Civilization VI

In Civilization VI, you’ll get to build a civilization and nurture it from the stone age to the space age. For Civ fans this is nothing new, but the sixth entry in Firaxis’ 4X strategy masterpiece has some great improvements. Let me count the ways.

1) The Art Is Rad
Civ VI’s fog of war system slowly reveals the world as you explore it. This is pretty normal, but what is new is that after you’ve discovered an area and leave the world takes on an old world map-like aesthetic. The studio hasn’t really shown this off in any of the images of the game for some reason, but it looks really cool. 

2) Confidence Builders
Workers are now called builders, and while they only have a limited number of uses they are great for cultivating your city. I used builders to create farms on tiles with wheat and then turned a tile with rocks into a mine. These benefits happen instantly and give you an added boost to your cities production.

3) Green Light These Districts
You can now customize your city by carving it up into districts that give your city additional benefits. Districts are a bit of an investment since they take up land that could otherwise be used to produce food or something else. However, they also boost your people’s faith, your scientific studies, or help train your soldiers for war.

4) You’re Playing With Governmental Legos
Civ fans are very familiar with the technology tree, which allows you to research new technologies and slowly opens up the ability to build new building and better military units. However, now you’ll also have access to a civics tree, which allows you to research new governmental policies. You can mix and match policies to create the government you want. For example, you can research economic policies that give you a boost to trade and then mix that with a policy that helps keep your army strong by giving your ranged units an attack boost.

5) Boost Your Learning
Speaking of the technology tree, it’s easier than ever to power through the tree towards a specific goal. Not only does having a strong scientific focus help you research new technology, but you can get boosts that help you research specific technologies more quickly. Killing a few barbarians might give you a boost to researching arrows – cutting the time to develop that technology in half. Each technology has an associated task that will allow you to research that technology more quickly.

6) It’s Still Fun To Meet and Greet
Meeting other nations is inevitable in Civ. However, you now have more diplomacy options than ever. When you first encounter a new civilization, for example, you can invite them to visit your capital, uncovering the map around your home city for them, which generates good will. As you get to know other nation’s leaders you’ll learn how to appease them, because each civilization has hidden agendas and behaviors. For example, the United States won’t like you if you’re needlessly aggressive against other countries, but Egypt might not respect you if you have a small army.

It’s always been easy to lose several hours to a game of Civilization, and Civilization VI’s improvements look to make building your nation easier than ever. I’m excited for the game to release on October 21, so I can nurture my empire through the ages and eventually build a spaceship to the stars.