Sid Meier’s Civilization VI – Atraso brutal
Brutal Backlog es una función semirregular en la que el equipo de JDR revisa algunos de los juegos no jugados en sus estantes (tanto digitales como físicos), sin tener en cuenta su edad o las limitaciones técnicas de su época. Solo los mejores juegos resistirán el escrutinio actual.
Descubrí Civilization II de Sid Meier por primera vez cuando era un niño en la escuela en los años 90. Fue transformador: un juego impresionante que jugaría durante horas, juego tras juego, solo tratando de obtener esa victoria de la manera que quería. Después de eso compré y jugué hasta la saciedad la tercera iteración, la cuarta y la quinta.
El sexto salió muy pronto después de que la adultez se volvió realmente real, es decir, tuve un hijo. Así que fue un no-go para mí en ese momento. Finalmente tengo la oportunidad de jugarlo, pero dada su propia naturaleza, espero que un enfoque de sumergirse, sumergirse funcione bien dadas mis limitadas oportunidades para jugar y mi total falta de posibilidades de tener una sesión adecuada (dos niños en la casa ahora ya ves).
Mira, he dicho que la victoria cultural es mi objetivo… Esto es lo que se necesita
El Big Bang
La serie Civilization es grande y ha existido durante varios años. Personalmente, estoy muy versado en liderar mi propia civilización de principio a fin, pero para aquellos que no están acostumbrados a las maravillas de los juegos, saltar directamente a la sexta iteración podría generar todo tipo de confusión (NB, ¡gracias, Ed! ) .
Entonces, comencemos por el principio: The Big Bang, o básicamente solo la oportunidad de comprender qué es un juego de Civilization , cómo funciona y algunos de los fundamentos clave listos para leer sobre si vale la pena jugar el último juego.
En Civilization asumes el papel de un gran líder de una civilización histórica de la vida real. Ese podría ser Gandhi, liderando India, Catalina la Grande liderando Rusia u otra persona, y su gran líder correspondiente (o líderes, según el juego y Firaxis, la elección del desarrollador). Tu mandato es simple: construir una civilización desde cero para resistir el paso del tiempo y sentarte muy por encima de todos los demás. Gobernar el mundo, básicamente.
Tu primera tarea es fundar una ciudad. Cada juego comienza cuando tienes un colono que puede usarse para fundar dicha ciudad. Dependiendo de la civilización que hayas elegido, puedes tener otras unidades. Cada civilización tiene diferencias con otras que pueden proporcionar beneficios para ciertos estilos de juego, estrategias y similares. Estas diferencias normalmente están vinculadas a la civilización con la que juegas, por lo que, por ejemplo, puedes tener beneficios navales si juegas como Gran Bretaña, o algo relacionado con la producción de edificios antiguos si juegas como los romanos.
A partir de este punto continúas a través del tiempo, guiando tu civilización. Esto será a través de una variedad de mecanismos. Está la investigación necesaria para desbloquear tecnologías desde la cría de animales hasta la nanotecnología. Con el tiempo, puede desarrollar su gobierno y obtener las recompensas que puede traer en el juego, ya que los beneficios o no de Democracia versus Feudalismo pueden ser significativos y variados. La religión es una cosa y también lo es la cultura, cada una de las cuales puede desempeñar un papel en el crecimiento de tu población de forma orgánica e inorgánica, si una ciudad elige convertirse en parte de tu civilización.
¿Por qué Roma es mi ciudad más pequeña?
La forma en que puede hacer crecer su civilización y apoyar las diversas mecánicas en su lugar es a través de la gestión del mapa. Tu ciudad crecerá en función de los recursos disponibles, que varían según la posición en el mapa: cada mapa se divide en cuadrados y cada cuadrado contiene comida u otros recursos. Puedes cultivar los recursos y construir la huella de tu civilización produciendo unidades. Luego, un constructor puede hacer carreteras, minas y otras mejoras de mosaico. Las unidades militares pueden defender una ciudad o viajar y atacar según sea necesario. Edificios como graneros, bancos, teatros pueden mejorar la vida de tus ciudadanos, así como afectar la mecánica del juego.
Con el tiempo, encontrarás varias ciudades, tu imperio crecerá y los recursos, los edificios y las personas dentro de él también crecerán. Se alcanza el final del juego cuando se logra una o más condiciones de victoria. Eso podría ser dominación: has derrotado a todas las demás civilizaciones por la fuerza o de otra manera, o por otro método. La victoria cultural es mi favorita, por lo que mi civilización es tan condenadamente agradable para vivir o visitar, que no tiene sentido en nadie más.
