Sid Meier's Civilization VI

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1628 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 947 out of 1628
  2. Mixed: 376 out of 1628
  3. Negative: 305 out of 1628
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  1. Barnes1987
    Mar 6, 2017
    10
    At first i was a little worried about the new changes made, but after a few games you realise that this game is every bit as good as the last one if not better. Highly recommended.
  2. OraandLink933
    Feb 27, 2017
    9
    Goddamn good. I have not played a previous Civilization game, except for a little bit of Civ 3, where I could not figure out how to do ANYTHING, but chalk that up to my own stupidity. I am probably going to invest in Civ 5 at some later date, but for the moment, I love Civ 6, even if the AI and diplomacy is a bit ****
  3. MMCD
    Feb 24, 2017
    1
    Unfun, this is one of the 'bad Civs' - 3, 5, and 6 are bad
    the good civs are : "1,2,4"
    4 is the best. This is boring, tedious, and simplified. its not a good game or addition to the franchise.
  4. smilzoboboz
    Feb 22, 2017
    7
    A good Civilization game, evolved from Civilization V, with great mechanics on a bad implementation.

    I liked a lot the addition of districts, cards and differentiation of social and science advancement trees. I also welcomed the new religious victory condition (even if it's kinda flawed, will write about it later). On the other hand the new graphic style and the lack of “penalties”    A good Civilization game, evolved from Civilization V, with great mechanics on a bad implementation.

    I liked a lot the addition of districts, cards and differentiation of social and science advancement trees. I also welcomed the new religious victory condition (even if it's kinda flawed, will write about it later).

    On the other hand the new graphic style and the lack of “penalties” for large empires (the game actually forces you to rush creating new cities in your empire, will write about it later) dragged things a bit down for me.

    So, in detail, the mechanics of this new Civilization game are very good, overall positively evolved from Civilization V, but since the game forces you to rush on city building you get two bad side effects:
    Capturing cities feels like a joke, for example you may end up capturing 10 to 15 cities in just a few turns with no real side effect on your empire.
    For the same reason (too many cities) religious victory condition is a mess, you will see 3~4 priests per city battling (yeah… that is lame) for religious supremacy which is beyond annoying.
    Again for the same reason it's just easier to colonize to get certain resources rather than initiate trading with other empires or trying to acquire influence over state-cities.
    To get you the idea, totally forget about Civilization V Arrigo Dandolo play style, it's just impossible with the current state of the game.

    Something I was worried about, because so many people pointed that out, was bad AI, but I have to say that in my 2 games AI was quite good, just a bit too aggressive, in everything (e.g. Teddy building a city in a tile between two of my cities, ending up with a oblong, space crippled city or Hojo declaring war just to move through my territory).
    Finally I have to say that at the moment leaders offer you a little bit of variance only at the very start of the game, middle and ending phases of the game are more or less the same whichever leader you get to play: huge empires, fought at least two or more wars, fairly high in all compartments (science, culture, etc).

    Would I recommend this game, yes, no doubt about it, but don't get it right now, wait till a few DLC are out (or even better a GOTY edition “final” pack) because there are both “flaws” and lack of diversity at the moment.    … Expand
  5. apostaganha
    Feb 17, 2017
    4
    What a disappointment, the graphics seems to be for a 10 year old kid. Its frustrating starting a game and always come back to V... It seems unreal but CIV 5 are 100 times better.
  6. zbironson
    Jan 8, 2017
    4
    The game has lack of feedback to player. I felt the quantaty has replaced the quality. Hundreds of small choices which seems to effect nothing. I gave up after 4 hours of playing, because it felt as endless clicking "Next turn".
    Maybe because it's my first game in the series...
  7. pierrem
    Jan 8, 2017
    3
    Very few novelties, AI dumber than ever, religion handled the worst possible way... A CIV V , only slightly different, but not for the better. Interface has been made really unfriendly compared to CIV V.
    The achievements needed to increase research speed are basically a "double punishment" when you don't have the right ressources from the strart. Really unbalanced.
    The musics are... like    Very few novelties, AI dumber than ever, religion handled the worst possible way... A CIV V , only slightly different, but not for the better. Interface has been made really unfriendly compared to CIV V.
    The achievements needed to increase research speed are basically a "double punishment" when you don't have the right ressources from the strart. Really unbalanced.
    The musics are... like the game. Well chosen, but in a version that feels like the musicians were about to commit suicide.    … Expand
  8. Dictat0R
    Jan 6, 2017
    4
    It wasn't very fun for me. I couldn't make much sense in many things, I tried for 4 hours. I don't play it any more it's boring. And the AI didn't make any sense after one encounter I had....
  9. ricklongo
    Jan 3, 2017
    9
    Looking back at my video-gaming life, I don't think any franchise has gotten more of my hours than Sid Meier's Civilization. There's just something extremely alluring about starting a small stone age empire and expanding it as you see fit until the actual future, and the turn-based nature of the series gets me hopelessly addicted every time. Civ VI was no different, even though at launchLooking back at my video-gaming life, I don't think any franchise has gotten more of my hours than Sid Meier's Civilization. There's just something extremely alluring about starting a small stone age empire and expanding it as you see fit until the actual future, and the turn-based nature of the series gets me hopelessly addicted every time. Civ VI was no different, even though at launch it didn't quite rise to the heights of the last couple of numbered entries.

