Pic relevant. I’ve tried playing the new Civ games several times, and quickly end up quitting because I find them too overwhelming and find it hard to want to deal with the learning curve.
It occurred to me that part of the problem might be that I was jumping into a very old franchise that has been getting increasingly complicated over the years. Had a hunch I would have better luck with the original, so I went onto one of those play-dos-in-your-browser sites, dove in, and sure enough I am hooked!
Do I know what I’m doing? Not really, but stuff is happening and my civilization is growing, and it’s a good time.
Had to uninstall Unciv from my phone.
Having a Civ-like app 24/7 available in my pocket isn’t something I can handle…C’mon bro just one more turn.
… When did the sun rise?
l mean, I should still have plenty of time, as it is still quite early in the evening!
*looks at watch*: 2:49am
You’ve got a good point there that I am also often making when talking about gaming and maybe also trying to present gaming to non gamers.
There is so much implicit stuff grown over decades that for some series the barrier of entry is almost impossible for newbies. Be it the control scheme of some fifa or the complexity of a strategy game that just has to surpass its predecessor, not many developers consider this. Sometimes it’s even part of a reason for downfall.
Even just resolution has an impact as well. I started playing Alpha Centauri now. I can tell that this game’s visuals are something I would have loved back when my eyes still worked properly and I’d be playing it on a 1024x768 crt monitor. But now on a 1080p laptop display and my poor sight even with glasses, I’m finding it strains my eyes a lot to play.
By contrast the low rez blocky NES-style visuals of civ 1 are much easier on my eyes, making one more reason this game is easier to get into.
Also adds to this on multiple levels, yes. Eyesight for one but also with lower resolution the developer had to focus on what to display.
Civ 2 is still and always will be the best civ Boat stacking armies for an invasion was the bomb
Getting pulled into nonsense by the war hawks was so frustrating yet so peak
I’ll add my vote for Sid Meyer’s Alpha Cebtauri, it is a masterpiece. If you want to branch out Master of Magic is also quite fun and adds some interesting twists. Though it’s not a Sid Meyer game. There’s even a remake of it.
Alpha Centauri was the shit. I played the heck out of that.
I’ve played the first five Civ games and I have fond memories of buying units with diplomats! There’s also FreeCiv which is an open source project that’s very similar to Civ2 but probably supports modern hardware better. It’s been built for android but from what I understand they’re built by third parties so if you’re tech savvy or feeling adventurous you could build it yourself. I played it many years ago in a really rough state where nothing was explained and my own knowledge of Civ 2 was the only thing that made it playable but from what I have heard it’s much better now.
Fun fact, Civ1 was ported to the SNES and Civ2 was ported to the PlayStation.
Just one more turn, bro.
Then you’ll totally go to bed.
Omg its 6am and I need to go to work
I’ve been playing civ since '96 starting with civ2 on a console. Been playing civ4 beyond the sword for the last 8 months or so. It’s a mod that comes with civ4 complete. Very addictive. I like taking over cities through cultural domination. I usually play 3-5 hrs a night while “watching” tv.
I helped develop Unciv.
Have fun.
You’ve helped me waste dozens of hours I should be giving to the corporation. Thank you for doing your part.
Thank you for your service o7
I have vanilla Civ V on Steam and I was able to get Civ VI with a bunch of expansions for free through Epic. VI has some cool stuff, but I think I enjoy V more.
CIV VI really dives into board game-like qualities and while it’s a double edged sword, I think what it does, it does very well. There is room in the series for experimentation and trying new angles. The problem with VII is it doesn’t seem to even know what it wants to be or how it wants to do it. It’s unfortunately a mess that I don’t think they can fix.
I’ve been playing since 1991. My friend had a copy and I was so into it I’d go over to his house to play it when he wasn’t home. Then I got my own copy and I haven’t stopped playing since.
Well, except that one time where I had to have my wife hide the Civ V disc from me because I couldn’t stop myself.
I guess what I’m saying is take breaks and go outside, but I know your life will be “just one more turn…” from here on out.
I remember hitting “next turn” and going to eat, because it d take 30min to compute all AIs lol. I d save literally every turn
I really love this approach and find myself employing it more the older I get. The second game has the best simplicity/fun ratio imo but 4 is also pretty good in that regard.
cough heroes of might and magic III cough
Yess, was playing that recently too. Love that game.
yeah me too, love that game to bits
If you enjoy the original Civilization, be sure to try out Freeciv. Basically the original game but with expanded gameplay and updated for compatibility. It’s OpenTTD to Transport Tycoon, if you’re familiar with those games. It also has multiplayer features, and there are sites that run turn-per-day MMO events.
I think my favorite Civilization game is actually Civilization Revolution. It is a casualized console release, but I feel it has just the right amount of complexity to be a really fun, chill game. Also, I like going for an economic victory in that game.
I think I would have really enjoyed Civ Revolution had I not already played a ton of Civ 4 on which it was based. I just couldn’t get over what was missing.
I think the best modern civ is either IV or V depending on how much you just want to do a military conquest victory.
I’d agree, and I prefer 4 to 5 greatly for that very reason.
Came to advise this. Its like “baby’s first civ”. Which sounds reductive and like I’m trying to be mean, but its not. It gives you a good intro to the core concepts.
