Sid Meier's Civilization VI

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 244 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 142 out of 244
  2. Mixed: 49 out of 244
  3. Negative: 53 out of 244
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Err0rc0de
    Dec 27, 2019
    7
    Full of bugs and lacks the depth of CIV 5. I don't like the cartoony art style as much. When I played it, the NPCs would build Pyramids IN THE OCEAN.
  2. Mattyc96
    Jan 13, 2020
    6
    This is a great game that is let down by 2k's non existant support. I've had some major game breaking issues like the screen being cut off depending what TV i was using. Nothing to do with the aspect ratio. I adjusted my TV and playstation. Also at times I'm unable to purchase anything with gold or faith. The option simply disappears. Well having the neccessary requirements. . On aThis is a great game that is let down by 2k's non existant support. I've had some major game breaking issues like the screen being cut off depending what TV i was using. Nothing to do with the aspect ratio. I adjusted my TV and playstation. Also at times I'm unable to purchase anything with gold or faith. The option simply disappears. Well having the neccessary requirements. . On a positive note it runs very smooth on my standard ps4. For the most part this is the complete experience. Just overpriced and still has some major issues that should of been addressed before release… Expand
  3. ppga97
    May 11, 2020
    5
    Big fan of the CIV franchise. Even though CIV 5 was a flaw ralease they manage to fix it with DLC's.

    Civ 6 for the PS4 damn is too simple, not fun at all and with really bad controls. Bought it on release date for the PS4 and honestly is really boring, it has no depth in gameplay. So many systems and still it does not make an interesting game. Honestly Civ Rev for PS3 is better if    Big fan of the CIV franchise. Even though CIV 5 was a flaw ralease they manage to fix it with DLC's.

    Civ 6 for the PS4 damn is too simple, not fun at all and with really bad controls. Bought it on release date for the PS4 and honestly is really boring, it has no depth in gameplay. So many systems and still it does not make an interesting game.

    Honestly Civ Rev for PS3 is better if you are looking for a console CIV experience.    … Expand
  4. Serarris17
    Dec 1, 2019
    5
    I love civ and have for years. I have hundreds of hours played on civ 6. But multiplayer doesn't work and the global warming mechanics are politically devisive. (Managed to flood the world by 1500 by minning iron....) and with no option to turn ot off without disabling everything else in the expac i payed for i am saying no rhanks to civ untill they fix that
  5. HaloFever
    Nov 18, 2021
    6
    Civilization VI should have been designed better. It wasn't and that kind of sucks for Civ fans. I do give the game and series as whole credit for being the only games of their kind. (Except for Humankind, which is not on PlayStation). I've been a fan since the original Civilization (because I am old). The series has seen ups and downs before. This one is a down.

    Full disclosure: I am    Civilization VI should have been designed better. It wasn't and that kind of sucks for Civ fans. I do give the game and series as whole credit for being the only games of their kind. (Except for Humankind, which is not on PlayStation). I've been a fan since the original Civilization (because I am old). The series has seen ups and downs before. This one is a down.

    Full disclosure: I am playing with all DLC on the PS5. The DLC materially changes how you play the game, so go no further if you only plan playing "vanilla" Civ VI.

    My main gripe with Civ VI is the design of the entire game. To save characters, I will pick only a few examples of things that Civ VI gets terribly wrong to give you an idea of how Civ VI goes wrong as a whole.

    Roads. You can't build them. Instead you make a Trader unit and tell the Trader where to go. The route the road takes is chosen by the Trader, and turn by turn, the Trader will poop out a road as it travels. If you want more roads, you need more Traders. To get more Traders, you first need to build a district. Then you need to build a building in that district that opens up a slot for the Trader. Then you can build the Trader and make the new road. Unless a barbarian kills you trader.

    Districts. In the early game, you cannot build a library to make science. First you need to build a Campus District. Now instead of waiting 10 turns to build a library like in old Civ games, you need to wait 20 turns to build the campus and then the library. Then repeat with all other districts and all of their buildings. Then repeat for all of your cities. Placement of the districts matter, and certain hexes will give you higher numbers for certain things. Congratulations, you now playing Sim City.

    Workers. In old Civilization games, you made a few workers and set them task for thousands of years making farms, mines, and roads. The concept was ridiculous but the series kept it for a good 25 years before Civ VI. You might think the district system means that farms and mins are also districts. Nope. Instead you have to spend 10 turns to build a worker. Then the worker builds a few farms and dies. If you need more farms or mines or whatever, you need to wait more turns to build more workers. You can buy workers if you have the gold and then buy them again when they die. Wouldn't it be easier to just buy farms and mines instead of buying workers? Maybe, but that is player concern and not something a game designer needs to worry about.