    If you're a newcomer, here's how it works: the game begings by placing you (or rather, your first settler) in a suitable spot for a first city. You immediately build it and start managing several outputs, such as gold, production, food, science, faith, and culture. Each output allows you to develop your empire (for example: science allows you to discover new technologies, while production lets your city generate buildings and military troops).

    As you explore, you'll come across new landscapes and natural resources, which allow you to build better troops and new structures, including wonders of the world. And of course, you'll come across other civilizations, which can be befriended or antagonized at your leisure.

    Civ VI's biggest innovation is how it utilizes tiles around each city you build. Now, each new building, zone or improvement has to go on a specific tile. This means you'll end up with cities that are more focused than before, which adds a lot of strategic nuance. If you settled near a mountain, a land feature which gives several science bonuses, you'll probably want that city to focus on science. Likewise, desert tiles allow you to build important one-per-world wonders, such as the Pyramids or Petra. This sort of decision making is what makes Civ amazing, and here the process is improved by the added depth.

    With the steps that were taken in order to streamline this entry, Civ VI is probably the most accessible the series has ever been. That's certainly a good thing, after all, Civ's barrier of entry can be sky-high, with a veritable encyclopedia of concepts to grasp. Some of those decisions go over less well in the strategic side, such as not limiting resource usage to the amount of sources you have. Still, that's a minor qualm in the big scheme of things, and it does mean less numbers to track.

    Artificial intelligence, which has historically been a sore spot in the series, is an actual problem, however. In fact, at launch, it was nearly non-functional. For example: a neighbouring civ who is much weaker than you in every way will keep sending prophets to convert your cities to their faith, even after you threatened them with swift military action. This makes it very hard to play that oh-so-satisfying diplomatic game, although this has been cited as a point of continuous improvement by developer Firaxis.

    TL;DR:
    Civ VI is awesome, but then again, it would take a lot of effort to make any Civ game anything but. It still ranks behind IV and V in my book currently, but the new foundations are solid enough that I can see it overtaking those beloved entries as Firaxis's continuous quality improvement does its thing. Until then, what you need to know is that it's as addictive as ever. Just take care to not have an entire weekend pass in the blink of an eye while you explore, build, and wage war. It's certainly happened to me, uh, a 'few' times in the last twenty years.

    Rating: 9.0    … Expand
  10. halldors78
    Jan 3, 2017
    6
    Started the game and it looks very good and plays greatly and all that but the main thing i have against it is that i can't use the num keys for unit movement wich has been possible in any civilization up till now, that just barely makes it playable on my laptop, except when im sitting in a very good position with a real mouse instead of the touchpad. and until they will fix this wichStarted the game and it looks very good and plays greatly and all that but the main thing i have against it is that i can't use the num keys for unit movement wich has been possible in any civilization up till now, that just barely makes it playable on my laptop, except when im sitting in a very good position with a real mouse instead of the touchpad. and until they will fix this wich should be this big of a problem i will not play the game.… Expand
  11. rodericrinehart
    Jan 1, 2017
    10
    This is the best Civilization yet and feels like it has already has a major expansion. It took everything good from IV and V and combined them with some new stuff like districts and honestly a gorgeous art style. I've played them all and this one is the best and will continue to add and improve for years!
  12. maxchaos1
    Jan 1, 2017
    2
    The new city planning is terrible, deals and deals information are incomplete, obnoxious and pure hell. Enemy AI plays for a few key wonders and leaves the rest of them to you, no matter how behind you are. If you go to war with an AI civ, expect a flood of chariots or horsemen in the early stages and flood of chariots or horseman in the information era as well. They not only do notThe new city planning is terrible, deals and deals information are incomplete, obnoxious and pure hell. Enemy AI plays for a few key wonders and leaves the rest of them to you, no matter how behind you are. If you go to war with an AI civ, expect a flood of chariots or horsemen in the early stages and flood of chariots or horseman in the information era as well. They not only do not upgrade their units, they do not build the new ones as well. The AI fails even harder when sieging cities and ocean battles.
    The best ideas and features of Civilization series were replaced by half assed 4x-strategy-action-rpg blur, that is trying to appeal to the younger or dummier auditory.    … Expand
  13. Nerm_Ski
    Dec 29, 2016
    4
    This is one BAFFLING CIV EXPERIENCE!!!! Its good and bad and ugly all at once!
    This game feels a lot like copy and paste! And it feels like it has been heavily influenced by the games available on mobile (cell) phones. I mean look at the graphics.
    The game is running in the back ground but I had to stop to write this as I cant be the only one experiencing this. Two new concepts. (first    This is one BAFFLING CIV EXPERIENCE!!!! Its good and bad and ugly all at once!
    This game feels a lot like copy and paste! And it feels like it has been heavily influenced by the games available on mobile (cell) phones. I mean look at the graphics.
    The game is running in the back ground but I had to stop to write this as I cant be the only one experiencing this.
    Two new concepts. (first is mainly for experienced players, second is universal. Also the second is quite long, so you might want to make a cup of tea now before you get there!)

