Schnei's Outlier: Civilization VI
- This game's status as an 'outlier' means it was only ranked by Schnei.
- Schnei ranked the game #7.
Schnei writes:
I’ll be surprised if anyone else picks this, and that’s fine. I didn’t play this on Switch either, and honestly I don’t imagine the PC series’ all-mouse scheme would translate that well to a control stick even with a touch screen. Instead, I’ll evaluate the game I played for 700 hours on Steam.
I feel like even if you’ve never played Civ before, then what you expect is 95% accurate to what you’ll get, and the rest is details that they change around to justify releasing sequels. You found a tiny city with sticks and stones, you expand and clash with competing empires, you micromanage logistics for 3 to 20 hours, and eventually you win after you invent nukes and blow up your neighbors (or invent outer space and go there before they nuke you first, or invent religion and find nirvana, or invent rock’n’roll and take over the world with blue jeans, or invent the UN and hahaha j/k diplomacy victory is for losers). To briefly describe the tactical aspect, there’s complexity where you start to learn… okay how well can I sniff out what this competitor is up to, and is there room for me and this other competitor with a similar or directly conflicting strategy, and what extent is it worth pursuing given the ever-present risk that while we duke it out head-to-head, some third player bypasses us both in a separate lane to victory. But also enough synergy between systems that you can’t expect to just 100% rely on culture or military dominance or science without bolstering from other areas. So you can pivot a focus from a primary to secondary strategy, which is a somewhat inefficient use of resources but can still work, especially if it plays well with your leader’s unique abilities and/or resources you can claim…
In short, it plays like a world-class board game where you don’t have to roll your own dice, and you already know how you feel about that. I love it, so it’s #7!