    Waiting. Much of the game is waiting for turns so you can do something. Civ VI tries a few things to make the earlier game spicier. You might fight hoards of barbarians that magically create units out of thing air. (Immersive!). Later on, you can deal with natural disasters and the odd enemy city that rebels. Generally, you will spend a lot of time hitting "next turn" while you wait for a certain technology or that one Wonder to build. In the end game, though your victory is assured, you have to wait up to a hundred more turns for spaceships to build or tourism to spread. While you are waiting, you can perform menial tasks that should be left to the a.i. What the game is missing is any reason to engage. You can make more cities but that means more build orders and more waiting. You can make more units and go to war but that means menial tasks of moving units and managing upgrades. The game's design is disincentive to do more than necessary to win. There were better ways in old Civ games like letting the a.i. control your cities and selecting large groups of units for mass movement. Those technologies appear to have been lost to time.

    I'm not saying Civ VI needs any kind of narrative. A narrative would be great, especially if that meant meaningful choices of governments and policies. (Imagine you make slavery legal, and then the slaves revolt and start their own civilization. Or you have a Republic like ancient Rome and then a rouge general wants to call himself emperor. ) What the game really needed was a different design that focused on the enjoyment of the player. For me, the enjoyment is playing out an alternative world history of my making. Districts are a fine change but too tedious, especially when most of the policy choices are based on the districts. The game does have a newness and fun factor for a new player. But playing it more does not make it better. Believe me. I tried.

    Last note, the game needs serious optimization. I played this on Mac and PS5 and both have series performance issues in late game on larger maps. At its base, the game is merely crunching numbers and any modern CPU should be more than enough to handle this game. The problem is the game, and Firaxys should fix it.    … Expand
  6. mbkr
    Apr 11, 2020
    6
    Buy the console version only if you are a fan of the series and don't have a PC, otherwise no need. My rating is 6, for the old days' sake

    (+) Performance is good, the game works faster than I expected (turn-ends, etc.) (-) - You have the full game only if you buy the expansions. All important features are in the expansions (even production queuing!) The game is like Civ 1 beta    Buy the console version only if you are a fan of the series and don't have a PC, otherwise no need. My rating is 6, for the old days' sake

    (+)
    Performance is good, the game works faster than I expected (turn-ends, etc.)

    (-)
    - You have the full game only if you buy the expansions. All important features are in the expansions (even production queuing!) The game is like Civ 1 beta without them.
    - A lot of issues with interface, seriously! For example, checking statistics of your cities / nation and other nations is very difficult. Checking something in encyclopedia is mess and a lot of others
    - You cannot force end / skip a turn without producing meaning that you have to always produce something in all of your cities. This is a big problem late end game.
    - A lot of issues with gameplay itself, do you want your spy to work on counterspying in your city? You need to repeat this action every 5 turn or so. There are a lot of actions you have to repeat and repeat and repeat and cannot automate which increase game time unnecessarily. Some easy actions could be automated even Commodore or Amiga era games.
    - You can overcome majority of these issues via fan mods on PC but you do not have any chance on PS
    - Cheating AI. Difficulty does not mean that AI can cheat this much. And some things are really annoying like AI can setup a city just next to yours even there are only 3 empty spaces, but you cannot. Let's say you have a city next to sea, you think that you have a natural border. There are only 3 empty spaces but they are 2 square far from your city and surrounded by your city. AI can come from the sea and put a city on those empty ones?!    … Expand
  7. gamakazil
    Apr 25, 2023
    5
    A Missed Opportunity for Greatness - 5/10

    Civilization VI is undoubtedly an ambitious installment in the iconic 4X series, boasting impressive artistic efforts and a myriad of new gameplay elements. However, despite these commendable aspects, I find myself struggling to fully enjoy the game due to issues with gameplay pacing and an overwhelming sense of "overdevelopment." With so    A Missed Opportunity for Greatness - 5/10

    Civilization VI is undoubtedly an ambitious installment in the iconic 4X series, boasting impressive artistic efforts and a myriad of new gameplay elements. However, despite these commendable aspects, I find myself struggling to fully enjoy the game due to issues with gameplay pacing and an overwhelming sense of "overdevelopment."

    With so many elements crammed into the experience, the game often feels disjointed and, at times, even a chore to play. While Civ VI may still reign as the king of AAA 4X games, I sincerely hope that future installments will refocus on streamlined gameplay and a more historically authentic experience.

    This leads me to one of my major pain points with Civilization VI: its departure from historical accuracy. As a longtime fan of the series, I fondly remember Civ III as an incredible history encyclopedia. In contrast, Civ VI feels more like a fairy tale, prioritizing political correctness over historical facts.

    The inclusion of mythological queens alongside historical leaders and the introduction of zombie units alongside real-world armies creates a jarring experience that detracts from the game's authenticity. It's almost as if the developers decided to parody their own franchise, losing sight of what made it so captivating in the first place.