    One: Districts, which are pretty good I have to say. Good way of spreading specialities and forcing us to really think about the development of our cities, and limits Wonder Production so I can no longer have a really "Wonderful" city (eh eh, see what I did there!) while the rest of the empire actually does everything else! Now a lot of wonders require adjacency to a specific district. More to it but you get the idea. Well thought out new concept, it seems.

    Two: Shocking User Interface. I mean this is bad! Let me elaborate.
    *I like edge scrolling, just a preference on these type of games. Now the buttons at the top to access Religion, Great People and all the rest of it are above the threshold for the scroll. Which means that when I am looking at an area or City and want to access the menus, the map scrolls away from my desired location, before the mouse pointer gets to the buttons. I mean seriously guys, was that tested?
    *Overlays on Overlays. No more right click to see what resources and terrain a tile has. Just hover the mouse over the tile and it displays info. Great. However problems arise when you get the notifications on the side, which you can also hover over to see what the say. What happens. The info of the tile in the background pops up over the info of the notification. This is so poor.
    *The info does not show as updated when changes are to a cities resource gathering. Ie. I select a city, currently has 16 turns to finish building. Select more production based resources. Production reduced to 8 turns, however city on world map still shows 16! I have a screenshot. Why must I wait till the next turn for updated info on world map?
    *Rigidity! No longer is information easy to access and generally all in one place. City options can only be accessed (by mouse this is, not hotkeys) by clicking the specific icon. IE, Click a city, you now see its production in a pretty picture telling you how many turns remain. However you can't access production by clicking it. Nope, you must select the SMALLER production icon to change it. Another example is (and this again is poor) you can't double click a city and be taken to its citizen screen, instead you must click the city and then again click the smaller citizen icon.
    *The most confusing fog of war I have ever encountered. Now Fog can be very disorientating at the best of times, but it shouldn't be an issue when I'm sat looking at a screen. Instead of just fading, shading or blurring; the areas you have explored but can longer see. You are treated to a nice parchment, hand drawn, tea stained colour looking map. Very pretty, it is. Why the beige? seriously why cant the colour of the terrain under the fog be visible. I mean, a unit went there, saw it is green grassland, so why the beige? I find it actually makes settler planning a little trickier.

    Sneaky third point(s)
    *No Personality. You can't change the name of your leader or empire.
    *The graphics are really poor. I want the completion of a wonder to be, well wondrous but the graphics make it look so cheap.
    *This game is far too dumbed down compared to other civ games. Bring back everything from Alpha Centuri, I mean everything. Let the players really work it out. Its a strategy game after all so cater to the market instead of trying to be more accessible in order to increase sales. (i expect alot of people to disagree with me on this one).

    I must conclude as I am out of space.
    As stated in the opening this is a very confusing experience. It is Civ! it has all the necessary elements for you to be able to enjoy the strategy game. It also comes with a lot of nonsense, as mentioned above.

    Score Breakdown
    1 For Turning Up
    1 For Effort
    1 For Sean Bean (got to love Beanie)
    1 For new districts feature and because I love Sid Meier's games (no , that should not therefore be two points. Can't be trading on old glories!!!
    Total 4 out of 10

    No points for: graphics, immersion/customisation, user friendliness (I could raise another point about it's poor explanations), user interface, the price, for trying to reinvent the wheel when all you needed was new rims!    … Expand
  14. Thazari
    Dec 27, 2016
    0
    Huge disappointment. When you start the game, you have almost no building options for structures and units, and everything just takes a zillion turns to get unlocked or constructed. Diplomacy and AI are a mess and graphics look unclear and unappealing. After 4 hours of playing I still didn't feel I had accomplished anything, so I stopped as I have way better games to spend my time on.Huge disappointment. When you start the game, you have almost no building options for structures and units, and everything just takes a zillion turns to get unlocked or constructed. Diplomacy and AI are a mess and graphics look unclear and unappealing. After 4 hours of playing I still didn't feel I had accomplished anything, so I stopped as I have way better games to spend my time on.

    The only good thing is the city management with the tiles surrounding the city having different benefits, which makes city planning a bit more interactive, although this is not always very balanced.    … Expand
  15. disappointedgam
    Dec 26, 2016
    10
    Civ6 is truly a worthy successor to its predecessors. The gameplay is great, I love the visual style, and I've lost many many hours to playing it. Warning, it is VERY addicting!
  16. GamingPoptartTV
    Dec 26, 2016
    7
    It's better than vanilla Civ 5 but nowhere near as good as Civ 5 with all the expansions. The main problem it suffers from is lack of innovation. Not a lot of things have changed since the previous title. Combat is the same, trade routes work the same, so does religion, enemy AI is just as stupid, etc.

