Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

amazon Sid Meier’s Civilization VI reviews

Civilization VI – Civilization is one of the few most influential “ancestors” of the 4X series (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate), but also because of that, the gameplay style of the series also soon “determined” form,” there is hardly room for other long-term developments.

Therefore, since the Civilization III version, Sid Meier – the father of this legendary game series, has to look for breakthrough changes to maintain the “fire” for the series.

This requirement even placed on the “leaders” of his successors such as Soren Johnson or Will Miller and David McDonough, the “leaders” of Firaxis later on, a huge burden.

The constant “laying out” of new versions presents a very serious challenge for game developers, especially when the studios still have to continue to release games to “make a living” and raise funds for future projects.

That is why for a long time, the “spin-off” versions of the Civilization series appeared, taking all kinds of contexts from the ground to the moon (Sid Meier’s Civilization Beyond Earth), but the “similar” similarity in gameplay has made these versions not achieve as many achievements as the mainstream versions.

Win or lose, these versions also accumulated for the company’s design team a lot of experience and creativity. When Ed Beach took the position of chief designer, Sid Meier’s Civilization game series continued. Shine with Sid Meier’s Civilization VI as it returns to the official circuit!

When it comes to gameplay, many “senior” gamers of the Civilization series will start clicking their tongues when a lot of “old versions” from the Civilization III version can be applied to the next versions. However, the design team from Firaxis tried to “cook” a lot in the gameplay for a simple reason, the “recipe” 4X created by Sid Meier was too solid and very difficult to change!

But when he embarked on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI version, Ed Beach made a fundamental difference.

Not having to “make up” completely new “diets” to “trick” players in the way that many other “instant noodle” game series are being applied on the market today. Ed Beach was extremely serious while “dissecting” the basic cores of the 4X gameplay that Sid Meier created for his Civilization series, then on the most successful platforms that veteran gamers and casual critics alike praise. Creating a little different “variation” for Sid Meier’s Civilization VI but still keeping the spiritual value of the whole series.

Although not as appreciated as the original version, the spin-off versions still leave some “brilliant” suggestions for Ed Beach to complete Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.

For example, a single technical tree development like the traditional versions is no longer “challenging” enough for gamers. Still, additional factors such as customization of personal characteristics (Personality Traits) in Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth’s Rising Tide expansion can have a huge impact on player strategies, despite developing the same technical tendencies.

That makes the gameplay richer, more diverse, and creates many new strategies, but these changes are not “strong” enough to make the game worth “thinking,” as I feel of the early versions of the previous player series.

Therefore, the useful addition and interweaving in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI have become the core issues.

For the first time in the series’ history, constructions, development options, natural resources, and even greats all interact, intertwine, promote each other development is extremely complex.

If you only needed to trade technology in the past and build many schools and libraries, you could easily win technically; now, players who love to explore, develop, and conquer are also very popular. Easily achieve technological incentives through “technological boosts.”

Although these interlacing points make the game more complex, it also makes the game more balanced, forcing players to enter the “framework” of harmonious development without encouraging “deviation” development like other previous editions.

That makes Sid Meier’s Civilization VI “harder,” but also more worth playing, a lot more new, even for longtime fans of the series.

If in the past, the writer was very dissatisfied with Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth’s “flattened” and crude graphics, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI version has greatly improved this area when rendering extremely detailed both terrain, characters, and buildings with a fairly large amount of texture.

Therefore, the game proved to be quite heavy compared to the strategy games of the same genre, which are less demanding in terms of graphics.

Indeed, with the GTX 1050Ti video card, the game’s benchmark only gives frame rates from 40fps to 50fps at the highest setting, quite heavy if the player only owns mid-range graphics cards.

The movements of the characters, models, and animations of the leaders in the game are shown in great detail and uniqueness, which makes the game less “hard” like the previous “mainstream” versions, but not too “animated” in an animated style like on Civilization Revolution.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI’s neutral graphic bias is very moderate and in the right place, which creates a harmony for the entire game as a work of modern art, not too forced in style history but not too “funny” like a cartoon.

Sound is also another highlight in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. Most of the music is performed by composer Christopher Tin, who received a Grammy Award for the soundtrack of the fourth version of the series.

The movements of the characters, models, and animations of the leaders in the game are shown in great detail and uniqueness, which makes the game less “hard” like the previous “mainstream” versions, but not too “animated” in an animated style like on Civilization Revolution.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI’s neutral graphic bias is very moderate and in the right place, which creates a harmony for the entire game as a work of modern art, not too forced in style history but not too “funny” like a cartoon.

Sound is also another highlight in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. Most of the music is performed by composer Christopher Tin, who received a Grammy Award for the soundtrack of the fourth version of the series.

Most icons are designed, reasonably arranged, showing just enough information without confusion, especially with the note bar located in the right-hand corner quite similar to the note bar on the Android operating system.

Thanks to that, you don’t have to “sink in” in a “sea of information” after each turn!

Other control menus are also designed in a click-select style with a high degree of automation.

For example, construction sites are marked in green, battle-able areas will automatically turn red when a reasonable scenario occurs.

Even the talkative “Advisor” in other versions has become more “low-worded” but still speaks right and to the point.

Thanks to that, even for beginners, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is still extremely simple and friendly, helping you quickly adapt to the game’s atmosphere.

It can be considered that Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is a fairly complete game, but there are still a few unnecessary small “weak” that make players feel a bit incomplete when enjoying the game.

The first “obnoxious” point lies in the loading time of the game screen for too long.

Part of the reason is that the graphics system becomes complicated. Still, another part can also be because the new game engine has not been optimized, making the loading time of the screen unacceptable.

Even with the first time playing, the time to create and load the screen can last up to 5 minutes, enough to “wear out” the patience of any player.

In addition, the A. I (artificial intelligence) system in Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is still quite poor as before, making the normal level of play less challenging.

However, at high difficulty levels like King or Emperor, the machine … “plays cheats” blatantly to gain speed and tactical advantages.

That makes even “old” fans also encounter many inhibitions.

For example, the writer once discovered that the Indian side could “spam” more than 20 attacking elephants in just 20 turns when playing at Emperor difficulty level, a “blinking” speed that no ordinary player can keep up!

where can you get a Sid Meier’s Civilization VI online

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI – Nintendo Switch: Buy it now

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI – PC: Buy it now

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Rise and Fall [Online Game Code][Mac] [Online Game Code]: Buy it now