    In conclusion, while Civilization VI showcases the artistic talents of its development team, it falls short of delivering a satisfying and historically accurate 4X experience. I believe that the series has the potential to recapture its former glory, but only if future installments refocus on a streamlined, historic, and immersive experience that fans have come to know and love.    … Expand
  8. eplate2
    Jul 24, 2023
    7
    If you love skilled turn based games this one is for you. I really enjoy the eras of this game though I do wish they were a bit more evolved.
  9. Thr33-Nin3s
    Oct 4, 2020
    7
    I’ve always enjoyed the Civilization games....have still got the PS1 version somewhere. This edition has some great new features, new building wonders and natural wonders not to mention a whole plethora of Civilisations you can play. Fair warning...they’re not all balanced and while some are terrible others are OP.
    Game crashes fairly frequently on standard sized worlds during the final    I’ve always enjoyed the Civilization games....have still got the PS1 version somewhere. This edition has some great new features, new building wonders and natural wonders not to mention a whole plethora of Civilisations you can play. Fair warning...they’re not all balanced and while some are terrible others are OP.
    Game crashes fairly frequently on standard sized worlds during the final eras...especially if you’re going for a domination victory and the system is trying to keep track of countless units roaming about. Puts a fair bit of stress on the PS4 and it clearly struggles....often sounding like a jet engine going full bore trying to keep up and stay cool.
    Still...the game is enjoyable and if you like strategy games you’ll like this. Probably not really worth the full price I paid but definitely worth it if it goes on sale. Season pass mixes things up again and is a welcome addition...but once again I feel it’s way overpriced for what it offers.
    Over all a fairly decent game marred slightly by a few niggling operation issues.
    Buy it....but wait for it to go on sale.
    Really good replay value so I bumped it up from a 6 to a 7.    … Expand
  10. fabgo
    May 15, 2021
    6
    It's a fun game. A little more lighthearted and cartoonish than Civilization 5, but also more streamlined. The mechanics are pretty good. I recommend that you don't get the expansions, unless you want to really complicate your game and micro-manage everything. The base game is fine.

    The UI is however pretty atrocious on the playstation. It's very difficult to see which city production    It's a fun game. A little more lighthearted and cartoonish than Civilization 5, but also more streamlined. The mechanics are pretty good. I recommend that you don't get the expansions, unless you want to really complicate your game and micro-manage everything. The base game is fine.

    The UI is however pretty atrocious on the playstation. It's very difficult to see which city production selection is highlighted. Same for the highlighted choice in dialog boxes. Navigation is clunky, and not intuitive at all. When trading for example, if you want to change the number of items on offer, you are presented with a popup where you select the number of items, and it only has a "Back" button, which really means "OK. And if you hit the circle button, thinking that it takes you back as well, it does, but cancels the change. Figuring out which promotion your Apostle has is very difficult and time consuming, requiring multiple selections. You also have to pause and wait everywhere for info dialogs to pop up. This also requires some back and forth sometimes for it to show up.    … Expand
  11. dogeswillkill
    Apr 22, 2021
    6
    It's not the best, but also not the worst.. it definitely needs some work lol but is fun anyway
  12. Kumorii
    Feb 17, 2023
    7
    I know this game is probably amazing. But I have given it multiple hundreds of hours and I still can not get into it. The learning curve is so extremely steep and learning it feels like a lifetime worth of tasks. If your beginner tutorial videos are a multiple part - 20+ hour series. It might be a bit too hard to step into, especially if you play with friends who know how it works already.

Awards & Rankings

10
#10 Best PS4 Game of 2019
55
#55 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. Gameplanet
    Mar 9, 2020
    95
    Perhaps the greatest triumph for Civilization VI on PlayStation is that it is the full, uncut, and immersive Civilization experience PC players have been enjoying for decades perfectly translated to console. A challenging, but welcoming strategy title that is either the perfect entry point for new players, or the single best reason for long-time fans who have transitioned to a more couch-based gaming lifestyle to jump back in.
    Read full review
  2. LaPS4
    Jan 6, 2020
    88
    With improved graphics and very responsive control, the developer Firaxis has managed to do what few do when bringing a PC strategy game to the world of consoles. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is a game that fans of this franchise can enjoy as if they were playing on PC, good graphics, excellent controls and gameplay that borders on perfection.
    Read full review
  3. PLAY! Zine
    Dec 30, 2019
    95
    Civilization VI in its fullest ultimate form debuts on consoles strongly, transferring all of the parts of a beloved strategy franchise onto controller and TV screens. With its expansions and rich content, really well balanced learning curve and heavenly presentation, it is a must play for any strategy lover.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »