(AfroGamers.com) In 2016, I was playing a lot of Civilization 5 leading up to the release of the newest game, Civ 6. Of course, I was excited for the game. I have been playing Civ since the back end of the second game. Usually, it is not a game that I play exclusively as the main game at any time, but it is a game that I know I can fall back on when I fall out of favor with other games or am going through one of my phases where every game seems boring. Five years after the release of Civ 6, the developers have done a great job of updating the game while also adding some cool upgrades.
Solid From the Start
One thing that many games miss the mark on frequently nowadays, is that there are a lot of games become good or great games over time, not the second that they release. Civ 6 was greatness straight out the gate. As soon as I popped it in and started playing, it felt like a game that was new and fresh while being familiar at the same time. There weren’t many big bugs that plagued the game around launch like many releases. There was a ton of content right when it came out and I spent my time playing around with the vast number of different civilizations trying to see which ones I liked and which ones I didn’t and also which specific playstyles or victory conditions I typically try to go for.
With this being said, I will note that there were other games out at or around the time that Civ 6 released that caused me not to run the game into the ground straight off the bat. I usually played the game for an hour when I first turn my console on to get me warmed up or even after a long day of gaming, a chill game that I can put on to unwind.
Keeping the New Content Coming
Somehow, Civ 6 has stayed fresh since 2016. Most games that release today cannot stay fresh for two months. Civ 6 has done this by releasing a steady stream of DLC content. The base game is enough to get countless hours out of but when they started adding in the DLC packs, the games seemed fresh all over again. Some of the civilizations that they added changed the dynamic of the game drastically even if you just had them in your game. Some even changed your whole playstyle into something that you never knew could be fun like recently when they added the Portugal leader Joao III who is a sea trader. He cannot make international land trade routes to other countries and can only make sea trade routes but he gets 50% more yields from them and higher movement range. He is a blast to play with and an example of how one civ can change the whole game.
The developers of the game also did a great job of bringing new wonders along with the new leaders. Just bringing the leaders in by themselves would have been fine but the wonders that are associated with those leaders make the game that much more fun to play and the fact that when you start your new game, you never know which wonders are in the game, there is always that element of surprise mixed with hope for which wonders might pop up and which ones you want to start the game near.
Modded For the Console
My primary method of playing video games is through my PlayStation console. I know that the “best” way of playing Civ 6 is on PC but I just don’t have one. That being said, something that is cool about the PC version of many games is the fact that they can get mods that fans make in order to extend the shelf life of a game or even bring an old game back from the dead and make it fresh again. What we have been given on console is not player made mods but rather mods made by the developers and they really impact the game. Since some of them have come out and I have tried them, they have become a staple of every new game I start and I honestly don’t remember playing without can cannot see how I did at some point.
To me, the best of these “mods” is the secret societies mode which lets you join one of four secret societies that gives different game changing perks that unlock throughout the game. They are based around certain concepts in the game. There is a military one with vampires (yes, vampires), a civic based one that allows you to have more control over and get more benefits from city-states, a religious one that drastically boosts your faith output and makes your religion even more deadly and lastly, my favorite one, the Hermitic Order which boosts your science output and gives you access to ley lines that give dramatic boosts to districts placed nearby early one and raw output later on.
Although I think that this one is the best, there is also an “ages” mode that allows you to rise to golden ages or fall into dark ages with different perks and penalties for each one. There is a dramatic weather mode which cause disasters to happen more frequently and be more devastating (which I do NOT play with). The world congress that makes the world leaders come together to make decisions and although it don’t have a drastic impact on the game, it is very cool. They also have a zombie’s mode that is cool, but not my cup of tea.
Wrapping Up
Time after time, I leave Civ 6 and come back to it because it is always consistent and always fun. Over the years, I have gotten to bump my difficulty up to level seven and that is something that I usually never do in games but I love the challenge that Civ brings. Although I never gave it the chance to burn out for me, I don’t see it doing that anytime soon and I hope that it doesn’t.
Staff Writer; Tardell Swift
This brother is new to writing yet has many different interests such as gaming, hip hop, wrestling, and manga.
You can follow him on Twitter; PhirewoodGaming and keep up with his thoughts there as well.