    There are some areas where the game did some modifications though, the most    It's better than vanilla Civ 5 but nowhere near as good as Civ 5 with all the expansions. The main problem it suffers from is lack of innovation. Not a lot of things have changed since the previous title. Combat is the same, trade routes work the same, so does religion, enemy AI is just as stupid, etc.

    There are some areas where the game did some modifications though, the most noticeable being the Districts. This makes you "specialize" your cities as you can no longer build all types of buildings in the city and have to think very well what you build considering the amount of tiles you have available. The social policy system has been changed as well, for the worse in my opinion, as now you gain some social cards when researching a social policy and you can select the bonus of a number of these cards depending on what goverment you have. Again, like in Civ 5 there is no downside to any form of goverment and some of the combinations you make don't even make sense(for example you can drag the Rationalism Card to a Theocracy and you don't get any penalty).

    One thing that I liked is that you can boost your research of Tech and Social by making certain actions in the game. For example, building a number of Quarries can boost your Research towards Mansory, reducing the time you need to research this tech, or defeating barbarians can boost you research of Bronze Working and so on. This is the best addition in my opinion as you are no longer need to put a lot of effort in creating Science and Culture, especially if you like to play Military.

    I would rate this higher if it wasn't however for the horrible presentation of the game. I think everyone is already familiar with the horrible iPad graphics. Look, nobody expected this to have Battlefield graphics and you can talk all you want about unique art style but there is no excuse for a 60 dollar game in 2016 to look like a Fermium iPad game, especially when it looks worse than its predecessor. The sound isn't any better either. The Main Menu theme is fine and the choice of Sean Bean as the narrator is excellent, but the music in the main game sucks. Previous Civ games had classical music to listen to as you built your empire. This game has the type of generic crap that you usually hear in Facebook games.

    My 2 cents? Wait for the price to drop or at least for some mods to show up.    … Expand
  17. Violett
    Dec 25, 2016
    6
    Another Civilization ... Yawn
    Well, I didn't rate this game low, because actually the game is quite good for step-by-step strategy game - with one BUT. This game is great BUT only for those who play Civ for the first time.
    Graphics is good, the game has its depth, but we saw it already - in Civ 5, Civ 4, and so on. For me the best Civs was Civ 2 and 3 - Civ 5 was good also, but this is    Another Civilization ... Yawn
    Well, I didn't rate this game low, because actually the game is quite good for step-by-step strategy game - with one BUT. This game is great BUT only for those who play Civ for the first time.
    Graphics is good, the game has its depth, but we saw it already - in Civ 5, Civ 4, and so on. For me the best Civs was Civ 2 and 3 - Civ 5 was good also, but this is another Civ with updated graphics and slightly updated gameplay. AI is still stupid as a trunk. Same units, same technologies. I understand there is nothing to replace tank and spearman in Civ games, but why to make another same game then? What next? Civ 7, Civ 8, Civ 9?    … Expand
  18. Orlandeu
    Dec 25, 2016
    8
    Compared to civilization 5 which i think it was awesome, this have definitely some plus and minus. Briefly 1 plus is more diplomacy, 1 minus is cartoon looking is not appropriate with civilization soul.
  19. MCG2017
    Dec 14, 2016
    4
    DOWNER.
    Dunno where to start this.
    This game is terrible. Most dissapppointless game 2016. Devs where supposed to merge all the features from civ 5 and brave new world ( like tourism and religion ) and improve them with new style and new ideas ( sadly the ONLY NEW feature is districts ). The result is really awfull from a to z. Graphics are a shame. Cartoonish style is totally awkward    DOWNER.
    Dunno where to start this.
    This game is terrible. Most dissapppointless game 2016.
    Devs where supposed to merge all the features from civ 5 and brave new world ( like tourism and religion ) and improve them with new style and new ideas ( sadly the ONLY NEW feature is districts ).
    The result is really awfull from a to z.
    Graphics are a shame. Cartoonish style is totally awkward and destroys the xperience of playing a game based in a real world. Theres no sense of realism whatsoever. U feel like staring at a treasure map from some comic not to a rich realistic world ( civ 5 did very well on world graphics and they simply downgrade them ). Graphs from cities are dull. Textures are clunky and boring, also for unities.
    THE AI… they created a new concept.. AS ( Artificial Stupidity ). No further comments. Is a shame.
    Im only talking bout fatal errors otherwise this will be bigger than the bible:
    1) Resources: WHERES gold?.... They ripped the most important resource of human history for social and economy development… and ITS GONE. Whaaaat the hell were they thinking ?
    2) Railway. Same. Whaaaaat?.. I mean WHAAAT
    3) Workers can only make 3 actions. Forces us to lose tons of turns spamming them. Whaat?. Doesn’t make any sense.
    4) Tourism.. whaaat. Tourism have a huge impact on world economy and civ vi totally ignores that. For DEV´s visionary minds tourism is a number that increases with some bonuses from buildings and archeology… dull.
    5) Religion. The most WTFing and shamefull feature. Seriously? Religion is a nonsensicall set of random bonuses chosen by god knows what criteria. Cities and civilizations changes religion once for turn with the RIDICULOUS AND MASSIVE SPAMMING of religion units… whaaat? Catolics turning to muslims and to budism and then to nomatterwhat custom religion with no consecuences . Religion is historically the first cause for war. Is disrespectfull with real history. Doenst make any sense!!. Where is religion pressure and expansion??? They already did well in civ 5 why the **** they screwd this up?

