Why you shouldn't buy Civilization VI (and what you should buy instead)

I'm a long time fan of 4X games and this weekend I took the plunge and picked up Civilization VI at a 10% discount during the Steam winter sale. The interface is slick but almost too polished. By taking away the granularity they also reduced the depth. They basically force the automatic management of population on city tiles now and will automatically allocate the population for you by allowing you to select from a toolbar what you want to focus. Manually reallocating population is tedious as you have to cycle through them "locking" to a tile. It's a long shallow pool that takes forever to paddle across. The game is accessible but not engaging.

I grew up with the majesty of Civilization IV and enjoyed the shininess of Civilization V but at this stage in my life I'm ready for more intricacy. Playing Civilization VI I found myself bored between turns. The combat is as simple and unengaging as ever. My recent experience with series like Heroes of Might and Magic have me hooked on personally directing the flow of combat on a zoomed in battlefield (though there is always the option for auto combat to save time).

"But what should I buy instead?!?!" 

I highly recommend picking up Endless Legend which is a steal at $7.49 during the Steam winter sale.

After dipping my toes into the shallow tepid pool of Civilization VI I quickly found myself diving back into Endless Legend because of the perfect mix of accessibility and depth. It doesn't take 50+ turns to begin to feel invested in your civilization. From the very beginning the quest system helps guide you through pacifying local tribes and expanding your empire giving much needed focus during the early turns of the game. Endless Legend perfectly balances heroes alongside the traditional 4X experience and has a rich combat system that allows you to take part in pivotal battles.

Endless Legend's greatest strength is the wonderful variety between civilizations. Nearly every civilization feels like a completely new experience. In Civ IV civilizations are only differentiated by stylization, a few special units, buildings and slight bonuses in different eras. In Endless Legend it feels like a completely new game when you load up a new civilization; there are races that can only have one city, a race that consumes the games currency instead of food to grow and other interesting twists. This variety greatly increases the replay value (I'm on my fifth play-through with a different civilization).

I didn't take to Endless Legend until the second time I started it - the wealth of customization can be overwhelming at first but if you can focus on the game for half an hour and pay attention to the tool-tips (upgrade your units in the army panel!) you'll be rewarded with hours of immersive game play. The expansions are also on sale and I plan to pick them up the first three soon - at ~$2.50 a piece for the first three I feel it is a great value. The game earned many awards and accolades when it was released but it managed to slip under my radar until now.

If you're on the fence about what games to buy this Steam Sale I hope this helps you get the most entertainment value for your money.

As always, thoughts and opinions are welcome! Let me know what you think if you've played either game or if you have any other suggestions.

Until next time, game on!

-Eliott

Breaking news – Hell freezes over, Eliott goes to China

Winter had a firm choke-hold on air travel but I was determined to be on my way. My connection to Detroit was one of the scariest landing I'd ever experienced, the plane came in tilted at an angle and didn't land on all wheels at once - I could feel the wheels skidding on the ice. Shaken but resolute, I headed to my connecting gate and got my first experience of a major cultural difference - Chinese don't hold much to the idea of personal space, and will swarm any line.

The first of many lines of Chinese on my trip

I fought my way onto the plane and found my seat. Everyone got settled, we pulled out from the terminal, and found that the queue for deicing was long. Two hours long. After deicing, we are queued for takeoff, and our plane lost power. Finally we regained power, but then there was a faulty status light. The problem persisted and a maintenance crew was called. 

A third hour ticked by. The problem was resolved, the lights were green, we were back in queue to take off. Then we hit the fourth hour, and federal regulations state that they can’t legally make people sit on a plane for longer than four hours without giving them a chance to disembark the nightmare. This option was given, with the information that with our position in queue, we would be taking off within twenty minutes. There were four people that vote to escape, so our plane taxied back to the terminal, much to everyone's chagrin. The four weak stomached passengers wanted their luggage of course, but one passengers is unable to be found. 

Even the automatic flight tracker has no idea what's going on

A fifth hour ticked by. The last bag was located and everyone praised their deity of choice. We pulled out from the terminal and resumed our position in the queue. There was ice forming on the windows and I feared we would have to deice...again. Apparently I wasn't the only passenger with this fear, and others were more vocal. The captain announced over the intercom that there was no need to worry, the wings are the only portion of the plane that are required to stay ice free, and the thick coating of environmentally harmful gel will last well past our eventual take off time.

The sixth hour comes and goes. Back in the queue, we finally got our chance to take off. Six and a half hours after sitting down in my seat, we finally eased into the sky, and I’m on the way to Beijing.