lookit that smug motherfucker, he’s all ready to build nukes and then bitch at you for walking too close to his cities
2K has announced Civilization VI, the newest numbered entry in the legendary 4X franchise. So what, exactly, does this game add to the previous game’s formula? I’m glad you asked! Here’s some stuff!
- Although you don’t just stack tons of units onto one tile, a la Civ IV, you can now combine some units together. Some will also have special permutations unlocked by combining them.
- “Dynamic Diplomacy” apparently means that in the early game, you just throw rocks and feces at other civilizations you meet, later gaining the ability to parley in an honorable fashion. Of course, once you reach the early 21st century, you return to being xenophobic with the goal of “making Denmark great again”.
- Everything else seemed to be a bunch of buzzwords with no actual new gameplay ramifications, such as “expansive empires”, “active research”, and “enhanced multiplayer”.
The game does still operate with hex tiles, as in Civ V and Beyond Earth, but the most pressing question (as evidenced by previous new Civ games) is not what they added, but what has been removed. In all likelihood, the game will not be worth buying until the first expansion is out — and maybe not until the second. That’s the precedent that’s been set, anyway.