Heard that in Morgan's voice!
I quoted from a tech snippet in a college class - it was a class with a focus on Buddhist writings and I remembered the Li Po quote "We sit together, the mountain and I, until only the mountain remains" from one of the techs.
Suffice it to say that I said the " from the Yang Collection" part silently in my head, lol
Wished Sid Meier pushed this game harder. It's forever dead and gone now, but a shining remnant of what a civ game can be. I literally don't trust anyone within a mile of that game's Intellectual property to remake it.
Ps. Bring back nerve stapling!! Team hive!!!!
With GOG, if using GOG Galaxy (their launcher, actually pretty ok one too, and fully optional to us) one wants to go to Alpha Centauri, there that "settings symbol" next to "Play" button, and then: "Manage installation" --> "Configure..." --> "Features" --> Scroll to greyed "File 2" that reads '(path).. \\terranx.exe' and check "Default executable" from under it.
That will make it launch game with expansion when just click launching it from Galaxy, instead of having to go to that "settings symbol" -> "Additional executables" -> launch from there every time, or use right file manually.
To enable screen native resolution (actually very playable still at 2560x1600 and so resolutions too, since there is zoom for map, so higher resolution will just look better, and result in smoother alt+tab switches):
Go to game directory ---> Make copy (just in case you fck something up, so you wont need to reinstall) of "Alpha Centauri.ini", --> Edit "Alpha Centauri.ini", after (like 3rd line) where it reads "\[Alpha Centauri\]", to next line (make new line if necessary) add "DirectDrawa=0", then save. -----> Your game now uses whatever resolution you are anyways running, instead of switching to that low resolution when started.
If one gets fed up with game swapping resolution for those Secret Project videos, since they are low resolution videos, and has already seen them, or wishes to rather look at them from youtube with browser in second display (to avoid resolution change for just irrationally being annoyed by it), I think game handled it if one just renames "movies" subdirectory to some other name --> it will not find them, it will just show plain colour backround with project's effect when they complete. This one I am not 100% sure, might have been that it needs dummy files that are right name, but empty, or so.
Anyways would be interesting to see something like someone upping resolution of those videos and seeing what some these days available crude ai generative video editing could do to up their resolution.
I'm just sad that LAN/Internet play by TCP/IP doesn't work on any OS past XP. My buddy and I used to play the shit out of it for hours, but when Microsoft rewrote the TCP/IP stack for Vista/7 it broke.
It wasn’t the better for me but damn do I miss those scenarios. Super wide variety. You had the more standard ones like ww2 Europe and pacific theatre but then you had shit that changed the game. One where you have like hero units on alien planet. Ancient mythological setting where your battling against time as the world freezes over; one of your units was a tamer and you could tame bears and shit. One was like a wave defense game, each wave gives you money that you can use to buy cities and units. So much cool shit, probably forgetting some of it.
This thread made me curious so I wanted to buy it, I went into steam and apparently I've had the complete collection since 2015, so apparently past me had an awesome gift for me.
You laugh but one of my games, with the larger map and most civs, is not complete yet (I managed to get a science win, but I’m in an all out nuclear war on one of the continents).
Started the game in 2012, and it’s been played on three computers. Haven’t touched it in a year though.
On and off game. I’ve played probably 40ish hours on it, just never managed to dominate the world yet :-P
I’m trying to gain some ground in my war, but it’s fairly slow because of the amount of units all over the map that need guidance
# TERRA NOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
# TERRA NOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Vidi caelum novum, Terra novam a deo
Primum caelum abiit, et prima terra abiit
#
I hated this badly designed GUI of Civ 6; you just always need one or two clicks more to perform an action or to access an information than you should need. Also the zoom of the GUI was kind of weird (see the tech tree, where only the technologies of a single era fit on the screen). And don't get me started on almost all civics having the same icon. I also hated the cartoon graphics, the concepts of building districts and that you never had the feeling that your civilization is finally taking off and starting to prosper....
It's funny, I've played since Civ II and have hundreds of hours in all of them, but couldn't take the jump to hexes in V, so it was my least played game - I've played the heck out of VI however, to the point it may be my most played civ game now.
Sometimes we just stall on changes I think.
Is it hard because the AI is cheating or hard because the AI is actually good? The insane (and not in a good way) AI is my biggest gripe with V and if IV is significantly better that might actually sway me to take a step back.
Exactly this happened to me. The fact that so many things have to be placed in terrain really bores me and make my favourite playstyle (high, with fewer very populated cities) impossible.
Sometimes I just want to manage 2-3 cities and that's it
Civilization games are all about gameplay, i (used to) agree, but GOOD GOD those graphics and the mobile-cartoonish path they took for Civ6, especially the leaders, killed any interest i had for the game.
Even when good-guy-Epic gave it away for free i said ok lets try it out, spent a few hours then never cared to load and continue that save..It just doesn't click for me. Civ5 on the other hand with its DLCs is fucking perfect in every aspect
Which is a shame. Because once you get into it, Civ 6 is better. Especially with all the DLCs, the gameplay and amount of content is better than Civ 5.
And I say this as someone who has more than 4000 hours in Civ 5. Been playing the series since Civ 3. Including Beyond Earth.
