This game is terrible. Point blank. Period. There are some things in this game that are fun, but most of it is just down right annoying. Now I play Civ once and a while, always played it when I was a kid with my father, so I do like turn based strategy like this. This game, however, is so laughably bad and has things that make no sense that it rips out any fun this game has with me and makes me just go 'Why would you add that?'
To start, they have this stupid mechanic where you get 'XP' for different things. Government XP, military XP, engineering XP even something called 'Improvement XP.' These things are used to give yourself some buffs, spawn a certain unit or do certain things in the world. For example, you might get Spartans at some point and when you get a culture power point, you can spawn Spartans into the world for free and instantly. Maybe you want to integrate a vassal or bribe a barbarian to leave you alone? You would think it would be something like 'Pay X amount of money' or 'to integrate, spend this certain thing,' nope. It's XP. Maybe you need to build an improvement to your city right now. Something like a farm or a mine. In Civ, you built a builder, had him go over, build the building and done the mine is yours. In this game...........It's another DAMN XP TYPE CALLED IMPROVEMENT XP. This system is so terrible, because you don't create workers or anything. Instead, your population is just a number of people in your city that mans the improvements. So if you need a mine or something, better have that XP stockpiled like a goblin.
The age system I don't hate. Instead of Civ's idea of 'just research stuff' you go through ages that can give you bonuses. There is basically 'standard age,' 'better age' and 'crisis age.' Some ages give you a benefit for getting there first while a 'crisis age' is basically a bad age that has some consequences. I both hate and like this idea. It's unique, but in my game I was on the border of going through the age of plague. Basically, my people needed sanitation. I was at 19/20 and built a few things to help, barely eeking by it as I tried to go into the next age. All of a sudden, I am hit with 'the Aztecs fell into the age of plague' and I got it REGARDLESS OF WHAT I DID. So that is in the middle to me.
Honestly, the XP thing is this games greatest flaw to me. Everything else is just kind of 'I can do that in Civ,' except for the idea of creating your own nation and feeling like you don't need to subscribe to that nation's ideas. You don't need to be Teddy from Civ, which I guess can make everything feel kind of 'meh.' That and the game needs some quality of life things like an auto-scout button. Why they didn't think 'We should add an auto-scout button' is beyond me. I would say this game is an avoid because of the fact that certain main things you need are locked behind the XP idea like settlers, bribing, spawning envoys, etc. The graphics are meh as well, but I do like the fact that some things feel like a supply chain is needed. Like you need a logging camp to make logs, then a papermill to make paper and on and on for improvements, but it's also just kind of 'meh' to me.

This game is terrible. Point blank. Period. There are some things in this game that are fun, but most of it is just down right annoying. Now I play Civ once and a while, always played it when I was a kid with my father, so I do like turn based strategy like this. This game, however, is so laughably bad and has things that make no sense that it rips out any fun this game has with me and makes me just go 'Why would you add that?' To start, they have this stupid mechanic where you get 'XP' for different things. Government XP, military XP, engineering XP even something called 'Improvement XP.' These things are used to give yourself some buffs, spawn a certain unit or do certain things in the world. For example, you might get Spartans at some point and when you get a culture power point, you can spawn Spartans into the world for free and instantly. Maybe you want to integrate a vassal or bribe a barbarian to leave you alone? You would think it would be something like 'Pay X amount of money' or 'to integrate, spend this certain thing,' nope. It's XP. Maybe you need to build an improvement to your city right now. Something like a farm or a mine. In Civ, you built a builder, had him go over, build the building and done the mine is yours. In this game...........It's another DAMN XP TYPE CALLED IMPROVEMENT XP. This system is so terrible, because you don't create workers or anything. Instead, your population is just a number of people in your city that mans the improvements. So if you need a mine or something, better have that XP stockpiled like a goblin. The age system I don't hate. Instead of Civ's idea of 'just research stuff' you go through ages that can give you bonuses. There is basically 'standard age,' 'better age' and 'crisis age.' Some ages give you a benefit for getting there first while a 'crisis age' is basically a bad age that has some consequences. I both hate and like this idea. It's unique, but in my game I was on the border of going through the age of plague. Basically, my people needed sanitation. I was at 19/20 and built a few things to help, barely eeking by it as I tried to go into the next age. All of a sudden, I am hit with 'the Aztecs fell into the age of plague' and I got it REGARDLESS OF WHAT I DID. So that is in the middle to me. Honestly, the XP thing is this games greatest flaw to me. Everything else is just kind of 'I can do that in Civ,' except for the idea of creating your own nation and feeling like you don't need to subscribe to that nation's ideas. You don't need to be Teddy from Civ, which I guess can make everything feel kind of 'meh.' That and the game needs some quality of life things like an auto-scout button. Why they didn't think 'We should add an auto-scout button' is beyond me. I would say this game is an avoid because of the fact that certain main things you need are locked behind the XP idea like settlers, bribing, spawning envoys, etc. The graphics are meh as well, but I do like the fact that some things feel like a supply chain is needed. Like you need a logging camp to make logs, then a papermill to make paper and on and on for improvements, but it's also just kind of 'meh' to me.