Civilization VI, which is being developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games, is a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Civilization series, giving you the ability to build a civilization from the time of the stone ages to the time of space exploration; the game is has a certain amount of complexity to it. We were treated to a theater presentation which included a demo of the title for our Civilization VI preview, giving us an overview of the features present in the title. While I personally have only played Civilization IV, and only briefly, I was left incredibly impressed by what we saw and we can’t wait to see more.
Civilization VI Preview — Beginnings
As we stated, Civilization VI is a celebration of sorts of the 25th anniversary of the Civilization series. During our Civilization VI preview, we were first treated to an introduction of sorts to the initial stages of building your civilization. Of course, civilizations require structures, so in order to create this infrastructure builders forge the foundation of the beginning of your civilization. The next thing we learned is that agriculture is crucial and is the sustenance for your settlement, which is a bit of common sense. You can create rice fields and these lead to further development. We were very impressed by the way 2K Games presented Civilization VI and how they walked us through the process on how to build a successful civilization from the ashes, especially as we are not very experienced with the series.
Civilization VI Preview — Digging Deeper
In our Civilization VI preview we were shown that as you grow your civilization, it is crucial to connect your various settlements as trade allows your civilization to flourish. Segmenting your civilization will destroy it. As this takes place, trading advances and further grows your civilization. Each city that you establish is unique within itself, which gives the experience a certain amount of diversity, which we found to be very exciting. Building barracks for combat is quintessential for protecting your civilization, as it will come under attack from barbarians when you first start out.
Civilization VI Preview — Neighbors
As your civilization grows and advances, you will begin to encounter neighboring civilizations. Through this you can trade for goods and services that would otherwise be unavailable to you. Contacting other civilizations will ultimately leads to some politicking in the form of building policies, and these can lead to even more growth, which continues the advancement of your civilization. We also learned in our Civilization VI preview that your civilization will have cultural needs; each settlement within your civilization will have a unique culture. Catering to these needs is very important to keep your settlements happy and you can even incorporate aspects of your neighbors’ culture into your own. As you continue to advance, your civilization will eventually enter into an industrial revolution. This creates more competition for resources, even within your own civilization, and it’s essential to spread around the wealth to keep everyone satisfied. Unfortunately, this can also make your neighbors extremely jealous of your civilization’s advancement and could lead to conflict. Technology differences will grow as you take over other civilizations, and you incorporate their advancements into your own.
Civilization VI Preview — The Ultimate Turn-Based Strategy Game
While we are not incredibly experienced in playing the Civilization series, we were left very impressed with the level of depth and strategy in the game that was shown during our Civilization VI preview. Civilization VI looks very good from a visual standpoint and the various aspects of building your civilization from the ground up from beginning to end leaves us very excited, as this is said to be the most in-depth Civilization game yet. It is the ultimate turn-based strategy game and we are ecstatic to get our hands on it on October 21 on Microsoft Windows.