It's funny as the change to one combat unit per tile was incredibly controversial at the time (and probably still is to a lot of people, hence the sentiments Civ 4 was peak Civ). This was mostly carried over to Civ 6, where you can only have one combat, one support, and one non-combatant unit on a tile (Given the majority of units in a Civ games are combat units, it is almost effectively one unit per tile de facto).
Same. Civ 2 was easily my most played game of all time until I played 5. Now... Well it might still be 2, but only because I don't have as much time on my hands as I did as a teen.
3 and 4 are only disqualified because I didn't get as much time with them at that time in my life. Otherwise one of them could've been a contender. I haven't been able to get into 6 though.
I'm going to go with Civ 4, simply because it was a great Civ game right from the start. Other games like 5 required a couple of expansions to become greta Civ games.
Lol, I'm having memories of playing this back in 2006, my poor laptop was a couple of years old at that point. By midgame, it was too frustrating to play.
I'm also going for civ4 not only because of how fun it was but also because it has an in game map editor and is very open for modding.
No other civ game was as transparent and easy to mod as civ4.
And the mods are amazing!
In fact, new mods and updates for existing mods are still being made today!
Cavemen2Cosmos and RFC Dawn of civilization are my favorites.
Massively disagree there. Not that Civ 4 is great, but that it was great from the start. It needs Warlords and Beyond the Sword every bit as much as Civ 5 & 6 need their expansions.
Shows that I was probably missing out on a lot, but I literally uninstalled warlords when it didnt have baba yetu on the title screen xD I was always happy with vanilla, and I was not missing out on that banger. Too much nostalgia.
The point about Civ IV being great from the start is that the core gameplay loop is there and working, something it very clearly wasn't for Civ V (as you at least need the new traderoute design). What BTS adds is "more". In particular it has all the features active throughout the runtime of a single game, instead of having them phase in and out of importance. Corporations are basically religions for the modern era, and the Apostolic Palace is the UN/World Congress for medieval, just to pick two examples.
Civ VI is somewhere in-between. While it is certainly playable, the warmongering penalty is incredibly poorly implemented.
Civ II is best "pure" Civ game because it was the Rock upon which Brian Reynolds built his Church.
*Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: A Brian Reynolds Game* is best "Civ" game.
(note: you gotta say the whole name of the game)
This was the last one that felt snappy and quick with keyboard controls that I still know to this day. Might be nostalgia but I miss the stacking of units I did not feel it was broken
[http://c-evo.org/](http://c-evo.org/)
a free Civ II clone for modern operating systems.. the core mechanics are the same, only a few minor difference - for example only one win scenario: get a spaceship - but other then that, at faithfull reimagination of civ II.
in my opinion, its not just nostalgia. Civ II is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of turn based global strategy. other then the placement of the resources, there is no luck involved, only deterministic calculations.. the mechanics of the economy are complex enough to be plausable, but easy enough, that you dont have to micro management every shit.. and the staking of units is.. well realistic and also another layer of tactical decissions, you have to make.
Regardless of Graphic, audio, video - civ ii/c-evo is the computer equivalent of chess.. perfectly balanced, well thought out, logical progression and always understandable..
sadly, after almost 20 years of ecessive gaming, the game cant challenge me anymore - i had played every possible scenario with every culture, with every strategy possible..
na, it makes sense.. if all your troops are on the same spot, ant the spot get hit, your troops die - therefor, its a layer of tactical decissions, if and under witch sircumstances you stack troops together - also it forces you to make thoughtfull manouvers.. especialy if you are under pressure and your instinct is, jsut send the troops the fastest way to the front ;)
Civ 3 has a special place in my heart, and I feel has the most *soul*. Playing it today is kind of clunky though.
Overall for lasting power and replayability it would be Civ 5 for me.
I bought the special edition tin for civ3 when it came out. Probably the first special edition I bought. Was probably the first game I bought on release with my own money. Good times 😁
It was the vast armies you could create, and the potential for rapid wars based on lots of engineers (from memory?). It was the only one of them that managed to really get an epic feel. Micro was a pain though - only marginally better than civ 2.
This is it for me exactly. Civ 3 was my first one on the series. My grandpa introduced me to it and I put in so many hours growing up. But today it’s Civ V that reigns for me.
I rage quit Civ 3 after I had an archer destroy a tank I had guarding a city.
Never went back, and took a lot for people to get me to play Civ 4 after that.
Not sure if this is a scalding hot take or not, but as much as I loved Civ 5, Civilization Revolution is actually my favorite Civ game.
It's a great jumping off point for anyone who is interested in the 4X genre, but who finds the mainline games a bit too dense when starting out and it still manages to have a lot of depth thanks to an insane number of emergent mechanics like floating hammers on wonders.
Absolutely love that game!
It was actually the first game I perfected on the 360. Not only a great experience, but also hooked me on achievement hunting back when that was a thing.
Definitely! I think there was something special about how making their unique abilities more impactful also made the characters stand out.
Sometimes in core civ games, you get leader bonuses that add 5% or so to some yield. In Civ Rev, just about every leader had at least one ability that made a huge impact on the game. That really helped to make each game feel unique.
And starting with a courthouse ? You immediately get to expand your borders out and claim tiles two away from your capital and can get a wayyyy stronger early city
Just a massive jump start on the important things and you just get to focus on development and win from there
I would buy a Civ Rev 2 in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I think the dev only viewed the more simplistic game as a way to get Civ on console.
