Never played the Civ series before, but I’m totally into strategy games. Recently got 200 hours into Pennon and Battle and kinda burned out now. The Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era which I’m hyped for isn’t out yet, and there’s nothing else in the strategy genre grabbing me. Was about to jump into Civ 7 but saw the mixed reviews… ugh.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    7 hours ago

    I’m going to wait until they sell it with all the dlc for like 10 dollars like they did with 6 at one point.

    Excited for it though! I love civ

  • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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    8 hours ago

    As others have said start with 5. The rule of thumb for civ games is to wait for the expansion dlc to release and buy the game on sale. 7 is also a significant departure from the previous games, so it’s probably even more important to wait or outright skip it until they get it more polished.

    Also it’s worth looking into endless legend or endless space 2 if you want to try more 4x games.

  • rustydrd@sh.itjust.works
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    14 hours ago

    Civ games at launch are often a bit of a mixed bag, and the games improve over time with patches and expansions. That being said, the game isn’t even fully out yet, and early Steam reviews are notoriously unreliable and undifferentiated. For your first civ game, maybe look at earlier titles like Civ 5 or 6. They have aged very well, I still play 6 all the time.

    • hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      This right here.

      I played 6 at launch and it was a huge downgrade from 5 but now it’s been updated so much it’s now unrecognizable from what was released as 6.

      Every patch, update, and DLC will change it incrementally back into a similar experience as the others. They like to try to get real wild with the initial release but it tends to get back to the same sort of things eventually.

    • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      I am hoping that is the case, but I do have to say that this one boggles the mind just a little bit to be launching without significant features that the previous games had like hotseat multiplayer and limited era games.

  • JanoRis@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    i tried it for 2h and refunded it, since i didnt enjoy it like the previous civs. It just didnt click for me and was not worth 100€ imo.

    I might check it out again in a year or so on a sale

      • Rogue@feddit.uk
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        5 hours ago

        The game itself is cheaper than that. I suspect they chose to pay for a deluxe edition

        • JanoRis@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          yeah you have to, to play it early.

          usually dont buy predorder editions but i was feeling a civ game, so i bought it on a whim to try

  • dan1101@lemm.ee
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    10 hours ago

    As others have said, play Civ 5. Better game with all the bugs worked out, and cheaper.

  • nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de
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    16 hours ago

    You should try Unciv. It’s an open source Civilisation game. Yes, you can play online too. Not a very good looking game, but still awesome. Works on Android too.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      16 hours ago

      Yeah, its game mechanics are very similar to Civ5, which is still considered one of the high points in the Civ series. And it does reproduce them quite well, so I do think that can give you a good impression, if Civ is for you.

      Then again, I do own Civ5, but still end up playing Unciv instead, because I’d rather have my laptop not screaming at me while it runs in the background and I do a couple turns every so often…

  • PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works
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    19 hours ago

    Looks like the general consensus is that its not terrible, but is unfinished and not at all worth the price.

    If you’re looking to get into Civ, I’d probably recommend either five for a more complete, and polished game, or six for a weirder and more experimental game.

  • AGreenPurple@lemmynsfw.com
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    17 hours ago

    If you have never played Civ before it would be a good time to start with Civ 5 or maybe even Civ 3. They are cheap and quite polished.

    In my opinion (having played Civ since the first game, yes I’m old), Civ 7 is quite ok in it’s foundations, but it’s clearly released too early and like the other parts before it’s mainly a game about optimizing numbers, not so much about strategy.

    Biggest turn off for me is the introduction of “rogue like” mechanics that give you to play certain characters and nations in a certain way to access others. Why would I want to have that crap in a strategy game?

    • Hyphlosion@lemm.ee
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      11 hours ago

      What about 4?

      Never played it myself, but goddamn is that Baba Yetu song awesome. It’s been on my playlist for many years.

      • Overspark@feddit.nl
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        1 hour ago

        4 is the best “old” civ in that it still has square tiles and doomstacks. Also the modding scene is insane for 4, massive total makeovers that make it a completely different game, far more interesting mods than any other civ game.

      • anamethatisnt@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Civ4 is the one I still play. I like my stacks of doom and could never get into the hexagons and no stacking units of later games.

    • Overspark@feddit.nl
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      16 hours ago

      They stole that and some other mechanics from Humankind, a game by the same studio as Endless Legend. It wasn’t received that well in Humankind either, so I’m kinda surprised that they stole it anyway, but I guess line must go up and they didn’t have a lot of inspiration themselves?

      • AGreenPurple@lemmynsfw.com
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        15 hours ago

        I played Humankind as well, but I like the execution in Civ better (despite the bugs and unfinished ui). Butt yes, the idea want original at all.

        • Overspark@feddit.nl
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          1 hour ago

          Good to hear how it compares, I was curious about that but reviewers aren’t talking about it.

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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    19 hours ago

    I hate questions like this. How would anyone but you know if it’s fun? Fun is completely subjective. Some people didn’t have fun in Veilguard. I had a lot of fun in Veilguard. Was Veilguard A good game? Now that’s a bit different question.

    Things can be both not good but also fun. Among Us isn’t going to win game awards for narrative, but it was fun as hell to play.

    Only way to tell if it’s fun is to go and play it, and return it if you don’t like it. Stop letting other people tell you if you’re having fun or not. Just, go enjoy things

    • CarnivorousCouch@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Yep. For what it’s worth. I played about six hours today and had an absolute blast. Definitely some UI weaknesses, but I’ve been focusing more on the big changes to the gameplay loop, and I like them so far.

      But I’m just some random online.

      • garretble@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        Yeah, I now have six hours in the game between last night and today. I actually finally just stopped after a few hour stretch.

        I’m having fun! But I also have seen some bugs. I can get behind waiting if some smaller bugs are annoying, but I’m enjoying the game quite a bit.

        I’m pretty happy that it runs alright on my Mac Mini M4. Starts up quick and gets going. It defaults to High settings but I turned the shadows down a bit just to keep things a little smoother.

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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        18 hours ago

        Your disclaimer is what I really like tbh. We’re all just random people online with our own opinions, why would anyone take our word for if something is fun?

        I’m glad you’re having a good time though!

  • Yorick@sh.itjust.works
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    19 hours ago

    If you’re not really into the civilization series, I would always wait when the game has a huge sale.

    I started with Civ5 during a 10$ sale with all expansions, 200 Hours. As a treat I bought Civ6 on launch, which while slightly barebone (all civ games are on launch) was really fun, and after buying the expansions and a couple DLC I got 500h on it so clearly a good investment.

    I would put Civ6 and Civ7 in your wishlist to get notified when there’s a sale, and see if you like it or not after the fact.

    The current reviews for 7 are mostly about the UI and the limited selection of civs to choose, also for some reason some players can’t bare the idea of stopping the game at the cold war just before the moon landing.

  • AliasAKA@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    Did you read the reviews? Most are absolutely thrashing the UI which is critical for a game like this. Probably best to steer clear for now. You could try a previous civ game though, or endless legend maybe?