Las condiciones de inicio (y final) de cada juego se pueden modificar y personalizar para adaptarse al juego que desea jugar. El mapa puede ser aleatorio, Pangea, la Tierra como en la realidad o cualquier otra cosa. El tamaño puede ser pequeño o grande, las civilizaciones en juego pueden ser aleatorias o elegidas. Con el tiempo, tus oponentes serán los líderes de las otras civilizaciones. Cuando las personas hablan de una civilización, se refieren al líder, pero eso también es en nombre de la civilización real: el significado detrás del término es intercambiable, por lo que escuchará a las personas hablar sobre la civilización diciéndoles que lo odian, así como el crecimiento de la población de la civilización. .
Al menos, así han sido las cosas desde el principio de los tiempos y antes de que encontrara mi nueva civilización en esta, la última versión de la serie encantadora y que consume mucho tiempo.
4000 aC
So I haven’t really started yet. This is year zero in-game. What I have done is gone through Single Player on the menu to “Play Game” and found out that route leads to a default random setup. Hell no! I wanted to choose my civ. So, I started again, much to my annoyance when it meant another unhealthy load time. This of course is PC dependent, but it’s not as if mine isn’t an overclocked beast with…a dilapidated GPU. Oh yeah — it was rather good five years ago when I built it. Maybe this will be the game to push me into upgrades?
3000 BC
Hmmm. I decided to start as China, in the hope that I could push for a cultural victory given the beneficial aspects of this civ and its leader, Qin Shi Huang. My logic here is twofold: one, it has production benefits (build things in fewer turns and reap the rewards earlier and for longer) early on for ancient and classical wonders — which generate culture — and two, it has a unique wonder in the Great Wall of China. There’s more to it but this is enough for me right now — after all, I don’t know how the new aspects of this game will impact my strategic choices based on previous game experience. It’s now fairly early in the game and the builders I produced have been kidnapped by barbarian hordes and Rome has denounced me due to my lack of territory. I have very little idea what I’m doing yet, either. There’s a tech tree which I get as that’s normal in Civ games, but also a civics tree where I decided to choose professional games ahead of political philosophy. My reason? I give you Maximus Decimus Meridius: Are you not entertained? Is that not why I am here?
Oh, arse. That volcano looks rather angry…
Now, excuse me whilst I restart. With all of the above happening, combined with my not knowing what I was doing then — and knowing a little bit more now — I think it’s right to scrap everything and have another go. I could go on, but I feel like I’ve encountered various problems already which will make things difficult from hereon in, and right now I need to learn — not just get my arse handed to me.
See you at around 3000 BC, hopefully in a better state…
3200 BC (Round Two)
Right, I’m back. Time moves very quickly early on (as the game progresses one turn takes fewer and fewer real years) and not much is happening. Is that because it seems to take forever to build any units, or is it because I can’t automate my workers? What a ridiculous design decision that is, by the way. Let them do all the improvements in all my world automatically, please. Ideally like they would in past games in the series — so I don’t need to micromanage every builder unit I have when I need them to make an improvement to a tile on the map, such as building a farm. Or am I just missing something in the game’s user interface which would allow me to do this? The game is sizeable and complex and sufficiently different to the fifth game that there is — as always — a period of learning required.
2480 BC – The Classical Era
So I’m now in the Classical Era because I completed research into horse riding (one of the technologies I can invest resources into researching). I’ve only played thirty-nine of five-hundred turns so far, so a long way to go, but this early game — first time through at least — isn’t massively engaging. I am learning all the mechanisms, like the civics, policies and all the rest, rather than using them strategically in the best way to plan for multiple victory conditions in the late game. This is despite my restarting! At least I feel a bit more confident than on that aborted playthrough. Hopefully by the end of this, I will have that. If I do, I’ll be straight into another game and am probably going to be absorbed by Civilization VI for quite some time…
1560 BC
Right, things are hotting up. One civ has just denounced me because I apparently decided to settle in land he felt was his. I think my population has just grown faster, mate. Also, I now have a pantheon within which a religion may be founded; some districts are being built (big new mechanic — I can’t build things like the Colosseum without a particular district it seems) and a new type of government. Still can’t get builders to do much of use automatically, mind.
825 BC
I’m finding it difficult to learn the cues for things, to be honest. I don’t know obviously when a turn has been finished, or a new one started. I don’t quite know what each choice I make is meant to be doing, either. The latter I have no experience in — as the game is new with lots of choices I have which are new and decisions to make which are also new — and that’s fine, I’ll get it. But the former? That’s just bad user experience design, no? Onwards and upwards as I look to found a fourth city. I must make sure I’m in a good place, both city and population-wise as we head into the AD years. Get that solid base and grow from there. That means I need a decent number of cities so I can enable population growth to match or exceed other civilisations, whilst also providing me with a bigger part of the map, more resources and the chance to produce more units and buildings.