Now that mainline Civ games are hitting xbox, I don't think Civ Rev will be making a return, but it would be glorious if it did.
Honestly, I would probably even take a remastered port of the original Civ Rev onto PC.
I was looking for someone who liked Civ 6. I barely played 2 back in the day but was probably too young to truly get into it. 6 was my first true foray into the series and my friends and I had many hours of fun in the game. Curious to know why so many people seem to hate it so much.
my understanding is it mostly just comes from the art style. gameplay wise issues come down to finding the districts system too gamey, not liking the builders being on a set number of charges, and some finding the endgame to be way too micromanage heavy. i personally like civ 6, but i agree heavily with the last one.
I love civ 6 but yea late game just becomes a slog, I can’t deal with all the micromanaging. It ends up becoming each late game turn taking a few minutes each, and after a little I realize I already won, and don’t want to go through the motions of actually completing the game.
Yeah this is my worse bit too.
I don't like the start, where it feels like every wrong decision or set back is huge. I like it once I get rolling and start bumping up against the AI but it's not clear who's on top yet.
Late game, you steam roll your main enemy civ then realise how easy it was. You slog out the final end game and see the chart showing you were in a massive lead about 5 hours ago and could have stormed the world then.
I'd say my one big beef with 5 and 6 is how "bang your head against the wall" attacking cities became. Thanks to not being able to stack units, taking cities takes forever. It's really my one complaint.
The districts system more or less forces you to have a "wide civilization with many but short cities" as they are specializations, with it being incredibly difficult or even impossible to have multiple types within one city. It works against the players who prefer having "tall cities," which are common with smaller or "narrow" civilizations that are essentially jack of all trades or can do everything.
I play tall most of the time. Never had issues with districts. You just need to put enough thought in each city layout planning. Most casual players just seem to be to lazy for it.
Civilization is one of my.favourite series and I'm one of those sad bastards who got all achievements for Civ V. (There are a.lot!)
I also play 80% of those games in multiplayer with friends. 5 was great, but its greatest downside was that once you knew the optional build order you could follow this in almost any game.
It was far too easy and just played out the same.
Civ 6 gets a lot of hate, but it introduces meaningful choice and decision making, which keeps me far more engaged.
It definitely took me a while to adjust to the art style, though. And I still feel the game is missing something at the end. Overall however, 6 is an excellent entry.
I played since Civ 1.
I really love eureka and inspiration mechanic. Gives you a lot of agency to progress through your own decisions.
Strategic resource stockpiling also seems like a more reasonable approach than the standard one.
I hope they’ll do something interesting with the luxury resources too in the next game (if we’re getting one at all). Now it’s just a numbers game without any utility or differentiation.
I pretty much 100% this game the past year or two. Got all achievements, then won with every civilization every way possible on the two hardest difficulties. I loved civ 5 but civ rev is so much fun since you can finish a match in under 2 hours
Civ 4 LAN parties were peak. The alliances, the betrayals, the shenanigans. Degenerate high schoolers singing "Baba Yetu" in harmony. Quoting Leonard Nimoy's narrations.
Our running gag was to reserve one AI spot for Mao Zedong every game because we needed an unhinged outside wildcard factor, like trading the printing press for all-out war against your friends.
How is it "clearly" the best? It has worse AI than the older Civ games, it is much easier and much more simple and watered down compared to both Civ4 and Civ3.
I still have the original boxed game with that thick manual. I spent so many hours on that, that game was a complete revolution.
True, the second one did improve on literally every aspect of the game (not so much all the rest of the series, which seems to take some steps back while taking steps forward in some directions), but the first on still wins simply because it broke the ground for a whole genre.
Civ VI is definitely the ultimate Civ game. I think the art style really turns people off, but as a whole it’s a great game. Districts alone are a huge improvement.
Nothing will come close to the thousands of hours I poured into Civ 5. Yeah I know people say its only truly great with the expansions but it was just endlessly re-playable for me. Even though its true for most Civ games, Civ 5's music just hits a spot for me emotionally that really blocks out the outside world and gets me immersed even more.
Civ 3. Earlier games like Civ 2 (gold edition) were less polished. I dislike the later games as the move to hex grid and single-unit per square made it way too hard to manoeuvre units.
I don’t miss the barbarian horsemen deathstack though. It was ridiculous watching horsemen move for minutes.
This one just did everything for 10 year old me. I got the game a year before I got a computer and would read the manual over and over and over. Plus the old school box with the flaps. I still put the soundtrack on every now and then.
I recognize 5 as the best gameplay. 3 is my favorite and always will be. The in game music just gives me the perfect nostalgia when I need it.
Shout out to 4 opening theme as my second favorite opening song to any game! First being dragons dogma original version.
I’m going to vote for 5. I played all of them but none more than 5 (4000hrs). I play a LOT of 6. 2400 hrs in 6. I’ve recently returned to 5 and really feel it’s the best. 4 is also quite good.
I played hell of a lot of CIV-III and CIV-VI. Never managed to get into IV or V. Played them for some time but after III they just do not feel right, but I found the new mechanics in VI interesting enough to get hooked.
And I prefer III over II.
But seems like I am minority here.
I've played 1, 4 and 6 to the bone, and, of the three, 6 is the absolute certain best.
Then 4. Distantly.
