It’s kind of like a rubber-banding last place blue shell in Mario Kart that gives other players bonuses for knocking someone down a peg, and while the innovation is appreciated in a sense, it’s another thing I probably won’t be playing with. For some that might not be a bad thing, but I appreciated the consistency before and I don’t know if I’m going to be consistently using Great Ages in my future playthroughs.įiraxis attempted to balance all this with “emergencies,” which, in other words, are “gang up on this winning player” announcements. The idea is that if you dig out of a dark age you might get more of a bonus later on, but with other players sling-shotting into golden ages during my dark age or vice-versa, things were a little more chaotic. Now Rise and Fall has them partially jumbled, based around the concept of golden or dark ages depending on your performance in any given play session.

Previously, ages would operate in a rigid fashion, which I kind of liked as they were predictable.

Perhaps the biggest shift though is the “Great Age” mechanic. This is further opened up by more options for alliances, so it’s less of an all or nothing affair and much more nuanced with angles for trading and other facets of society, not just military-centric agreements. While it could have just as easily been a free update, Firaxis waited until the expansion to bundle in a smarter CPU component, and when that concept is mashed up with fighting new unknown forces it makes the game that much more interesting again. Part of the reason all these leaders rock is because of the tweaks to the AI. Developer Firaxis mostly accomplished this same game flow with the other eight leaders.

His entire thematic drive of “Scottish enlightenment” permeates through his bonuses, making him fun to play. Robert the Bruce is one of the more interesting additions, as he can construct golf courses due to his Scottish background, declare a war of liberation differently than other leaders, and generate more resources from happy cities. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Rise and Fall – 2K Games

Civilization vi rise and fall review