    6) Culture. Same as religion. Culture expansion and culture pressure was pretty ok in civ 5 and they did waaaaaay worse in this game. Wtf

    7) Policies…. Cards?? Random bonuses with ridiculous impact on game. No penalties AT ALL from changing to OPOSITE governments? Terrible.

    8) Tech tree. A joke. Ripped most of the historically relevant techs. LINEAR? Whaaat? Arcade tech tree most suitable for a childish mobile game. This an insult to all civ community.

    9) Combat. Random and nonsensical. Units in a tile prevent any other unit from moving through that tile… even friendly units. So when u are at war u got to lose tons of turns walking around, and u cant deploy your own units properly. Is ridiculous. Archers and swordsman still destroying tanks? facepalm

    I stop xDD that crap. I played about 15-20 hours. im sick even talking about it.
    The only thing with some potential are districts but…. U can really get lost between thounds of requirements. U need lots of games and frustration to start to comprehend how to improve the district placement… in the end the overall production is lesser than previus games so… this needs to be workd on.
    Sorry for the novel. Don’t waste your money. U better wait for further dlcs… or some miracle.    … Expand
  20. Instable
    Dec 12, 2016
    8
    Несмотря на незначительные изменения геймплея, игра остается главным пк эксклюзивом. Остается лучшим представителем жанра стратегии после затухания Героев Меча и Магии.
  21. Valsona
    Dec 11, 2016
    5
    First off, I would like to say I personally like this game and appreciate the effort that was put down into making it look good. It has really gotten a face-lift from the previous games in the series.

    Secondly, I really like that Firaxis decided to make something new with the somewhat tedious system of workers in the games and even though I am a huge CIV-fan and have played every single    First off, I would like to say I personally like this game and appreciate the effort that was put down into making it look good. It has really gotten a face-lift from the previous games in the series.

    Secondly, I really like that Firaxis decided to make something new with the somewhat tedious system of workers in the games and even though I am a huge CIV-fan and have played every single one of them and appreciated the layout in the earlier system, the concept of builders instead of workers makes the game run so much faster and smoother without taking away any of the strategic thinking.

    Now to the negative remarks..
    Even though the new way of building improvements at first may seem like a delicate yet clever upgrade from the previously somewhat tedious method there are some serious glitches in my opinion. For one, you cannot, in any way remove/move a district. While this may seem like a part of the strategic depth of the game at first I feel that it would be somewhat more advantageous to be able to move at least certain districts like for say the encampment, seeing as how this can have a great impact on the placement of your enemies cities or your expansion plan, not to mention it would seem logical to want to be able to have an "army on the move". But this is just a minor thing and I recognize that it may just be my opinion.

    The problem with the AI's ability to make half-witted to wholeheartedly insane decisions however is a problem in a different dimension entirely. Not only the fact that they seem to be about as trigger-happy as a pawnshop-owner that has been raided by thugs just one time too many but they declare war as(it seems) a statement rather than anything else. I have played the game for about 50 hours or so by now, so, I admit, its not very much, but every 15-30 turns or peace I find myself in a war against an AI opponent on the basis that my haircut offends them.. Or so I assume..
    The AI is constantly declaring war, not only without a good reason, but when I line up my defensive units I too often see them coming at me with clearly inferior units, either in number or in way of science. And, if that is not bad enough, at times they actually manage to amount a decent army that should go wrecking ball in my territory, however they just seem to mope around taking multiple hits from my city defenses and garrisoned units until they decide to retreat, barely having scratched the walls and raided AT MOST two improvements. Yet other times, I face no army at all and when I send out a forward party against their cities they have basically no units at all!
    Its like the AI declares war upon you based on the basis that there has been peace for too long and thinks the player is bored, but merely does it for show.

    That said, I have some issues that I find falls in between in severity, probably because I'm as experienced when it comes to playing CIV as I am but:

    1. The tooltips for this release is.. lacking just doesn't cut it. It is non-existent! While this isn't a big bother for me who has several thousands of hours of gameplay combined on the previous games its really annoying when I find a new feature only to realise that there is no explanation anywhere as to what it does. Yes, google is my friend but really?

    2. While I like the fact that you brought back religious victory in this game, you have to tweak it.. really. It is far to easy to win a religious victory versus the AI because the religious units are simply too powerful. I get the point with inquisitors, really, I do, but then again? They cost way less than an apostle and have basically a VETO against you spreading any religion but mine among my cities. One action(out of three) and everyone believes in my god again. The AI never uses them that I have seen, but if they did, it would just make religous victory pointless again because it would be completely impossible so..
    By now, with inquisitors, religion has no other effect than a few bonus policies.