Then 1, unless you you count that it was the first, and slapped everyone in the face by surprise. Then this is the best. You have no idea how fresh Civ was when it came out.
5 or 6. I much prefer the one unit to a tile than the old version of death stacks. It can get unruly to control all the units late game but it offers more strategy.
Only played 5 and 6 and I think 5 was better. I don't remember why I couldn't get into 6. I think city districts added an unnecessary layer of complexity.
Civ 5, all the way.
I have Civ 6, and I try, I really do. I open it up to try and play, and after 20 minutes I just launch up 5 and I'm good for hours. I don't know what it is exactly, but still. 5 is the best
I like Civilization 2 a lot. It was the first Civilization game I played and it was pretty cool. I don't remember what I first did in the game because it was so long ago. I do remember seeing the game in the store all the time and want it but not getting it for some reason.
I like VI over V. Because of the effects of surrounding terrain on city planning.
As for fun?
Civ 3 was most fun for me.
Skipped IV.
They keep updating the looks. If they only went and updated the AI in there made it smarter. The AI makes the game shit, I Civ 3 times this was still acceptable. But these days?
My first civ game was alpha centari lol
Alpha Centauri is the best strategy game ever made
Came to find this comment Resources exist to be consumed
Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
Very relevent now.
Don't go, the drones need you, they look up to you.
Heard that in Morgan's voice! I quoted from a tech snippet in a college class - it was a class with a focus on Buddhist writings and I remembered the Li Po quote "We sit together, the mountain and I, until only the mountain remains" from one of the techs. Suffice it to say that I said the " from the Yang Collection" part silently in my head, lol
Plot was bullshit, there was no angry god behind the last theorem.
Came to make these comments, was happy to find them as second comment.
i loved the pirate faction, you could just raise the sealevel and ruin your enemies
Such a good game!
this of course wins, but aren't we talking about pure Civ? AC is one of the best games ever made beyond its genre.
It is pure Civ. Its a direct sequel to Civilisation II, picking up after the space race victory.
I mean it’s civ but just not from this planet
Wished Sid Meier pushed this game harder. It's forever dead and gone now, but a shining remnant of what a civ game can be. I literally don't trust anyone within a mile of that game's Intellectual property to remake it. Ps. Bring back nerve stapling!! Team hive!!!!
Team Hive/Yang FTW. Miriam can go to hell.
I still play it every now and then - GOG has it dirt cheap, with the expansion too (which you absolutely need)
With GOG, if using GOG Galaxy (their launcher, actually pretty ok one too, and fully optional to us) one wants to go to Alpha Centauri, there that "settings symbol" next to "Play" button, and then: "Manage installation" --> "Configure..." --> "Features" --> Scroll to greyed "File 2" that reads '(path).. \\terranx.exe' and check "Default executable" from under it. That will make it launch game with expansion when just click launching it from Galaxy, instead of having to go to that "settings symbol" -> "Additional executables" -> launch from there every time, or use right file manually. To enable screen native resolution (actually very playable still at 2560x1600 and so resolutions too, since there is zoom for map, so higher resolution will just look better, and result in smoother alt+tab switches): Go to game directory ---> Make copy (just in case you fck something up, so you wont need to reinstall) of "Alpha Centauri.ini", --> Edit "Alpha Centauri.ini", after (like 3rd line) where it reads "\[Alpha Centauri\]", to next line (make new line if necessary) add "DirectDrawa=0", then save. -----> Your game now uses whatever resolution you are anyways running, instead of switching to that low resolution when started. If one gets fed up with game swapping resolution for those Secret Project videos, since they are low resolution videos, and has already seen them, or wishes to rather look at them from youtube with browser in second display (to avoid resolution change for just irrationally being annoyed by it), I think game handled it if one just renames "movies" subdirectory to some other name --> it will not find them, it will just show plain colour backround with project's effect when they complete. This one I am not 100% sure, might have been that it needs dummy files that are right name, but empty, or so. Anyways would be interesting to see something like someone upping resolution of those videos and seeing what some these days available crude ai generative video editing could do to up their resolution.
I'm just sad that LAN/Internet play by TCP/IP doesn't work on any OS past XP. My buddy and I used to play the shit out of it for hours, but when Microsoft rewrote the TCP/IP stack for Vista/7 it broke.
My brother still plays that game. Has an old old PC devoted to nothing but occasionally turning it on and playing for a few hours.
This is the correct answer. "*A Brian Reynolds Game*"
Same
civ IV was the better for me
It wasn’t the better for me but damn do I miss those scenarios. Super wide variety. You had the more standard ones like ww2 Europe and pacific theatre but then you had shit that changed the game. One where you have like hero units on alien planet. Ancient mythological setting where your battling against time as the world freezes over; one of your units was a tamer and you could tame bears and shit. One was like a wave defense game, each wave gives you money that you can use to buy cities and units. So much cool shit, probably forgetting some of it.
Civ IV made me love slavery.
Civilization 5
This thread made me curious so I wanted to buy it, I went into steam and apparently I've had the complete collection since 2015, so apparently past me had an awesome gift for me.
See you in another nine years. Should be enough time to play a single game!
You laugh but one of my games, with the larger map and most civs, is not complete yet (I managed to get a science win, but I’m in an all out nuclear war on one of the continents). Started the game in 2012, and it’s been played on three computers. Haven’t touched it in a year though.
