Recent reviews by ButtonFOX

*REQUIRES THIRD PARTY ACCOUNT FOR MULTIPLAYER*

I have shot my self in the foot, first I avoided reading about the game as to not ruin it for myself. I went into this based on previous Civs being awesome,. So I had no idea of the 2K requirements. Assuming, like the other ones, they worked without a third party account. Why would I assume that there would suddenly be a requirement for a third party account. My second shot in the foot... I had last played Civ 6 in early November 2024. Not too long ago, but I have now found out that shortly after that the 2K account requirements were added to Civ 6. Which can be bypassed and still played multiplayer without an account by loading the legacy version of the game. Im sure that will be patched at some point. Third shot in the foot..I played a Civilization game longer than 2 hours(the maximum return playtime). I played 1 single player game and reached the age of exploration. After 6 hours in 1 game, go to try multiplayer to find it requires an account. Once linked, as far as I can tell, it just uses your steam account. If Civ 6 works fine, with matchmaking through steam without a 2K account...and Civ 7 just uses matchmaking though Steam anyway. WHY DO I NEED 2K?

PROS:
I like the New city/town system/ cities grow and you build as they grow, no more builders is great
Having a general to control your armies is a nice addition.
Having the deep ocean be hostile to your navy is a nice touch and adds to the strategic placements of ships before the end of a turn to not incur losses.
The barbarian and city state combo is also pretty cool they turn into one or the other based on your actions. So you can make allies or just wipe them out.

CONS:
Yes, the UI is lacking. It lacks a lot details about your cities and towns.
I never like the whole ages system in any other game that tried it, and I still dont like it. Worse is the whole map is not available until the second age...what if I want to play with no AI and only friends.. Not that I can play Multiplayer without a 2K account.
Overall, this feels like a AAA game from a graphics standpoint but a mobile game in UI and gameplay.
Where are all the Civs/Leaders... A lot still missing...until next month when a paid DLC comes out with some more of the missing overpriced game. As far as the DLC and 2K requirements, it just seems to be like Firaxis is going more down the micro transaction approach, and this is another step in this direction.

But...Civ always feels lacking for the first year or so. This does feel like its worse and more on a quarterly profit mentality, rather than a we didnt bug test and balance enough until it was in enough peoples hands to work out those bugs. Releasing a buggy cash grab game is not something I will continue to support. This negative review is not about the developers. Im sure they want to make the best Civ game they can and also love the game we all do. I really hope the game changes course and becomes a game I would actually want to spend many hours in playing from start to finish as 1 Civ.

I like many other held off at first launch. And boy am I glad I waited. The netflix Anime reignited an interest in the game. And it was finally ready to play. DLC was amazing.

Cant wait for the next one.

Is good.

I did a whole quest line thinking it was a secret narrative, and I had to listen to people and follow the clues. got to the end and finally figured out I could turn on the tracking.

And nothing better than trying to be stealthy and have a dog bark at you and alarm everyone cause you havnt bathed in days, now every can track your smelly thieving ass and brand you and ban you from town

Somehow got worse over time....

They just changed the name of CSgo to CS2...it still sucks, bring back original Counterstrike with updated skins and maps, not more of this. I firmly believe they "Released" this to sell prime memberships.