    3. The tech tree and policy trees need some work and tweaking. I like the linear system with both "policies" and tech but the trees in my opinion isn't really balanced. Also, there are so many policies/techs that could be situational, that you wanna use sometimes on some playthroughs, maybe. But they never end up being good enough in any situation, especially not since you get to change policies every time you discover a new one, completely for free! An easy way to give this a bit more strategic depth would be to bring back the "revolts" from some of the earlier games with the tweak that during the lower tier governments you have longer unrest if you wanna change during a specified number of turns.
    Example. Tier-1 2 turns of unrest if changing withing 20 turns at standard speed. Tier-2 1 turn of unrest if changing withing 20 turns.

    Overall, its a decent game. It could be great with the tweaking and a vast AI improvement. Unfortunately I'm a bit disappointed in my overall experience at this time.    … Expand
  22. iseeall
    Dec 6, 2016
    7
    I've played all games in the Civ series, and all the derivatives. My fav is Alpha Centauri, and from the pure Civs, Civ 2. Civ 6 is basically Civ 5 with its 2 addons, plus even more unneeded stuff added on top. The series is moving in a direction which I don't like, piling up features that I don't want. They are tuning for dumber and dumber audience, trying to cash in on converts fromI've played all games in the Civ series, and all the derivatives. My fav is Alpha Centauri, and from the pure Civs, Civ 2. Civ 6 is basically Civ 5 with its 2 addons, plus even more unneeded stuff added on top. The series is moving in a direction which I don't like, piling up features that I don't want. They are tuning for dumber and dumber audience, trying to cash in on converts from mobile.

    The good:
    - well, it's still Civ. If you haven't played any of the Civ games, Civ 6 is a Civ game, and the tutorial is so friendly and accessible that you will even learn what a turn-based game is, in case you didn't know
    - like in Civ 5, combat is interesting, with units not dying after a single fight, there are adjacency bonuses and exp accumulation like in tactical wargames, just simpler

    The so-so:
    - the districts system (taken from Endless Legends), not that it was needed or adds much
    - the 2 separate trees for cultural and scientific advances - could have worked easier with a single tree, each tech just costing culture+sci.
    - graphics are obviously made for iPad players and kids, from which I suspect a planned port to mobile. I don't care about graphics much, but I can imagine this will upset many PC gamers
    - dragging cards to determine government and social policies - ok but i found bonuses of certain governments pretty strange. And I don't like trading cards games, so the whole aesthetic of cards being put in slots feels inappropriate here, at least to me.
    - city states - didn't like them in Civ 5 with their "quests" and attitude, though I know some people like the feature
    - workers can now only build 3 tile improvements after which they get "spent", and roads are built automatically by "trader" units - this apparently only slows down construction of tile improvements which isn't a bad thing but isn't good either
    - some techs get researched faster if a certain prereq is met (e.g. develop Archery faster if killed 1 unit with a slinger) - a good idea at first glance, but adds immensely to the rules bloat (more about that below)

    The bad:
    - in general, this plays too much like Civ 5 with its 2 addons, barely justifying the purchase ("why not just play Civ 5"?), and sadly carries over all the bad features added in those addons
    - still only 1 unit can be on a tile (annoying traffic jams)
    - tons of minor effects various things give which are hard to keep track of and which don't really change the game much. It almost feels like an RPG game where a chest piece gives +0.5% to fire resistance. The multitude of factors to consider doesn't make it a strategy game where you decide something but rather a tedious simulation with unclear, bloated rules which you mostly forget the next time you start a new game. Apparently the abundance of tiny rules makes the game simpler and takes away decision making. This game is so bloated that I wonder they could even bring it to release! It must have been a nightmare to test, debug and balance
    - religion is beneficial, even can be a victory type now, and there are tons of religions to pick from where you customize their tiny bonuses. You produce a "faith" resource which you can use (like gold) to buy things. This is ridiculous. Let temples make 2 citizens content and reduce that to 1 citizen after discovery of Scientific Method or something, that's just about how much attention religion should get in this type of game. I'm deeply saddened by the fact that they gave in to the political correctness train and started catering these complex games to religious market segments (do they even play Civ?)
    - tourism? Even a victory type for it (make more ppl in other countries come to you for a vacation rather than stay home)? This absurdity came in the 2nd Civ 5's addon, together with a minigame of putting great works of art into slots. But I get it: millions of Chinese are now cruising the world making selfies, so why not make a feature for them specifically.
    - the voiced-over texts for different countries which are shown/spoken each time you start or load the game. They aren't as idiotic as in Civ 5 but the overall feel of "glorifying" the player and praising him for something he hasn't even done (just picked up the game, haven't even won it) is stupid. Just check how little you get in Alpha Centauri for winning the game - a simple popup, and a score breakdown list. To me, that feels much more rewarding than this empty pathos.