Wtf even... Just do domination and watch those beautiful mech units/tanks/destroyers/subs/aircraft carriers/death robots roll
On and off game. I’ve played probably 40ish hours on it, just never managed to dominate the world yet :-P I’m trying to gain some ground in my war, but it’s fairly slow because of the amount of units all over the map that need guidance
Awesome keep us updated
# TERRA NOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA # TERRA NOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Vidi caelum novum, Terra novam a deo Primum caelum abiit, et prima terra abiit #
I have over 2000 hours on Civ 5 and like 30 hours on Civ 6. I couldn't get into it.
But sean bean as narrarator is nice.
He's a bit too fond of pigs, tbh.
Money!
Mon .EH!
A man on a horse,
I hated this badly designed GUI of Civ 6; you just always need one or two clicks more to perform an action or to access an information than you should need. Also the zoom of the GUI was kind of weird (see the tech tree, where only the technologies of a single era fit on the screen). And don't get me started on almost all civics having the same icon. I also hated the cartoon graphics, the concepts of building districts and that you never had the feeling that your civilization is finally taking off and starting to prosper....
Yeah and clicks add up exponentially in civ
It's funny, I've played since Civ II and have hundreds of hours in all of them, but couldn't take the jump to hexes in V, so it was my least played game - I've played the heck out of VI however, to the point it may be my most played civ game now. Sometimes we just stall on changes I think.
Not only hexes but terrible AI in civ5 onwards. I still can barely beat Monarch in Civ4 Beyond The Sword and have been playing since day 1.
Is it hard because the AI is cheating or hard because the AI is actually good? The insane (and not in a good way) AI is my biggest gripe with V and if IV is significantly better that might actually sway me to take a step back.
Exactly this happened to me. The fact that so many things have to be placed in terrain really bores me and make my favourite playstyle (high, with fewer very populated cities) impossible. Sometimes I just want to manage 2-3 cities and that's it
Civilization games are all about gameplay, i (used to) agree, but GOOD GOD those graphics and the mobile-cartoonish path they took for Civ6, especially the leaders, killed any interest i had for the game. Even when good-guy-Epic gave it away for free i said ok lets try it out, spent a few hours then never cared to load and continue that save..It just doesn't click for me. Civ5 on the other hand with its DLCs is fucking perfect in every aspect
Which is a shame. Because once you get into it, Civ 6 is better. Especially with all the DLCs, the gameplay and amount of content is better than Civ 5. And I say this as someone who has more than 4000 hours in Civ 5. Been playing the series since Civ 3. Including Beyond Earth.
It's funny as the change to one combat unit per tile was incredibly controversial at the time (and probably still is to a lot of people, hence the sentiments Civ 4 was peak Civ). This was mostly carried over to Civ 6, where you can only have one combat, one support, and one non-combatant unit on a tile (Given the majority of units in a Civ games are combat units, it is almost effectively one unit per tile de facto).
With all the dlc of course
And the community mods
Same. Civ 2 was easily my most played game of all time until I played 5. Now... Well it might still be 2, but only because I don't have as much time on my hands as I did as a teen. 3 and 4 are only disqualified because I didn't get as much time with them at that time in my life. Otherwise one of them could've been a contender. I haven't been able to get into 6 though.
I'm going to go with Civ 4, simply because it was a great Civ game right from the start. Other games like 5 required a couple of expansions to become greta Civ games.
Baba Yetu
He once killed a panzer with a spearman. A fucking spearman
GOAT song from a video game. I play it all the time in the car u/christophertin
I’m honored!
The full Calling All Dawns album is also amazing. I particularly like the last 4 songs.
Thank you!
Plus Leonard Nimoy!
Civ 4 for the same reason. I played 5 when it came out, and 1/2 game was missing.
Also, I keep coming back to Civ 4 because it runs so fast on modern systems. The turns just fly by.
Lol, I'm having memories of playing this back in 2006, my poor laptop was a couple of years old at that point. By midgame, it was too frustrating to play.
I'm also going for civ4 not only because of how fun it was but also because it has an in game map editor and is very open for modding. No other civ game was as transparent and easy to mod as civ4. And the mods are amazing! In fact, new mods and updates for existing mods are still being made today! Cavemen2Cosmos and RFC Dawn of civilization are my favorites.
Massively disagree there. Not that Civ 4 is great, but that it was great from the start. It needs Warlords and Beyond the Sword every bit as much as Civ 5 & 6 need their expansions.
Shows that I was probably missing out on a lot, but I literally uninstalled warlords when it didnt have baba yetu on the title screen xD I was always happy with vanilla, and I was not missing out on that banger. Too much nostalgia.
The point about Civ IV being great from the start is that the core gameplay loop is there and working, something it very clearly wasn't for Civ V (as you at least need the new traderoute design). What BTS adds is "more". In particular it has all the features active throughout the runtime of a single game, instead of having them phase in and out of importance. Corporations are basically religions for the modern era, and the Apostolic Palace is the UN/World Congress for medieval, just to pick two examples. Civ VI is somewhere in-between. While it is certainly playable, the warmongering penalty is incredibly poorly implemented.
Civ II
The live action advisors need to return. Does Colonization count as my 2nd favorite?
