There is also a tutorial that offers two settings - new to Civilization, and new to Civ VI. If you're not familiar, Civ VI does include a vast in-game encyclopedia, with articles of varying usefulness. It's a gameplay formula so great that it hasn't gotten stale in the 25 years since its inception. The basics remain the same, and they are great as always there is a reason this strategy game franchise has lasted for this long and remains relevant to this day.

Playing on a hex grid map, you will oversee most aspects of developing your nation - founding cities, constructing buildings and improvements, managing military and civilian units, performing research, looking after religion and society, and so on. Though your options for nations aren't as extensive as those in Civ V with its expansions, that's understandable but there are also fewer choices for map types no option for random leader personalities and that's a bit disappointing to see.

Players can still customize these aspects, as well as the type of map that will be randomly generated. Your way to victory can be reached by any of the classic methods, like space victory, domination victory, and so on. You will take your empire from the ancient days of bow and arrow to the ultra-modern space science, trying to compete for any number of victory conditions. Speaking of war, you can now also use casus belli - justified reasons for conflict with enemy Civs - to massively reduce the diplomatic penalty for warmongering usually tacked on to declarations of war.The major objectives in Civilization VI remain the same - you select from one of the national leaders, each with their own unique unit, ability and building, and try to win the game. VI lets you do things like gear your social policies toward producing a more effective military, and after the completely justified war, shift focus to rebuilding your cities and keeping your post-war populace happy. It's moved away from a static progression style for your civics, government and research where once you picked an option, it was there to build on for the rest of the game. That not only leads to a balancing act over things like choosing whether to harvest natural resources or use the space for developments like economic districts, it means your cities just look more impressive as they expand.Ĭiv VI feels more dynamic.

The most obvious change is that your cities, previously confined to one tile on the hex-based map, are now spread out over multiple spaces.

Screenshot by Luke Lancaster/CNET The home front Cities now cover multiple spaces on the map.

Civilization vi reviews