With a thematic trailer of exploration and civilization combined with the powerful and moving orchestral score, Civilization VI has been revealed. It has been five years since the release of the previous title, Civilization V, and three years since the release of the final expansion, Brave New World. Firaxis Games, the developers, decided to announce the title on their 25th anniversary. I personally believed that Civilization VI would either come out in 2015 or 2016 since CIV IV & V were released in 5 year increments. In a sense, I was partially correct. This trailer revealed little to no ideas or knowledge regarding the new title. However, additional information regarding new mechanics and changes can be found on the studio’s page. I will attempt to nitpick the important revealed changes and summarize the rest as a whole.
For starters, the art style is drastically different from that of Civilization VI. Some may debate that it is too “cartoonish.” I, for one, am in favor of the change in art direction. It is obviously brighter and more vivid when it comes to the color palette. This is not a bad thing; change can be a good thing in this case. The possibilities of conveying specific civilizations’ aesthetic style will more than likely be on display through this new art style. For example, the samurai unit next to the farmland appears to be well put together. This decision to switch the art design may also be due to a widening of the series audience and target demographic. The art style may attract players on the younger end of the spectrum. Anyone who has actually played the series though cares little about the art style and more for the gameplay and turn-by-turn decisions one makes to better their civilization.
Several other minor changes have been revealed but the major one that I will attempt to explain is the change regarding a player’s cities. Global Happiness, for one, is no longer in play when it comes to managing your empire in Civilization VI, a change I welcome with open arms. Cities are now encompassing more than one tile. In other words, most city improvements take up a tile or ‘district.’ This means that players will need to plan ahead when forming their city early game, this will kept them from wasting potentially useful late game tiles. This gameplay aspect will also be noteworthy when attacking a city. Fort ‘districts’ or defensive structures should now always be the major focal point while attacking another civilization’s city. When these are destroyed, the city will be far more easy to either annex or raze to the ground.
There are plenty of additional changes not mentioned above, but I found the city example the most intriguing. You can find more info on Civilization VI here.
Players can expect this title to be released this Fall on October 21, 2016.