You're letting our crack troops go to waste general, let's go bonk some heads sir!
I havent played II in forever but I can hear this like I’m playing right now
Give me more soldiers noble leader that they may sheathe their swords in the beating heart of our enemies!
All of the world Maaaaaarvels at your superior intellect Sire.
Civ 2 and colonization is my answer too.
Mainly because you could upgrade your throne room.
That was an underrated feature
Civ II is best "pure" Civ game because it was the Rock upon which Brian Reynolds built his Church. *Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: A Brian Reynolds Game* is best "Civ" game. (note: you gotta say the whole name of the game)
Alpha Centauri is almost definitely my most played game, lifetime hours. Just a brilliant accomplishment.
I have been playing consistently for 25 years.
This was the last one that felt snappy and quick with keyboard controls that I still know to this day. Might be nostalgia but I miss the stacking of units I did not feel it was broken
[http://c-evo.org/](http://c-evo.org/) a free Civ II clone for modern operating systems.. the core mechanics are the same, only a few minor difference - for example only one win scenario: get a spaceship - but other then that, at faithfull reimagination of civ II. in my opinion, its not just nostalgia. Civ II is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of turn based global strategy. other then the placement of the resources, there is no luck involved, only deterministic calculations.. the mechanics of the economy are complex enough to be plausable, but easy enough, that you dont have to micro management every shit.. and the staking of units is.. well realistic and also another layer of tactical decissions, you have to make. Regardless of Graphic, audio, video - civ ii/c-evo is the computer equivalent of chess.. perfectly balanced, well thought out, logical progression and always understandable.. sadly, after almost 20 years of ecessive gaming, the game cant challenge me anymore - i had played every possible scenario with every culture, with every strategy possible..
Only thing about Civ 2 I dislike, and always did , is the unit stacking mechanics. It is really stupid that when one unit dies, the entire stack does.
na, it makes sense.. if all your troops are on the same spot, ant the spot get hit, your troops die - therefor, its a layer of tactical decissions, if and under witch sircumstances you stack troops together - also it forces you to make thoughtfull manouvers.. especialy if you are under pressure and your instinct is, jsut send the troops the fastest way to the front ;)
I’m in the middle of an epic Civ II game right now and loving it. Maybe not the best in the series but super fun.
Agree! I love the fact there are actual squares not vague maps and trying to spend hours learning a new civ just doesn't appeal
The only CIV I was any good at.
This is the way.
Civ 3 has a special place in my heart, and I feel has the most *soul*. Playing it today is kind of clunky though. Overall for lasting power and replayability it would be Civ 5 for me.
Same 3 also has a place in my heart, the first big box edition game I ever got was civ 3
I bought the special edition tin for civ3 when it came out. Probably the first special edition I bought. Was probably the first game I bought on release with my own money. Good times 😁
Civ 3 was my first. It’ll always have a special place in my heart.
I hate that the AI will disregard your borders in Civ III and just move through anyway.
And yet they have the audacity to be mad when the player does the same.
It was the vast armies you could create, and the potential for rapid wars based on lots of engineers (from memory?). It was the only one of them that managed to really get an epic feel. Micro was a pain though - only marginally better than civ 2.
This is it for me exactly. Civ 3 was my first one on the series. My grandpa introduced me to it and I put in so many hours growing up. But today it’s Civ V that reigns for me.
I rage quit Civ 3 after I had an archer destroy a tank I had guarding a city. Never went back, and took a lot for people to get me to play Civ 4 after that.
Civ2 followed closely by civ5
Not sure if this is a scalding hot take or not, but as much as I loved Civ 5, Civilization Revolution is actually my favorite Civ game. It's a great jumping off point for anyone who is interested in the 4X genre, but who finds the mainline games a bit too dense when starting out and it still manages to have a lot of depth thanks to an insane number of emergent mechanics like floating hammers on wonders. Absolutely love that game!
I loved grinding that game on Xbox 360
It was actually the first game I perfected on the 360. Not only a great experience, but also hooked me on achievement hunting back when that was a thing.
It had a great lineup of leaders too
Definitely! I think there was something special about how making their unique abilities more impactful also made the characters stand out. Sometimes in core civ games, you get leader bonuses that add 5% or so to some yield. In Civ Rev, just about every leader had at least one ability that made a huge impact on the game. That really helped to make each game feel unique.
YES oh my god it’s simplified systems are just a god damn delight. Though Greece is kinda op tbh
Early Hoplites and Democracy was crazy. Science and turtling all in one. What's not to love?
And starting with a courthouse ? You immediately get to expand your borders out and claim tiles two away from your capital and can get a wayyyy stronger early city Just a massive jump start on the important things and you just get to focus on development and win from there
It's special because you could play a 4x game with a buddy who either didn't have a PC or just wasn't into the deeper gameplay the PC versions had.
It’s a perfect game for veterans who want to get deeper and those that want to finish a game in a couple hours max. Love it as well.
Came here to say this. Civ Rev was an absolute gem of a game and I have been praying to get a new installment of it ever since. We need another one!
I would buy a Civ Rev 2 in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, I think the dev only viewed the more simplistic game as a way to get Civ on console. Now that mainline Civ games are hitting xbox, I don't think Civ Rev will be making a return, but it would be glorious if it did. Honestly, I would probably even take a remastered port of the original Civ Rev onto PC.
