Sid Meier's Civilization 6

Sid Meier's Civilization 6 is a management strategy game with turn-based battles and an isometric camera view. Cities in the new game of the famous series expand across the entire map, and various leaders pursue their own goals based on their historical traits. You can expect vast empires, accelerated progress of your civilization, dynamic diplomacy, united armies, and improved multiplayer.

The global turn-based strategy Civilization 6 was released for PC and Mac on October 21, 2016. As in other games in the series, the player chooses a civilization and embarks on a journey spanning 6,000 years — from Antiquity to Modernity. By managing their people, cities, and territory, the player must somehow lead them to Victory.

Civilization 6 develops and enhances the ideas laid out in previous games, as well as introduces new gameplay mechanics that expand the player's capabilities in managing and developing the chosen civilization. In 2018, the first expansion for the game was released — Civilization 6 - Rise and Fall.

In terms of graphics, the developers from Firaxis moved away from realistic models of units, objects, and the game world design from Sid Meier's Civilization 5, changing the visual style to a "hand-drawn" look, deliberately sacrificing detail in Civilization 6 for objects and units, while also presenting a "cartoonish" appearance for Leaders.

The action of Civilization 6 takes place on a randomly generated map containing continents, oceans, and the full spectrum of landscapes, on which from 2 to 16 human civilizations appear. The settings allow for alternative scenarios. The game space is divided into hexagons (hexes), which can be worked or built into cities, there are more biomes, and the bonuses for their processing have changed.

The main objective is to achieve dominance over other civilizations and secure one of four Victories: military, technological, religious, or cultural. Competing civilizations, controlled by artificial intelligence, react sensitively to the player's progress, putting obstacles in their way. A feature of the series is that Victory can be achieved using different strategies and transitioning from one to another.

From the very first turns, analyzing the map plays an important role, where the player must identify the best locations for building cities, capturing strategic and rare resources, as well as gaining access to the sea. Starting with a small settlement, the player discovers new technologies, founds new cities and develops them, cultivates land within their state, develops trade and diplomacy with other civilizations, builds alliances, and engages in wars.

Most of the gameplay is related to cities, where inhabitants work the game tiles (hexes). For the first time in the series, districts are built around cities — commercial, scientific, industrial, military, religious, and others, totaling 12. Each district offers additional buildings that increase the city's productivity in the chosen direction. Thus, cities can be specialized, turning them into naval or scientific-cultural hubs.

Cities generate gold, as well as points for science, culture, production, religion, tourism, and happiness. All of them, in one way or another, participate in the gameplay. For example, the happiness of the population determines trust in the current course of the state and can lead to revolts or, conversely, a golden age.

The development of civilization is linked to the technology tree; in Civilization 6, it is divided into two independent branches — technological (science and industry) and cultural (social institutions), and progress in this area is related to the number of science and culture points generated by cities. A "Eureka" mechanic has been introduced, which accelerates technology research when certain conditions are met.

Internal development can be controlled by choosing a type of government — from autocracy and monarchy to democracy or tyranny, as well as setting up a government using cards of various political courses, such as speeding up unit production, increasing trade income, military strength of soldiers, and others. Forms of government and government types are unlocked as social institutions are researched.

In Civilization 6, war remains an important part of gameplay, but now it is very costly and not the best way to solve problems. A whole system of war justifications has been implemented, as well as diplomatic penalties for declaring war. The consequences of war last for years. Most of the most famous units from each era are present — from swordsmen and archers to cavalry, infantry, tanks, and airplanes. Units can be assembled into corps and armies, increasing their combat strength and health.

Civilization 6 offers multiplayer with the same turn-based gameplay as in single-player mode, but each turn is time-limited, so decisions must be made quickly. The objectives have not changed, and the players' opportunities are maximally balanced. There is also a team mode where two players can play together against another pair of players.