Though it seems there are quite a few actionable reasons to not like this one. I dunno how many of them are because of the poor UI on PC, the general lack of polish, or changes from previous games. I have also seen several people saying they really like the new systems and find the game perfectly enjoyable. So who knows. Best to wait on the game for a bit it seems.
I've played Civ for about 10 hours now. Not finished my first game yet so I can't speak about endgame issues but I do have some thoughts.
Whenever a new Civ launches, there's always some stuff that remains the same, some stuff that gets improved and then some new stuff added in. That means there's always a learning curve with every new entry. And obviously it cannot match the previous game which has 10 years of content and fixes.
The biggest issue with this new game is that the learning part is hard because the UI really sucks. Both from an aesthetic and functional point of view. The placement of UI elements and the choices they've just make it look like a placeholder. It feels unpolished and unfinished. The bigger issue is that it doesn't give you enough accurate information to make your decisions. You check the in-game Civopedia and it'll say "this unit on this tile gives you this resource" but it won't tell you how much of that resource it gives. It's just lacking in actual information which is making it hard to figure out some things.
There are some bugs which are already being fixed. Obviously if people are having crashes then that's an issue as well.
The other issue in my mind is that it's very obvious they cut out content to sell later. The game ends around 1950. No Civ game has ever ended there. They will add another time period from 1950 onwards but it will come in an expansion probably. The problem is, there are already references to that time period in the game right now. Then there's the dlc. I remember when it was first announced that leaders were not tied to civs, I thought it would be amusing to have Gandhi leading the British Empire. Well, neither Gandhi nor the British are in the game at launch. Britain is coming next month in the first round of dlc. It really does feel like stuff that has always been in the game has been cut it to sell back to you.
Despite these issues, the game still is fun to play. It's not like they shipped a bad game. It's unfinished but I don't think the core systems are bad. They'll fix the bugs, patch in missing features and polish up the game. The lacking content will be addressed with paid dlc, unfortunately. It's still fun to play though... I'm still learning stuff and getting stuck with certain things and other things you learn from experience while playing... but I'm enjoying it.
I think the mixed reviews are deserved but I do think the word of mouth is painting a much worse picture than the reality of the situation. It's getting a bit out of hand actually. The VR version of the got announced the other day and I've seen people lashing out because apparently it's very existence is proof that the developers don't care about the pc version. Things like that. I think the discourse around this game might become very ugly.
metacouncil.com
blog.playstation.com
meta.masto.host