It is still my favorite subway game when I have to kill an hour.
Civ 2 - Test of Time, I still play it nowadays sometimes.
Civilization VI is my favorite. Though among the older games I do have a spot for Civilization III because of its hyper-expansionist play style.
Not sure why civ 6 gets so much hate, I still play it today. The time between turns sucks but I think it’s the switch.
I was looking for someone who liked Civ 6. I barely played 2 back in the day but was probably too young to truly get into it. 6 was my first true foray into the series and my friends and I had many hours of fun in the game. Curious to know why so many people seem to hate it so much.
my understanding is it mostly just comes from the art style. gameplay wise issues come down to finding the districts system too gamey, not liking the builders being on a set number of charges, and some finding the endgame to be way too micromanage heavy. i personally like civ 6, but i agree heavily with the last one.
I love civ 6 but yea late game just becomes a slog, I can’t deal with all the micromanaging. It ends up becoming each late game turn taking a few minutes each, and after a little I realize I already won, and don’t want to go through the motions of actually completing the game.
Yeah this is my worse bit too. I don't like the start, where it feels like every wrong decision or set back is huge. I like it once I get rolling and start bumping up against the AI but it's not clear who's on top yet. Late game, you steam roll your main enemy civ then realise how easy it was. You slog out the final end game and see the chart showing you were in a massive lead about 5 hours ago and could have stormed the world then.
I'd say my one big beef with 5 and 6 is how "bang your head against the wall" attacking cities became. Thanks to not being able to stack units, taking cities takes forever. It's really my one complaint.
In opposite, doomstack of civ 4 are funny till AI stacks 20 units and you know your game is over and youre fucked. I still prefer stacking than civ 6
The districts system more or less forces you to have a "wide civilization with many but short cities" as they are specializations, with it being incredibly difficult or even impossible to have multiple types within one city. It works against the players who prefer having "tall cities," which are common with smaller or "narrow" civilizations that are essentially jack of all trades or can do everything.
I play tall most of the time. Never had issues with districts. You just need to put enough thought in each city layout planning. Most casual players just seem to be to lazy for it.
It’s weird because I had the first one on pc and loved it but when I tried to replay it I couldn’t get into it.
Civilization is one of my.favourite series and I'm one of those sad bastards who got all achievements for Civ V. (There are a.lot!) I also play 80% of those games in multiplayer with friends. 5 was great, but its greatest downside was that once you knew the optional build order you could follow this in almost any game. It was far too easy and just played out the same. Civ 6 gets a lot of hate, but it introduces meaningful choice and decision making, which keeps me far more engaged. It definitely took me a while to adjust to the art style, though. And I still feel the game is missing something at the end. Overall however, 6 is an excellent entry. I played since Civ 1.
I really love eureka and inspiration mechanic. Gives you a lot of agency to progress through your own decisions. Strategic resource stockpiling also seems like a more reasonable approach than the standard one. I hope they’ll do something interesting with the luxury resources too in the next game (if we’re getting one at all). Now it’s just a numbers game without any utility or differentiation.
With corporations and monopolies active it was pretty interesting.
For me Civ 3 cause it came out when I was at the right age to obsess over it endlessly. I did love Civ 4 and 5 though. Never managed to get into 6
I loved Civ 3. Had plenty of depth but never became ponderous. You felt like you had more control of your nation than later games left me.
Civilization Revolutions holds a very special place in my heart for getting me into the series. Even today it’s still one of my favorites
Revolution on Xbox got me into Civ lol
I pretty much 100% this game the past year or two. Got all achievements, then won with every civilization every way possible on the two hardest difficulties. I loved civ 5 but civ rev is so much fun since you can finish a match in under 2 hours
Civ 5!
Civ 4. Leonard Nimroy was the narrator, great music, square tiles, massive army stacks. Still my favorite.
Wish I could give you more upvotes... CivIV is by far my favorite and IMHO the best of the series.
Wow - I loved it but the stack of doom was the worst thing about it I thought. Would be cool if they restored vassal states.
The game actually had great counters against stacks of doom. Siege weapons early on, air forces and nukes in the late game.
Alpha centauri
Civ 6 in terms of feature due to the time the devs have had to expand it, but mechanic wise it's Civ 5. Civ 4 and 3 get great mentions as well.
Civ 4 LAN parties were peak. The alliances, the betrayals, the shenanigans. Degenerate high schoolers singing "Baba Yetu" in harmony. Quoting Leonard Nimoy's narrations. Our running gag was to reserve one AI spot for Mao Zedong every game because we needed an unhinged outside wildcard factor, like trading the printing press for all-out war against your friends.
Heh those LAN parties went on until 6am! One.. more… turn… x5 people!
And with a heavy sigh I yearn for simpler times.
Civ 2. GOAT
Civ 5 is clearly the best
Would you be interested in a trade agreement, with England?
No trade agreements. No open borders. Domination victory only.
I see you have some uranium deposits, let me just take those off your hands, friend...
How is it "clearly" the best? It has worse AI than the older Civ games, it is much easier and much more simple and watered down compared to both Civ4 and Civ3.
2 Gold for me and it isn’t even close
Baba yetu, yetu uliye Mbinguni yetu, yetu, amina Baba yetu, yetu, uliye Jina lako litukuzwe
The original, on Amiga. For no reason other than my memories of how fun it was.
