I’m excited to report, based on over 20 hours of gameplay, that Civilization 6 is just as addicting as its predecessor Civ V. Old mechanics like culture, religion and trade have overgone significant overhauls that involve entirely new strategic considerations. On top of that, the cartoony style of various world leaders, the Hidden Agenda element and the much-improved leader screen make dealing with other civilizations much more transparent as well as satisfying.
I chose Pericles for my first playthrough, hoping for a Culture victory, as Greece gets special Culture bonuses. My only continental neighbor was Teddy Roosevelt, who became my best friend. It turned out that his Hidden Agenda was Environmentalist, so he was pleased to see that I kept all my rainforests rather than chopping them down for districts, resources or fun. Teddy also likes a civ that keeps the peace on his continent, which I was more than happy to do since it was just me and him… at first. (Scythia, damnit…)
Being on a continent with only one other civ, and one that preferred peace to war, meant I could focus on Culture. But Culture and its offshoots, Great Artists/Writers and their Great Works, are different in Civ 6. While you do have a Theater District (or an Acropolis if you’re Greek) that accrues both amenities for your civilization and cultural bonus points, you can acquire Great People through either treasure, faith or Great Person points -- not through mere Culture per turn. Great Person points are separate from culture and are particular to each type of Great Person you are trying to acquire. They feel a whole lot harder to acquire than the Civ V Specialist system.
Not only that, each Great Person is completely unique. Some have active benefits, some have passive benefits, and some have both. You can see which civilization has recruited which Great Person (and thus is enjoying their benefits) in a tab of the Great People screen, as well as how much progress each Civilization has made to recruiting that particular Great Person.
If you plan to recruit Great People with faith or gold, you’ll need a lot handy, especially if the gulf between how many points you have and how many you need is vast. You can run out of Great People. It's not just about spamming Wonders. And this can spell trouble if you’re gunning for that Culture Victory.
Because I didn’t quite grok how Culture worked at first, I didn’t accrue many Great Artist or Writer points, so my art galleries were empty. My artifact galleries, filled with treasures brought home by my archaeologists, were full (no more mixed art-and-artifact museums, though theming bonuses still apply). Without Great Works, Japan pulled ahead of me in the Culture race. This is when my spies came in handy.
Spies are so much better in Civilization 6. They go on missions, they get promoted and they can do powerful stuff, like sabotage a Spaceport in a city working on a Science victory, or go on a heist to grab a Great Work of Art or Writing. I put all my spies on heist duty. Before long, all of Japan’s Great Works sat in my galleries. Japan was mad, but was too far away to do anything. Besides, you wouldn’t want to make Teddy angry, now would you? Cue a win for Pericles!
But… not so fast. While I was bumbling around trying to absorb how Culture worked through osmosis, I wound up pouring a ton of resources into Science. This meant I could go for a Science victory, I thought, so I built one (1) spaceport and started my capital city on sending all the modules out. Two out of five modules in, I realized that this would take forever, so I built a second spaceport. Partway through building the fourth module, after researching Future Tech after Future Tech, I won…
A score victory. A score victory! The worst and most boring kind of victory. The victory that says “you didn’t excel at anything, but neither did your opponents, so you win, I guess.” The victory that crowns you Queen of Mediocrity. Queen of the Middle of the Road. Score Victory! Pah.
I trucked along with my two spaceports, idly wished I’d built a third one, and watched as they launched modules to no fanfare, because winning happens once, silly. Then I stopped playing and swapped over to a new civ to try out the new faith and combat mechanics, of which there are many. See you in another 20 hours!
I do need to note that my game lagged immensely after about turn 200, with random crashes as well. I also would like to strongly emphasize that I played an early access build and that the game we see on Oct. 21 should be fully optimized to hopefully decrease the amount of time between turns and eliminate those random crashes.
If you need more Civilization VI info, we have the gameplay details for Arabia, Sumeria, Greece, Spain, Scythia, Japan, Egypt, Rome and the United States of America, along with their new leaders’ unique bonuses. We also know about Norway, China, England, France, Germany, India, Egypt and the Kongo. There’s even a major pre-order bonus: the Aztecs, led by Montezuma I. You can pre-order Civilization VI here, check out the deets on Civilization VI ’s 25th anniversary edition here and check out our previous hands-on impressions of Civ VI here, here and here.
Civ VI launches Oct. 21 on PC. Are you ready to rule the world?
