I’ve never played a Civ. I just trundled through the tutorial for VI and uninstalled. Nothing interesting happened :/
“Dozens of gamey features to distract you that the underlying system doesn’t work!”
Game certainly has some infuriating failings. But then, when asked for my list of best games of the year (and decade) I realized that every game on my list I had rage quit at one point or another, over some problem.
All I know is I am over a thousand hours of Civ VI gameplay, and have highly enjoyed most of it (especially when I was smart enough not to go much beyond the Industrial era). I could probably write a book on the game’s failings, but still.
ok, i need to chime in here
the vast majority of gamers DO NOT play the game the way the designers WANT you to play the game…EVERY game is DESIGNED to be played a certain way…its amazing to see people bitch about a game because it was NOT the game they wanted…I read 100’s of steam reviews and the pattern is there
CIV has ALWAYS BEEN a builder…it is not a wargame…it is not a diplomacy game…and quite frankly, its not a strategy game…its a builder…you build cities…you build an economy…you build wonders…etc…everything else is the AI nibbling at your feet, trying to undermine your ‘building a civilization’…thats why there is NO AI…it is NOT DESIGNED to beat you…YOU WILL ALWAYS BEAT YOURSELF
btw, i never finished a game of civ5…i’ve finished 4 games of civ6…and the ‘endgame monotony’ has been inherit in all civ games and clones since 1991…some day someone will figure out how to address it.
maybe its time for gamers to actually play the games they purchase, the way the designer wanted you to play it…you don’t play chess like it was checkers…you don’t play solitaire like it was poker…you would have alot more happy gamers
I disagree with pretty much every single point there.
But mostly the idea that it’s the paying customers who are the ones imposing on the company for wanting a different (working) product. You’re pretty much arguing against the right to ever criticize any consumer product.
LeeAbe
3903
The game is extremely popular as is though. Sure people complain here, but I can go to any number of forums and people love it as is. They make the game for those people, not the people complaining about the AI. Not enough customers care about that, so it’s not worth spending the money on.
Think @Bangorang2003 is 100% correct.
Bluddy
3904
I don’t think the series was always about just building. Civ I could kick your butt if you didn’t know how to exploit the AI. All the way up to Civ IV, the AI was quite competent. At lower difficulties, it was just a nuisance, but at higher levels, it got enough bonuses to stomp you.
I do think that Civ V came around, and Firaxis saw that bad AI didn’t translate to low sales. The audience of the game shifted from people who wanted strategy mixed with building, to people who wanted a idle clicker while they watch Netflix. So Civ VI is more of that, and has built up an audience with the expectation of a no-pushback builder. Why should Firaxis improve the AI now? It just risks driving their new audience away.
It’s worth noting though, that without an enemy that’s at least semi-competent, none of the famous Sid Meier ‘interesting decisions’ are interesting at all. Why would it matter what you picked at any point, if no enemy can make you pay for a bad choice? It’s become a zero-resistance game.
This reminds me of Binding of Isaac, which had 2 audiences: those (including myself) who wanted a tough roguelite, and those who wanted a screensaver of becoming OP in different crazy ways. Over time, the latter group triumphed, and that’s what the game has become. There’s no way to put the genie back in the bottle, without ticking off the audience that buys the game in massive numbers at this point.
dfs
3905
You go too far sir.
I would never characterize ANY of the civ AI’s have been “quite competent.” I can still manage to lose to the computer players on the hardest difficulty level, but that’s not because the are competent, it’s because they get such a head start that by the time I’m starting to ramp up, they can steam roll me.
Bluddy
3906
OK minimally competent, with a lot of help via cheating. Which I don’t mind – anything that happens behind the scenes to boost the AI is ok by me. Good AI is very hard. With 5 and 6, the AI is completely incapable of doing anything remotely threatening.
I was shocked in a recent game when I was attacked by fighters. I think this marked the first time I ever built a SAM unit.
KevinC
3908
That is a really weird take to me. It’s the penultimate strategy franchise on PC. I agree Civ6 isn’t much of a strategy game but that’s why there’s a lot of Civ fans not happy with Civ6.
If we’re on the sixth iteration of the series and it’s always been a builder, why are there so many longitme fans that were hoping for/expecting a strategy game? Yes, the game has an economy and buildings and wonders but that’s all been part of a strategy game that also includes warfare, diplomacy, religion, etc. There were real decisions in Civ games where you debated about whether to shoot for a wonder or to research Archery and beef up your city defenses.
Nothing wrong with taking the franchise in a builder direction, but I think retroactively calling the franchise a builder and not a strategy game is… well, I disagree.
In that case, what’s the ultimate strategy franchise? ;)
KevinC
3911
Dangit, in the post-literally world, words can mean whatever the hell I want them to! :)
CraigM
3912
Europa Universalis.
Come on, you knew someone would say it.
If you look into your hearts you will know that the answer is Imperialism II.
Of course, I took “penultimate strategy franchise” to mean that Kevin had seen into a grim future where there was only one more strategy game to follow Civ, and then the genre dies.
jostly
3914
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only connect-3.
KevinC
3915
Oh no, I’ve violated the Protocols and with the butterfly effect in play I might have thrown the entire course of human history off! I mean, my history, your future. Oh crap there I go again…
ZeTh1
3916
Ahahah Civ a builder game
