Need to churn out some troops to counter a looming threat from barbarians or a rival leader? No problem, there's a policy that helps rush troop production or makes it cheaper to upgrade existing ones. This allows for an overarching strategy with a degree of micro-management and fine tuning during different periods of the game. Different types of policies covering military, economy and diplomacy can be swapped in and out of your overarching government type, depending on the focus and direction that you want to head in. The same applies to the changes to the system of governance, which are many and meaningful. It makes for a more complex game, certainly, as you work out how best to achieve your short and longer term goals - and, perhaps thankfully, it plays havoc with the starting strategy of returning players - but it's also more rewarding, refreshing and engaging for it. Buildings and districts are opened up by research of both technology and civics, one relying on science and the other on culture, thus tying the two together. Rival leaders have a more sophisticated set of likes and dislikes, though that doesn't necessarily make them any more reasonable. It's also telling you something as it plays - civilisation is complexity out of one, many. The manner in which each civilization's signature tune riffs off a central theme and builds in complexity as the eras roll past to become more sophisticated, layered tracks is stunning. Civ 4's Baba Yetu is rightly lauded as the most sublime Civ theme music but Civ 6 features the most complete and consistently catchy soundtrack of any game in the series. Best of all, Civ 6's relatively relaxed system requirements ensure it's a joy to behold even on modest systems and laptops.Īnd the music goodness gracious the music. Functionality is matched by beauty, too, the dynamic day and night conditions bathing the land in orange and purple during dawn and dusk, while the sun glints on the surface of rivers during the day. Clarity is key in Civ 6's new order and, even with the resource icons switched off via the mini-map menu, map elements and resources are clearly signposted. Pushing back the parchment-covered map provides a very particular type of joy, and it's here that the new art style beds itself in. That's when the thrill of discovery kicks in. It starts simply enough, with the founding of a city near a freshwater source to facilitate the basic housing system that determines your population cap. This is the same Civ at heart, but it's more adaptable and a little deeper. It's still a game about taking a handful of ancient era units and evolving and expanding upon them through the ages until a single city has turned into an empire, and until the earliest discoveries of pottery and writing have led to nuclear fission and social media. The challenge here isn't in the systems themselves - all introduced effortlessly and efficiently via a dedicated tutorial and the advisor system - but in the planning and strategy they enable. If it sounds complex it's because it is, but it's the very best kind of complexity. If a holy site can only be situated on a tile already offering a resource such as stone or bananas, should I sacrifice the resource or wait to build the holy site in another city? Should I be thinking harder about my initial city placement so as to avoid this dilemma in the first place? And how on earth am I going to house the seminal works of my great writer if I don't immediately build a theatre square to support an amphitheatre? You are faced with tough choices everywhere. The new art style is a winner the way in which the map is revealed and your units traverse it is lovely to watch. Each district requires a tile of its own, comes with differing build requirements and reaps bonuses based on placement near certain terrain types, tile improvements or other districts. The themed districts that sit on tiles surrounding your city house buildings of a corresponding type: banks in the commercial district, a library on campus, barracks in the encampment and so on. Where the earlier separation of units had me breathing a sigh of relief, though, the new urban sprawl of city demarcation has me hyperventilating. In Civ 6, Firaxis goes further still, unstacking the cities themselves through the introduction of districts and handing each world wonder its own tile. In that one neat edit Civ 5 became a clearer and more nuanced game of strategy. When Civilization 5 unstacked units, forcing each onto its own hexagonal tile, and doing away with the dreaded 'stack of doom' in the process, it was a huge relief. Civ 6 harnesses the series' great strengths and adds wonderful new features of its own in an accessible and compelling entry.
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