I’m honestly surprised at how well this game is made. Although this game has more in common with Age of Wonders than the Civilization franchise, it is still a great competitor. If you’re like me and don’t really like the direction the Civ games are going, this is a great alternative. Also, if you liked Age of Wonders, then you will love this game.
The more you play, the more you realize how deep this game goes, and how many features it actually offers. The only main downside of this game is that the base game is just ok, and you need most of the dlcs to really experience the entirety of the game. If you were to buy one dlc, I would have to say get Tempest, because it completely overhauls the oceans, and makes it so a navy is actually useful. Overall, it would give the base game a 8/10, but the full game with dlc’s a 9.5/10.

Interface/features 10/10:
The main ui can be overwhelming at first, but once you get used to it, it is really simple and powerful. Now I’ll go into features of the game and review them.

Science: The science progression feels customizable and unique. You only have to research so many techs before you can move on into the next era of technology. The progression is not linear so you can focus on certain techs over others without problem.
City Management: City management is great, and you don’t have to worry about workers, as all necessary tile improvements can be built from the city. You can also expand the size of your city by building districts or other special buildings. Managing cities in general is easy, and you can set it to auto-focus on any one specific thing.
Map: The map is divided into regions, where you can only build one city in each. This makes spreading out easy and taking control of land areas even easier. Sometimes it also can be a pain because your cities will be so far apart. Still, imo, this is a nice feature because you don’t have to worry about your border resources with you neighbors.
Minor Civs: Across the map you will meet minor civilizations who can assist you by giving you resources after you pacify them. You can follow a quest they give you, give them gold, or fight them to achieve this pacification.
Military Units: Unit customization is really ingenious because you can customize your armies however you want. You won’t get stuck with outdated troops because you are only given the base model and no amount of technology outdates them. You can focus on cheap troops to mass produce or go all in with changing attributes to make an insane army. Either way, you get to choose how your army works.
Heroes: One great feature this game adds over the Civ games is the ability to have a hero. It basically is a simple rpg element added to the game. Heroes give boosts to armies, and you can find equipment around the world to upgrade them. You can give them skills and make them powerful so they can take on enemy armies or other heroes. If you don’t focus on might, you can also assign heroes to cities to give them extra boosts, usually in production or food.
Winning: There are multiple ways to win the game, each with their own challenges. Just because you are the most advanced faction, doesn’t mean you will necessarily win; other factions might focus on the quest line victory and beat you to the ending before you conquer them.

Playable factions 10/10:
The factions are very different and really change how you go about playing the game. Each faction has a unique story quest, and its own special rules. The Broken Lords, for example, only focus on dust and don’t rely on food at all. When you play a different faction, it gives a completely different feeling to the game, and keeps me coming back to this game. Overall, the factions are well thought out and are generally balanced; no factions feel overpowered or weak, they are all just different.

Combat 9/10:
Combat is very different than the Civ games. You have the option to either manually do the combat, which can be slow and burdensome sometimes, or have the computer run the fight for you. Every once in a while, the computer is really stupid and loses fights that it should have won, but besides that the combat system works well. Generally speaking, I let the computer calculate the fights for me, as after a while combat becomes boring.

Graphics 10/10:
The world looks great and gives a sense of a unique alien planet. The biomes are each beautifully crafted and are very different than each other. Each have their own resources, and you can travel from cold, hilly mountains, to lush beaches. Besides the map, all the other graphics are well done, and really enhance the game.

I’m honestly surprised at how well this game is made. Although this game has more in common with Age of Wonders than the Civilization franchise, it is still a great competitor. If you’re like me and don’t really like the direction the Civ games are going, this is a great alternative. Also, if you liked Age of Wonders, then you will love this game. The more you play, the more you realize how deep this game goes, and how many features it actually offers. The only main downside of this game is that the base game is just ok, and you need most of the dlcs to really experience the entirety of the game. If you were to buy one dlc, I would have to say get Tempest, because it completely overhauls the oceans, and makes it so a navy is actually useful. Overall, it would give the base game a 8/10, but the full game with dlc’s a 9.5/10. [b]Interface/features 10/10:[/b] The main ui can be overwhelming at first, but once you get used to it, it is really simple and powerful. Now I’ll go into features of the game and review them. [u]Science:[/u] The science progression feels customizable and unique. You only have to research so many techs before you can move on into the next era of technology. The progression is not linear so you can focus on certain techs over others without problem. [u]City Management:[/u] City management is great, and you don’t have to worry about workers, as all necessary tile improvements can be built from the city. You can also expand the size of your city by building districts or other special buildings. Managing cities in general is easy, and you can set it to auto-focus on any one specific thing. [u]Map:[/u] The map is divided into regions, where you can only build one city in each. This makes spreading out easy and taking control of land areas even easier. Sometimes it also can be a pain because your cities will be so far apart. Still, imo, this is a nice feature because you don’t have to worry about your border resources with you neighbors. [u]Minor Civs:[/u] Across the map you will meet minor civilizations who can assist you by giving you resources after you pacify them. You can follow a quest they give you, give them gold, or fight them to achieve this pacification. [u]Military Units:[/u] Unit customization is really ingenious because you can customize your armies however you want. You won’t get stuck with outdated troops because you are only given the base model and no amount of technology outdates them. You can focus on cheap troops to mass produce or go all in with changing attributes to make an insane army. Either way, you get to choose how your army works. [u]Heroes:[/u] One great feature this game adds over the Civ games is the ability to have a hero. It basically is a simple rpg element added to the game. Heroes give boosts to armies, and you can find equipment around the world to upgrade them. You can give them skills and make them powerful so they can take on enemy armies or other heroes. If you don’t focus on might, you can also assign heroes to cities to give them extra boosts, usually in production or food. [u]Winning:[/u] There are multiple ways to win the game, each with their own challenges. Just because you are the most advanced faction, doesn’t mean you will necessarily win; other factions might focus on the quest line victory and beat you to the ending before you conquer them. [b]Playable factions 10/10:[/b] The factions are very different and really change how you go about playing the game. Each faction has a unique story quest, and its own special rules. The Broken Lords, for example, only focus on dust and don’t rely on food at all. When you play a different faction, it gives a completely different feeling to the game, and keeps me coming back to this game. Overall, the factions are well thought out and are generally balanced; no factions feel overpowered or weak, they are all just different. [b]Combat 9/10: [/b] Combat is very different than the Civ games. You have the option to either manually do the combat, which can be slow and burdensome sometimes, or have the computer run the fight for you. Every once in a while, the computer is really stupid and loses fights that it should have won, but besides that the combat system works well. Generally speaking, I let the computer calculate the fights for me, as after a while combat becomes boring. [b]Graphics 10/10:[/b] The world looks great and gives a sense of a unique alien planet. The biomes are each beautifully crafted and are very different than each other. Each have their own resources, and you can travel from cold, hilly mountains, to lush beaches. Besides the map, all the other graphics are well done, and really enhance the game.