Recent reviews by BeNiceToJake

Okay, I'm only a few hours in, but I think I've played enough to get a bit of a handle on how it feels compared to previous civ games.

A lot of it I really like. The city development feels a lot more organic, and not having to spend 8 turns on a worker that gets snagged by a random passing barbarian is a nice touch. I don't know how I feel about the settlement/town system quite yet, but that feels more like something to get used to than something I'll hate. Military is easier to work around with the commander system as well, and the combat seems polished.

All in all, a lot of the tedious stuff has been cleared out, which I'm a fan of.

The UI is not great, something that has been made very public.

There are some things missing (the one that really stands out is any sort of unit automation). It feels weird that in the process of trying to remove some of the micromanagement from the game, they made scout units 100% micromanaged.

I'm giving this a recommendation (I'll change later if I can't stand it after a few games), mostly because a lot of it is just things to get used to. It isn't civ vi, and it doesn't need to be, but more importantly because I have confidence that this development team will address the problems. If you've been through a few civ launches, especially civ vi, you know that the game in a year or two will be much improved from the game today.

Edit -

Okay, after completing a few games, just a couple of updates. The City/Town system is not my favorite. I would really like the option to disable this.

I do still generally like the building/specialist/population placement system, though having a governor like civ III where I can tell the game my priorities for a city and then have them do it for me would be nice. Late game when you have a city with all spaces in use, having to tell it where to place a specialist every few turns gets pretty tedious

The map generation is not great. Due to requirements for the second age (you need to go explore and get resources from distant lands), the map pretty much always feels the same, no matter what options you choose. Each continent is basically 3 squares with touching corners.

The age system has some charm, but really only the first age feels like true Civ, and the modern age makes it feel like the game is cut off too early and quickly. Some things, like wars, are completely incompatible with age transitions. I've been on the cusp of defeating an opponent and then the age transition tosses all my units back to my territory and gives them new ones. If I want to attack, I have to go through and declare war again and start over. I would also like the option to modify how the age transitions work (and set more classic win conditions). Someone doing something on the other side of the map having an immediate and dramatic impact on the game doesn't feel great (ie completing a random wonder pushing the age score over the limit and sending the game into the next age)

Some things, like railroads, are not easy to see on the map, and it's pretty easy to have them out of range of each other and do things like build in a spot that prevents completing special districts or such.

It's got good bones and it's a pretty game, will be looking forward to the full release!

yep, still recommend it.

It does a lot of the things I enjoy about Civ well, and fixes some of the issues I have with that series of games. Combat feels like you have a greater say in it and developing your cities is a more interesting venture than it is in Civ. The win conditions feel a bit forced and the inability to just deselect the score victory at the turn count is annoying (losing the game because you're 3 turns away from conquering the last civ but they managed trigger a score bump is pretty frustrating). I've had the game get stuck and have to close and reopen a couple of times but all in all it scratches that 4X itch, is an all around pretty game, and I've been having fun with it. It will fill the void for a while as I wait patiently for Civ 7 (and that team should take notes from this game, they do a lot of things very well).

If 500+ hours isn't enough of a recommendation I don't really know how to help you.

I hope you find what you're looking for.

I would recommend this game to other players.

Mostly just wish it had a good multiplayer system though.

There are... sometimes an excessive amount of infected... and then flamethrowers.

10/10 would play again

I can't begin to tell you how great this game is. Everything about it is absolutely fantastic.

absolutely worth the price tag.