    As I wrote in other reviews of other Civ games, Bryan Raynolds is not involved anymore (and he is the genius behind AC and Civ2 - the games I like the most). Civ 6 isn't a game made by passionate geeks who had tons of ideas. It's a franchise driven by market research. They want more players to buy the game, so they see what's popular now (e.g. Clash of Clans) and add that. It's the same thing that happened to the XCom, Fallout and many other games. My only hope lies with indies now. And it seems I won't have to uninstall Alpha Centauri any time soon.    … Expand
  23. barth_desade
    Dec 5, 2016
    3
    Civ I was a very good game (I'm still playing it on dosbox on my tablet while on my way to work). Civ II was even better though. Civ III again, was a solid game, nice graphic, not as great playability, but it was used as a platform for something really great: Civ IV, which I'm still playing on PC an consider along with CoH as a best game ever. Civ V, with some new features wasn't bad. ItCiv I was a very good game (I'm still playing it on dosbox on my tablet while on my way to work). Civ II was even better though. Civ III again, was a solid game, nice graphic, not as great playability, but it was used as a platform for something really great: Civ IV, which I'm still playing on PC an consider along with CoH as a best game ever. Civ V, with some new features wasn't bad. It wasn't great too, but I thought - oh this again will be a platform to something exceptional. I'll wait for it. I was partially right. Civ V gave birth something exceptional - first ever bad Civilization game for PC. Waste of time, waste of money and disregard for most mature player base in the casual gaming world. If I want something childish, overly simple and unfinished, I can always download the Clash Royale - the playability and sense of achievement is far higher in that one than in new Civ VI.… Expand
  24. ROCK-GB-GAMES
    Dec 4, 2016
    10
    This game Is honestly beautiful, at first I was a bit worried about how the new cartoonist style would flow in the game. Honestly it grows on you quite quickly and it fits the game well, for a launch i would say this lives up to its predecessors, we already see a lot of features and there is a lot to do in this game without spoiling too much. The game flows great, costume game is fun asThis game Is honestly beautiful, at first I was a bit worried about how the new cartoonist style would flow in the game. Honestly it grows on you quite quickly and it fits the game well, for a launch i would say this lives up to its predecessors, we already see a lot of features and there is a lot to do in this game without spoiling too much. The game flows great, costume game is fun as always with lots of options and factions to pick from. In conclusion I love it!… Expand
  25. Moo-vies
    Nov 30, 2016
    6
    Civilization VI is just more of the same with bad AI, not enough variety, not enough particularities in the leaders skill and a pointless game design beyond the year 1000 AD.

    Plenty of people who can't handle change will complain about the graphics (who cares, they do the job and you will cut the animated leaders talking after a few games to stop being interrupted all the time). Like    Civilization VI is just more of the same with bad AI, not enough variety, not enough particularities in the leaders skill and a pointless game design beyond the year 1000 AD.

    Plenty of people who can't handle change will complain about the graphics (who cares, they do the job and you will cut the animated leaders talking after a few games to stop being interrupted all the time).

    Like all 4X wannabes these days, you will anyway have to wait 3-5 years to get the extensions, mods and a complete game experience. The game also lacks mod support at the moment besides a few UI fixes and customization, so we have to wait until mod tools are released which could introduce some rules variety in the gameplay).

    I had a lot of time to play Civilization VI since release and got rapidly saturated.
    More than anything else, the infuriating times between turns are absolutely awful when you go beyond a small map. This removed a whole point in the subjective grade I gave to Civ VI.

    The lack of variety between games is a huge downer. I think the game needs to go further into leader specialization and really think hard about the mid game slog that goes all the way to the end. To be honest, the only motivation to end a game is global thermonuclear war, but once you have done that once, there is not much reason to end a game.

    My biggest critic is the kind of dissociation between units and production / science. Moving your armies should go way faster so the player could actually DO something. Right now, producing units then moving them around is just a time waste considering how much else you could do with these turns in terms of development to your cities.

    I like the workers having only 3 charges by default, it introduces a bit of dynamism.
    I wish wonders could be built outside the 3 tiles limit of the city itself. Wonders should be restricted to the territory, not the cities.

