Civilization VI:
Even before
Districts are built and technology runs amok, the player's
civilization encounters other powers. First there are the
stationary, stagnant City States. I have despised City States since
they were introduced in Civ
V. These
non-playable single city nations never compete for global control.
They are speed bumps and space occupiers. They do nothing except
slow down the expansion of civilizations. In Civ
VI City
States are more frustrating, because it's difficult, if not
impossible, to see who they are allied with. While each City State
has a Suzerain, it's impossible to know who they will aid in a war.
In the middle of some wars, a City State which had joined one side or
another, suddenly withdraws from the fighting. I always reduced the
number of City States on a map by half.
The problem with
City States is a side show to the largest issue. Diplomacy between
nations is a disgrace. The issue began with Civilization
V which
tore apart the useful diplomacy screen of past games. The diplomacy
screen of Civ
III and IV
showed the relationships between every nation (Peace, War, Mutual
Protection, Right of Passage, and Military Alliance). Nations built
complicated alliances to defend each other and launch attacks. Civ
V and Civ
VI contain
no diplomacy screen. Civ
V at least
included a drop down diplomacy menu on the main screen to see each
nation's diplomatic relations. It didn't provide the easy
visualization of III
and IV,
but at least it was something. Civilization
VI doesn't
even include an easy way to see the relationships between other
nations. The player has to open the diplomacy screen, and then the
screen for the particular civilization. On the screen, beneath the
enormous portrait of the leader of the civilization, sits a small
face icons representing that nation's relationship with every other
nation.
The relationship
between two nations is expressed with a numeric value. This can be
viewed after searching through a handful of diplomacy screens.
Diplomacy's most significant issue isn't that it is inaccessible,
it's that it is unworkable. Civilization
VI added a
new system, the casus belli, Latin for “occasion for war”. It's
a prominent tool in many Paradox games, like Europa
Universalis 4. A
casus belli offers a justification for war, allowing a nation to
attack another with minimal penalty. Declaring war in Civ
VI without
a casus belli causes the relationship between the aggressor and all
other nations to deteriorate. The CB system is supposed to defray
the anger of other nations, but it doesn't work. Every nation either
hates every other nation, or will come to hate every other nation. A
game of Civilization
VI only
includes two types of relationships, Friendship and Alliance, or
Denouncement and hatred. Once a nation denounces another, which
they'll do for any offense, they never stop. It's impossible to
recover from a bad relationship with another nation, yet weaker
countries repeatedly demand resources. Why would I fulfill their
needs, when they despise me?
Another element of
Diplomacy is promises. Nations can promise not convert cities of
other nations, or settle cities near the borders of other nations.
The latter is a difficult promise to keep, because while Civ
VI is
clear where a nation's borders are, it isn't possible to know how
close is too close. No matter how far away one settles a city, other
nations becomes upset. By the middle of each game, the Computer AI
isn't just mad at the player, but at every other AI controlled
nation. In a game with twelve civilizations every one has denounced
ten people, allied with one, and remains uncertain about the last.
Civilization
VI doesn't
encourage unity or allow the building of consensus. There are no
grand alliances, because everyone hates everyone else. There can be
no unified attacks, nor united defenses to prevent aggression of
superpowers.
The AI fails to form
an alliance to defend against an aggressive nation. This, and the
lack of alliances in general, enables the player to depose opposing
civilizations one by one. Civilization
VI
includes five possible victories; Domination, Science, Culture,
Religion, and Score. Domination, capturing the capitals of all
opposing nations, is a stepping stone to all other victories.
Capturing the cities of others strengthens the conqueror, while
removing rivals. A Scientific victory, sending a spaceship to
colonize Mars, requires extensive scientific research, and a few
especially productive cities to produce and launch spacecraft. A
Scientific victory seems to take longer than a Domination or Culture
victory, but is difficult for other nations to prevent. A Culture
victory can sneak up on even the victor. The nation needs to
generate enough culture to attract more visiting tourists than they
have domestic tourists. Building Culture Districts, Buildings, and
Wonders increases a civilizations culture. Once I achieved a Culture
Victory the turn before I conquered the final enemy capital. In my
Domination victory I was nearing a Culture victory. Religious
Victory, which was introduced in Civ
VI,
requires the laborious task of converting every civilization to your
religion. Each civilization follows either the religion they
founded, or a religion which controls half of their cities.
Converting enemy cities is arduous work. In addition to the gentle
pressure of neighboring cities, religious conversion requires
building Disciples and Apostles. Like Settlers, the cost of
Disciples and Apostles increase with each purchase, and the religious
defensive unit, Inquisitors, is cheaper and more effective than the
offensive. To achieve a Religious victory I used war to reduce
opponents to two or three cities. Then it was possible to convert
two cities, achieving an artificial Religious victory, when a
Domination victory would have been easier. If the player doesn't
achieve any of these victories by the end of the game, the team with
the highest score wins.
Winning a game
should offer a sense of achievement, but the endings are
anticlimactic with a short video as the only reward. The end game is
boring as well, because it's obvious, with 100 turns remaining in a
500 turn game, that there's no obstacle to the player's victory.
Admittedly, Sean Bean's narration enlivens the ending, and each
technology, after he characteristically dies in the opening
cinematic. The ending graph ,which previous Civilization
games included is small, cramped, and aesthetically bland in Civ
VI. More
disappointing than the cinematic or graph is the removal of the post
game map timeline. This feature used to display a quick history of
the world by showing the creation, destruction, and conquering of
each city.
Some final
advice to make Civilization VI more enjoyable. In Options,
Interface, turn Show Yields in HUD Ribbon to always show. A totally
non-cheating feature, it shows the player every nations' score,
military strength, science per turn, culture per turn, total money,
and total faith. Also turn on Quick Combat and Quick Movement, both
of which drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a
turn.
Finally,
Civilization
must face the question of Difficulty. Civilization VI
offers eight different scales of difficulty. For the first three,
the player obtains a few minor advantages in battle. At difficulty
four, Prince, the player is equal to the computer. But after that
the computer's advantage expands exponentially in Science, Culture,
Production, Gold, combat, and starting cities. It would be fair to
say, that if each difficulty were graded on a scale of 1 to 100,
Settler would be a 5, Chieftain 7, Warlord 10, Prince 15, King 25,
Emperor 40, Immortal 60, and Deity 100. These benefits are necessary
because the AI, regardless
of the difficulty is idiotic,
but it's so idiotic it isn't as fun.
In Conclusion,
Civilization
VI is an
acceptable 4X game. It's the leading face of the genre, and the
general expectations are higher, but also no one expects astonishing
changes to the tried and true formula of Sid Meier's. Like any
version the develops changed stuff. Some, like workers, trade, and
government were improved. Others, like Districts could use more
work. Diplomacy, Happiness, and the AI languished in disrepair.
Another disappointing feature of the Civilization
series is that the developers continue to tear features out of
previous versions, and sell them to the player in expansions. The
Diplomatic Victory, World Congress, Global Warming, and Giant Robots,
which were all in previous Civ
games, are only available with the purchase of expansions. If you've
loved the Civilization
series you've probably already bought it. If you've never played it,
it's worth a look, but avoid the full price tag.
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