163 of the 204 tourists needed. Getting there.
525 BC
I was really struggling to build the Colosseum. I had the appropriate everything, including districts. I just couldn’t see anything on screen to allow me to build it when just selecting it in the production queue wasn’t working. Turns out I needed to zoom out to see the possible locations I could build. Fine, but why did the game keep sending me to my city centre if that’s what I needed? Anyway, I can now build what I want, and I’m able to crack on.
I’ve met Cleopatra and she seems quite nice so far. She’s giving me gifts via her trade delegation. Very nice…but for how long?
450 BC
Oh, yes. My Civilization is so brilliant that a Great Writer came to it and has produced a Great Work of Writing. This gives me culture and tourism ongoing, and that means my chosen strategy — looking to gain a cultural victory, for which tourists are a necessity this time round — is getting off to a good start. I hate war. I keep agreeing to open borders with Frederick of Barbarossa and Cleopatra just so I don’t upset anyone. I’m the Gandhi with the right setting.
Yep, Cleopatra has just told me I’m weak and not good enough to bask in her glory. It’s a powerplay, of course, one which I’m unsure she can truly back up…
150 BC
WHY THE FUCK CAN I NOT AUTOMATE BUILDERS?! This was a really good option — to automate the work of the builders — which we no longer have. It’s just vanished. For what bloody reason?
100 AD
I have built the Colosseum. I am a golden god! Well, I feel very cultured at least as I can now have all kinds of gladiatorial activity happening in my civilization’s cities, despite the fact it should have been a few hundred years ago in real historical context. Heck, at least I now know HOW to build a wonder…
250 AD
This is getting better now, since after it originally started strongly there was a bit of a lull. With four entertainment complexes within my civilization, people want to create a professional sports league. That’s pretty nice. I’ve been floating through this to date, with a somewhat puzzled look and furrowed brow but maybe I’m getting going again. It feels like everything is starting to come together, which makes sense. A game like this will always take time to get to grips with — much more so if you were a series virgin as well — but the payoff, if all goes well, will be comparatively large and equally as long.
There’s Rome in all its glory. You can make out Chichen Itza and Oxford University, obviously.
475 AD
There’s Chaucer, and The Canterbury Tales! A new Great Person and their Great Work, in game language terms. I’m getting to grips with all the game’s cues and user interface at last. It still seems unintuitive to start with, but once I learnt how it lets you know there’s a location the new great person can go to and write his works, for example, then I know what to look for next time. Perhaps in reality the game is just mind-bogglingly complex and the fact I’m actually understanding it part way through my first playthrough is a great achievement by Firaxis? This particular point is a totally new mechanic, so if this is also your first experience of Civilization games, then you should also be able to understand. To that end there is a great wealth of support by way of tutorials, an AI advisor who you can get all kinds of support from and a comprehensive encyclopedia.
640 AD
I currently have the game windowed in 1024 by 768 resolution. This is so I have enough screen space to write as well, but really the more screen real estate you can afford for the game, the better. There’s so much to see in the game world that my current view is limiting. If you have a 4K monitor and the PC to run the game at that kind of resolution, your experience would be immeasurably superior to mine. And the one I have is still really rather good. Note — having gone to a bigger resolution it is vastly superior (I do need to switch windows to write but it’s a minor inconvenience given I can do that rather than being forced to play full screen). Give me more!
When you zoom in, the detail is there to see. The game is really pretty.
760 AD
There are certain games where the first playthrough is really just you getting to grips with it. Football Manager is one, and Civilization games another. This iteration is no outlier, as I’ve suggested a few times now. The depth on display is immense, with all kinds of mechanisms working away if you choose to get to grips with them — civics, policies, districts and all the rest, including the things experienced players are so very used to, like the tech tree. I’m nowhere in game time, either. There’re 500 turns in total in a game and I’ve completed about 150 of them.
It’s worth restating that for those entirely new to the series, this iteration really looks after you and will ensure you learn how it all works, if you’re willing to put in the time required for a first playthrough — accepting that the fog of war will only slowly disappear, but disappear it will.
1010 AD
Bill Fucking Shakespeare. Romeo & Juliet. A new Great Writer and a corresponding Great Work — both of which are pretty damned cool ones to have as part of MY civilization. I need say no more. Not that he’s really anything more than a special unit onscreen which ultimately helps my culture score.
1380 AD
Builders which are NOT automated are less irritating now I have unlocked more skills and the like, meaning they have much more work to do. Super stuff. I still need to micromanage them, like. This game though is getting very, very good right now.
1540 AD
Stuff just keeps happening — it’s brilliant. Great people, new civics, a chance to change my government (welcomed by the people), it’s all just making me so giddy. This is so much fun! How long will it last..?
1715 AD
