Right, so I held off on writing a review for this game for too long. I've over 1000 hours in so it's probably about time, eh?

Q: Is this game better than Civ V?
A: In my opinion, yes, but it seems to be the unpopular opinion. I've been an avid fan of the series since Civilization II, and for whatever reason, Civ V "did it for me" the least out of all games in the series (Minus Civ Revolution, we don't talk about Civ Revolution). I cannot put my finger on it exactly, but Civ V always felt--phoned in to me, which is not to say that Civ 6 isn't also lacking in many ways.

Q: What makes Civ 6 better than Civ V?
A: Though it was a weird concept at first, I love the district system of Civ 6 and would have an even more difficult time playing Civ V today than I did when I first got into that game. I wasn't a fan of the cartoonish graphics when I first started playing Civ 6, but it's gotten to the point where I don't even notice it anymore (plus, there are mods to get around that if it really bothers you, a theme you might notice in this review). I like the way Civ 6 handles pretty much all of the core mechanics over Civ V and the government system, though basic compared to Civ V, is superior in my opinion. The cards system gives you a lot more "realistic" control over your empire, compared to the system provided in Civ V, which sort of locked you onto a path and made it very time consuming to change directions in a pinch. Civ 6 feels more dynamic in that regard, allowing a nation to adapt at a much more realistic pace to any wars or events taking place at the time.

Q: How do units compare in Civ 6 compared to Civ V?
A: This is one where I have to give a slight nod to Civ V. It annoyed me to no end how limited the player was in unit choice in Civ V compared to Civ IV for the sake of simplicity, going from wooden sailing ships to ironclads always baffled me (what happened to the steam cruisers and the like?). That being said, unmodded Civ 6 is even worse in this regard, taking you from musketmen to WWI style infantry. This causes weird situations against the AI where the AI will bee-line Anti-Tank Infantry because there are less requirements for Anti-Cavalry units (in general), so even if you are the technological superpower, you might be going up against AT Infantry with your Musketmen because of the massive gap in units by era. I refuse to play Civ 6 without modding this factor out of relevance and the mods on offer nicely fix the gaps presented in Civ 6 and Civ 5.

Q: What about unit classes?
A: Again, Civ V is a little bit stronger in this regard. Civ 6 takes an extremely weird approach where machine gunners are your basic ranged infantry in the late game, replacing field cannons. What? Yeah, it confused me too! Again, I have to use mods to get around this issue. There are mods out there that add two or more types of range classed units for all eras (anti-infantry, siege, etc.) instead of just making the "ranged" class a generic and confusing mess like it is in Civ 6 unmodded. That being said, I do like the various types of support classes in Civ 6 and the fact that religious units occupy their own layer (not true in the early days of Civ 6).

Q: What is the ideal way to play Civ 6?
A: In my opinion, the ideal way to play Civ 6 is with the biggest possible map size, Epic speed (sometimes Marathon), maximum number of AI, with one or two friends (anymore than that and it's hard to get everyone on at the same time for a long game). It's also ideal to include any number of mods you deem necessary to have a good time and to fix many of the vanilla issues with the game. Why is this the ideal way to play? Because I enjoy a "Risk" like experience that can realistically take several weeks to a month to finish. Wars are long and grueling like they can be in real life, requiring you to think and adapt to the situation. Plus, it's a lot of fun working with (and against) people you know personally, either in real life or online.

Q: How's the AI?
A: Awful. Even with mods that enhance the AI, I've found the AI to be kind of brain dead, which is where perhaps one of my greatest frustrations with the game lie. I've had games of Civ 6 where pretty close to zero wars happen (yet the AI is constantly denouncing each other, or you and insulting you endlessly) and I've had games where the AI will declare a rather mysterious war all of a sudden, only to get beaten back effortlessly, resulting in a great deal of territory lost due to their miscalculation. I will say that I find the diplomatic side of the AI in Civ 6 to be better than Civ V, but as far as strategy and actually thinking militarily, the AI is just as bad as it was in Civ V. Civ IV with the Legend of Revolutions Mod or Caveman to Cosmos has had the best AI in the series to date, in my opinion.

Q: Will I like Civ 6?
A: Well, that depends. If you loved Civ V, my guess is you won't love Civ 6, but hear me out. If you take the time to find the mods that fix the many issues with the game (especially the unit gaps in technology) and can find a few chums to enjoy it with you, I also recommend purchasing all of the expansions when/if you can, as it adds a lot of extra content to the game that is even new to the series. As a busy adult, I do believe Civ 6 is the only game I currently have in my Steam, GOG, etc. libraries that has breached the 1000 hour mark, maybe even the 500 hour mark at this point. That being said, I love the concept of building and living through the rise (and fall?) of an empire from start to conclusion and witnessing geopolitics on a global stage, and very few games are able to provide me that kind of experience, so your miles may vary.

Again, I find myself in the strange situation of having to give a Positive review even though my feelings are somewhere closer to the middle, but that is nothing new to the Steam review experience. Thanks for taking the time to read this little review.

Edit: The game has been unplayable with mods for almost a year now, due to some asset limit bug that was added in one of the latest patches. Until this issue is resolved, this review will now be a negative review. My patience has ended waiting for this company to actually do the right thing by their customers.