Just a bit more on Civilization II
I still find that Civ 2 is the best 4X game relative to its era. Civ 4, 5, and 6 certainly advanced on Civ 2, but I felt they lacked the freshness of Civ 2 even with all their advancements on the formula. I never had a game of those later civs that really topped any of my top 10 Civ 2 plays - some of those playthroughs I recall to this very day (over 20 years ago); something I can’t say about the much more recent civ games. Alpha Centauri is my second favourite of the 4X games- and I still fondly recall my first playthrough of that one.
I’m leaving Civ 3 out not to snub it, but because I didn’t have much experience with it - not even a full playthrough. During the Civ 3 era I was still heavily involved with the Civ 2 modding community, plus Test of Time and Alpha Centauri were out fairly close to Civ 3’s release - and by the time I was over those games Civ 4 was on the horizon.
There are three distinct eras of Civ, IMO. The first is Civ 1, Colonization, Civ 2, and AC. The second is the Civ 3 and 4 era, and the third is Civ 5 and 6 era.
It’ll be interesting to see if Civ 7 begins a fourth era.
Last edited by Jumpin - on 11 October 2023I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