    With time, Civilization VI will undoubtedly become a really good Civilization if Firaxis brings as much attention to it as they did for Civ 5, but we will all be paying a high price for the finished game again ...
    So yeah, 6, is generous.    … Expand
  26. xxxSMDxxx
    Nov 28, 2016
    8
    Civilization 6 has some really awesome features I really enjoyed the new mechanics, new diplomacy and and the slight buff in civilization abilities, making the game slightly more fast paced, however the game still feels incomplete, To few Civilizations mostly, hoping for some expansion packs soon and the AI still needs some work.
  27. eldumloido
    Nov 27, 2016
    1
    Too little customization options. Loads long even on ssd. Graphics suck. AI has long and useless animations in diplomacy screen. Some nations music make them unplayable. The game is made to sell dlc. Religion is too complicated. There's not enough tutorials in game. Barbarians are either too hard or nonexistent.
  28. raadoo
    Nov 26, 2016
    5
    after the update, the ai still braindead, though in a bit different way. no wonder, since it seems the only changes they made to the ai are the ones in the changelog, and these are minor tweaks, not real changes. so... it's 1906 AD, standard size map, i have 16 cities, 6 remaining ai civs together have 18 cities. they haven't even settled all of their continents... ai keeps breakingafter the update, the ai still braindead, though in a bit different way. no wonder, since it seems the only changes they made to the ai are the ones in the changelog, and these are minor tweaks, not real changes. so... it's 1906 AD, standard size map, i have 16 cities, 6 remaining ai civs together have 18 cities. they haven't even settled all of their continents... ai keeps breaking promises, so it's impossible to play peacefully, unless you're ok with them converting your cities and stealing your technology boosts. if someone breaks a promise and you declare war - it's still your fault and you get the warmonger penalty, so there's no point in keeping promises (unless you're far weaker - but that also doesn't stop ai from breaking those promises repeatedly). i've conquered the strongest ai civ in 20 turns (he broke a promise not to spy on me three times), he had almost no military, his best unit was a cavalry, i had tanks, bombers, artillery and mechanized infantry. i brought back to live gandhi, so he denounced me after 5 turns, because i was in a war with a civ that i liberated his city from... and so on... some bugs were removed, new ones appeared. if you're wondering whether to buy the game, wait for a sale, patches and dlcs. the game has potential, but it's simply not finished.… Expand
  29. Brend0g
    Nov 25, 2016
    8
    For me Civ 6 was a good step forward in the franchise. The introduction of the district system was a highlight. The new art style, at first i didnt like it but it has grown on me. The barbarians and the 2 now distinct tech and culture trees are way better and provide a new balance. The barbarians are now a treat which is also a good challenge.

    The cons are the AI , no real update. The    For me Civ 6 was a good step forward in the franchise. The introduction of the district system was a highlight. The new art style, at first i didnt like it but it has grown on me. The barbarians and the 2 now distinct tech and culture trees are way better and provide a new balance. The barbarians are now a treat which is also a good challenge.

    The cons are the AI , no real update. The same thing happened in civ 5 where lets be friends and then in 10 turns WAR! This stuff is till happening. The UI and the start menu feel a little lack luster and not much effort was put into it in my opinion. It need more detail like civ 5. Also by being unable to restart a game and having to go back to main menu just kills me. This is really a negative in my opinion.

    Overall the changes that this game brings is better but hopefully with some patches it can be way better.    … Expand
  30. joebobfrank
    Nov 24, 2016
    5
    AI is a serious mess.

    On difficulty 6+, prepare to have *all* of your land tiles covered by opposing player's missionaries when not even at war with them. Oh, you wanted to move your worker onto a tile? Too bad, there's going to be a missionary there for the next 10 turns until the AI missionary swarm chooses to move away. Do you like it when the AI requests to see your capital 10    AI is a serious mess.

    On difficulty 6+, prepare to have *all* of your land tiles covered by opposing player's missionaries when not even at war with them. Oh, you wanted to move your worker onto a tile? Too bad, there's going to be a missionary there for the next 10 turns until the AI missionary swarm chooses to move away.

    Do you like it when the AI requests to see your capital 10 turns in a row? I sure don't. How about demanding things from you every few turns even though you're ahead of them in everything but unit count. I'm sure those cavalry pose a major threat to me, with my mobile infantry.

    I've yet to have an AI accept a trade that I proposed and thought was reasonable. I give you 2 luxury goods, you give me one? No? You want 100 gold per turn as well? When the AI proposes a trade NEVER MODIFY IT. Once you modify it they'll just reject it outright, even if you've made it better for them.

    Is there a nice spot on the map you want to claim? Better produce a settler as your first unit, because the AI will magically have like 3 by turn 30.

    Prepare to have AI constantly declare war on you for no reason, yet not get labelled as war mongers and teamed up on. Then when an AI settles in the center of your territory and you declare war to raze the obnoxious city, you're a warmonger and everybody gangs up on you for the rest of the game.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

10
#10 Best PC Game of 2016
9
#9 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
20
#20 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 84 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 79 out of 84
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 84
  3. Negative: 1 out of 84
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 12, 2017
    90
    You don’t want to spend your night in front of the computer? You have a wife and kids? You cherish your friendships and enjoy parties? Beware of this game. It’s that good. [13/2016, p.44]
  2. The Overpowered Noobs
    Jan 11, 2017
    90
    It's a more playful, fun feel to the franchise, perhaps, but all that's wrapped around a deeply nuanced game. If you've ever enjoyed playing a multi-layered, immersive and strategic board game with a bunch of funny characters, get in here.
    Read full review
  3. Games Master UK
    Jan 1, 2017
    74
    Firaxis has made some significant, exciting changes, but has also obscured vital information. [Christmas 2016, p.70]
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