And you’d do it every time until games started feeling like reskins of each other.

Is the tedium and sameness these National Wonders require doable? Yes. It’s boring and mundane to have to build this building everywhere no matter that city’s circumstance or you won’t get that Wonder and its major benefits.Īnd of course you’ll build this National Wonder in your capital city, usually your most productive and well-balanced city, just throwing another Wonder on the pile of Wonders you can’t really see. Requiring the same building to be repeated ad nauseum in every single city in your Civ? It makes all cities feel the same, taking away all the fun of diversity and expanding your empire. On top of that, National Wonders were a source of such irritation for a player like me who preferred playing wide (many cities) rather than tall (few cities).

'Civilization 6' Review: Far Better Than 'Civ V'.

'Civ 6' Review Round-Up: 'Civilization 6' Is A Groundbreaking.

I always want my empire to claim everything it can, but the happiness penalties in Civ 5 were so punitive that great swathes of fertile land could go unclaimed just because expansion risked your empire’s felicity.

Most importantly, none of it was fun to deal with. And don’t get me started on how Specialists generated Unhappiness in a tit-for-tat for their useful bonuses: that never made any sense. Even one unhappy city could drag your whole previously productive empire down. The happiness mechanic in Civ 5 actively discouraged wide empires, despite how intrinsically fun it is to build loads of cities and expand your empire into every nook and cranny on the map.

Simply taking happiness from global to local makes a huge difference. (For more on how Civ 6 stands up to the other games in the franchise, check out our review, which contextualizes Civ 6 both as a strategy game and as a Civilization game.) I’m only 30 hours into the full Civ 6 experience, but here’s what I think about Civ 5 vs Civ 6.

I awaited Civ 6 with extreme trepidation I covered it extensively, sussing out all I could about what it would be I logged 40 hours on the preview build alone. I’ve sunk 400 hours into Civ 5 that I’ll never get back, nor would I want to: I came into the Civilization series and into strategy games with Civ V, so it holds an important place in my exploring, expanding, exploiting, exterminating heart.

Civilization 5 expansions