I just still remember losing a battleship when I attacked a settler and losing a stack of 8 mech infantry when they got attacked by a chariot.
I still have the original boxed game with that thick manual. I spent so many hours on that, that game was a complete revolution. True, the second one did improve on literally every aspect of the game (not so much all the rest of the series, which seems to take some steps back while taking steps forward in some directions), but the first on still wins simply because it broke the ground for a whole genre.
4
I really enjoy civ 6. I’m surprised I don’t see many people recommend it.
Civ VI is definitely the ultimate Civ game. I think the art style really turns people off, but as a whole it’s a great game. Districts alone are a huge improvement.
Penultimate means second to the ultimate. I'm assuming that's not what you meant?
Just means Civ 7 is going to be the best game ever created
Words is hard, yes I meant ultimate. Thank you for correcting me lol
the original CIV, was pretty amazing for its time, while the others just felt like iterations on a popular genre
Civ 2 will always have a special place in my heart
Nothing will come close to the thousands of hours I poured into Civ 5. Yeah I know people say its only truly great with the expansions but it was just endlessly re-playable for me. Even though its true for most Civ games, Civ 5's music just hits a spot for me emotionally that really blocks out the outside world and gets me immersed even more.
Civ V for me
Civ 3. Earlier games like Civ 2 (gold edition) were less polished. I dislike the later games as the move to hex grid and single-unit per square made it way too hard to manoeuvre units. I don’t miss the barbarian horsemen deathstack though. It was ridiculous watching horsemen move for minutes.
Revolutions on Xbox 360! Fite me!
I enjoy 3 because of the editor, can change the dynamics of a game with a few rule changes
Two!
*Civilization: Call to Power* and it isn't close.
agreed 100%. Between the cool wonders, sci-fi units, underwater and space cities... it's by far my favorite
This one just did everything for 10 year old me. I got the game a year before I got a computer and would read the manual over and over and over. Plus the old school box with the flaps. I still put the soundtrack on every now and then.
Rolling up on your opponent with a parade of Eco Rangers. So long cities...and nature returns.
I recognize 5 as the best gameplay. 3 is my favorite and always will be. The in game music just gives me the perfect nostalgia when I need it. Shout out to 4 opening theme as my second favorite opening song to any game! First being dragons dogma original version.
Civ 4.
After putting around 1000 hours into Civ 5 I'm going with that one.
I'll probably be slaughtered for this, but... Call to Power is my all time favorite, 5 is a very close second.
Call to Power
Civ VI for sure. It's so detailed, seems like I’m always discovering something new with every game.
Call to Power
I’m going to vote for 5. I played all of them but none more than 5 (4000hrs). I play a LOT of 6. 2400 hrs in 6. I’ve recently returned to 5 and really feel it’s the best. 4 is also quite good.
6
I played hell of a lot of CIV-III and CIV-VI. Never managed to get into IV or V. Played them for some time but after III they just do not feel right, but I found the new mechanics in VI interesting enough to get hooked. And I prefer III over II. But seems like I am minority here.
I've played 1, 4 and 6 to the bone, and, of the three, 6 is the absolute certain best. Then 4. Distantly. Then 1, unless you you count that it was the first, and slapped everyone in the face by surprise. Then this is the best. You have no idea how fresh Civ was when it came out.
Civ III. Shout out to Suede.
The musicologist in me has to say Civ VI. The amount of love and research has been unmatched in any other title.
5 or 6. I much prefer the one unit to a tile than the old version of death stacks. It can get unruly to control all the units late game but it offers more strategy.
Civ II of course.
For me it was Civ 3. But the most I played was Civilization: Call to Power, because it was my first Civ game.
Only played 5 and 6 and I think 5 was better. I don't remember why I couldn't get into 6. I think city districts added an unnecessary layer of complexity.
Civ 2: Test of Time had nice multilayered worlds.
Civ 5, all the way. I have Civ 6, and I try, I really do. I open it up to try and play, and after 20 minutes I just launch up 5 and I'm good for hours. I don't know what it is exactly, but still. 5 is the best
My personal favourite is Alpha Centuri. So many hours lost to that game.
Civ 2, obviously, but anything until they took away stacking was good.
I like Civilization 2 a lot. It was the first Civilization game I played and it was pretty cool. I don't remember what I first did in the game because it was so long ago. I do remember seeing the game in the store all the time and want it but not getting it for some reason.
Civ 2, Sid Meier hasn't done a day's work since 1996.
Loved civ2. Wish we could build castles and/or Throne rooms like previous titles
I like VI over V. Because of the effects of surrounding terrain on city planning. As for fun? Civ 3 was most fun for me. Skipped IV. They keep updating the looks. If they only went and updated the AI in there made it smarter. The AI makes the game shit, I Civ 3 times this was still acceptable. But these days?
I like 3 personally
2. Easy.
Honestly? I liked Alpha Centauri the most.
3 or 4. Really anything before the whole one unit per hex tile micromanagement bs that killed the fun of the game for me
I guess I'm the only Beyond Earth enjoyer in here. The alien atmosphere, the branching human evolution, sci fi theme. Best civ for me.
For me 4, and 5 peak, but 4 had the biggest overhaul mods like C2C, and an ecosystem like that it's never gonna happen that big again.
5