not necessarily for the better. Would have got 5/10 if it had been a free patch.

    Of course, it also adds new civs and wonders, which are nice, but soooooooo not worth what Firaxis charges for them.    … Expand
  30. krj38
    Feb 19, 2018
    8
    I have to say that after my first playthrough, I'm looking forward to playing more of the expansion. However, I feel I must firstly mention what kind of gamer I am, since my perspective weights in heavily on my thoughts and score. I play the game as a pastime, in hot seat mode with one more player against AIs on King difficulty and, on principle, am not striving or enjoying dominationI have to say that after my first playthrough, I'm looking forward to playing more of the expansion. However, I feel I must firstly mention what kind of gamer I am, since my perspective weights in heavily on my thoughts and score. I play the game as a pastime, in hot seat mode with one more player against AIs on King difficulty and, on principle, am not striving or enjoying domination victories. I like to grow and manage my own cities and compete against 'balanced opponents' (preferably such who don't beat me, but are challenging through the eras). The fist game of Rise and Fall I had was probably the most fun I had with Civ VI since its release.

    Note: I might update my thoughts collected here after a couple of more games.

    What I liked:
    + The difficulty of playing against the AI. I played the vanilla game with the Smoother Difficulty mod, but decided to try stock Rise and Fall to see whether there was an improvement. I don't know for sure yet, but the AI did way better than before since I had a bad start, but I did not outclass the AI in late game the way I used to before. The game ended by turn 350 and the top AIs were scientifically and culturally on a similar level to human players, something I found vastly entertaining. The fist game was not too easy to become boring and not too difficult to become frustrating.
    + some adjustments to social policies removing some easily exploitable possibilities from the base game,
    + the dark/golden/normal era system adding a nice layer of competition (though I find heroic ages to be slightly too strong; they are from my experience too easy to score and the 3 bonuses to choose from is an overkill),
    + more variety, since new Civs, units and wonders are always welcome.

    What I didn't like:
    - overall, during wars the AI did slightly better than before, but that's nothing to write home about,
    - the AI's diplomacy has somewhat improved too, the decision the AI made did not seem so erratic, but the agendas system remains too punishing (negative modifiers from different governments or personal agendas, like the Viking's, are nearly impossible to mitigate by other actions),
    - some of the new Civs seem very strong; especially Korea with its insane bonuses and unique district,

    What I didn't like as much as I hoped or have mixed feelings about:
    - while governors are a nice addition, subjectively I didn't feel enthralled by managing another mechanic; also, some governors seem to be obviously better than others,
    - the loyalty system is interesting, it slows down conquest or allows to expand your empire during peaceful playthroughs - this is a plus; however, it appears to 'ruin' the early game by emphasising the need to rush your settlers and grab land even more than before because if you linger or have a bad start (e.g. your progress is hampered by barbarians) you won't be able to hold your newly settle cities due to loyalty pressure. I feel that the loyalty system in the early game could use some tweaking,
    - the emergency mechanic sounds amazing on paper, but due to the AI's ineptitude its implementation is rather mediocre and, as such, had marginal impact on my playthrough. However, in principle it is fun and may easily reward an active player.

    Overall, for a casual player who enjoys leading a civilisation, the expansion should be a fun addition to the vanilla mechanics which offers variety and freshness. For hardcore players who enjoy domination and want a wargame, not so much.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

73
#73 Best PC Game of 2018
72
#72 Most Discussed PC Game of 2018
94
#94 Most Shared PC Game of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 48 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 48
  3. Negative: 1 out of 48
  1. Worth Playing
    Apr 25, 2018
    70
    There's no real reason to go for Rise and Fall unless you're a huge Civ VI nut who needs more content. The line between expansion and DLC is thin, and Rise and Fall lands right on the line. It's worth buying if you want more Civilization, but casual players may want to wait for a price drop or a meatier expansion.
    Read full review
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 24, 2018
    40
    Plenty of numbers, indicators and conditions that mostly have no real effect. And also, ideas built on unsteady legs. Please meet a modern Civilization and its DLC. [Issue#283]
  3. Games.cz
    Apr 24, 2018
    60
    Add-on full of good, but unfinished ideas, spoiled by an artificial intelligence. However, this extension enriches the Sixth Civilization, but certainly not enough to convince a fan to buy it, especially when the price is not cheap.
    Read full review
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