Sid Meier’s Civilization® V

Sid Meier’s Civilization® V

I played as the Iroquis, befriended the Incans, Aztecs, and Shoshone and then destroyed America, Spain, France, and England.

10/10 game the only historical game where I can undo white people crimes

Real player with 842.6 hrs in game


Read More: Best Diplomacy Strategy Games.


It’s old…but, awesome….been playing this game off and on for well over 10 years…

Real player with 655.3 hrs in game

Sid Meier's Civilization® V on Steam

Rebel Inc: Escalation

Rebel Inc: Escalation

Great game, very stressful, amazing feeling after winning.

Real player with 60.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Diplomacy Strategy Games.


This game is wonderful. In addition to being a good challenge and having endless replay ability, it’s theme is uncommon and very relevant to the real world. More games like this should exist.

Real player with 42.1 hrs in game

Rebel Inc: Escalation on Steam

Lawgivers

Lawgivers

A simple political simulator focusing on a gameplay element that was missing in Democracy 3 and not well developed in Urban Empire.

To keep it short: The game is fun, but somewhat lacking in depth and can be rather random at times. Better to watch gameplay videos to see if it is for you, unless you really love politics and want a parliament simulator badly.

To be more elaborate: The game offers a variety of policies that are unlocked through research. Policy effects are very clearcut and not as complicated and multi-layered as in Democracy 3. Also they tend to be rather simple. For instance there is a policy to establish a pension system, but it is not explained what kind of system it is, nor is it possible to have different types of systems (Democracy 3 at least distinguished between private and public pension schemes).

Real player with 27.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Diplomacy Political Sim Games.


Mixed leaning negative, with lots of caveats

Firstly, I love the presentation, the UI design, the idea of the sim. It is nice to see so many countries represented, with an actual democratic method of passing or repealing laws and legislation, via voting done by members of the chamber. It is a solid base for the game to (hopefully) improve with in time.

But, sadly, I feel the overtly positive points halt here.

While many countries are represented each one works exactly the same, even if their constitutions and ideology differs. Each will start with the same rules and a empty parliamentary chamber. It is like establishing the very first government. And then the system does not emulate the country you are supposed to be. Every country gets the chamber filled, and then the “lawgivers” themselves pick a PM/President. Not the majority holder. Not public vote. Not the popular vote or the most weighted votes as seen in real systems across the world. Only through pushing new rules and laws can you actually get around to emulating your chosen countries real system.

Real player with 14.3 hrs in game

Lawgivers on Steam

DEFCON

DEFCON

One of those games that is both well programmed and well made to make nuclear war just another giddy joyride.

The game focuses on a world during the late 70’s and early 80’s, where nuclear war is taking place, and up to 6 nations can declare into it, the nations include The European union (and several other nations not currently in the EU) The USSR, (A and some parts of Kazakhstan) Asia (Not Ocenia, Australia, or Mongolia) Lain America (Not including Cuba) Africa, and North America including Canada and the United States.

Real player with 113.2 hrs in game

This was my first game bought online on steam… years ago. It’s an an-and-off relationship, and recently I got back into it a little, and the old fever caught on again!

Pro:

  • not much required in terms of specs (although it can blow the fan a lot in certain situations)

  • UI has a great visual design

  • soundtrack is fitting

  • game mechanics depend on other players to work out one way or another: good online games are common

  • interesting game modes, for example: diplomacy. Everyone sees everything at the beginning, being in one team. Who defects first? Lots of maneuvering and chit-chatting among parties and backstabbing! Oh the backstabbing! Boy did we have fun with that!

Real player with 90.3 hrs in game

DEFCON on Steam

Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition

Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition

This was one of the few games I played over and over as a teen.

I’ll be honest, I never got into the sequel, because I didn’t like the way the planets were depicted (though it probably made influence more intuitive). So I don’t know how this one holds up to GalCiv II. But on its own merits, it’s a good game.

In Galactic Civilizations, you start out as ruler of united Earth. The various alien races, having gotten the secret of hyperdrive from the humans, have turned off their massive wormhole portals and scrapped them for hyper-capable colony ships. The real space race has begun, and it’s up to you to determine the path you want humanity to take.

Real player with 194.6 hrs in game

In my ongoing and likely futile effort to write a Steam review for every game in my library (#291 out of 612)… it’s time for Galactic Civilizations I: Ultimate Edition.

You might know Galactic Civilizations by its other name: “Oh, yeah, there was a game before Galactic Civilizations III, wasn’t there?” Indeed there was! The obvious question here is: why should anyone play Galactic Civilizations 1 when the third game exists, and is so, so good? Historical context? Pure, unadulterated whimsy? A PC so old and out-of-date that it doesn’t even qualify as a toaster? Galactic Civilizations I has got fewer features, less polish, and less depth all-around. Furthermore, you’re in for one hell of an uphill battle if you’re even -thinking- of trying to get the game to run on a modern operating system. Galactic Civilizations does not play nice with anything more advanced than Windows XP!

Real player with 24.6 hrs in game

Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition on Steam

Sid Meier’s Civilization® III Complete

Sid Meier’s Civilization® III Complete

Here’s what I think of this game, I’ll compare it to Civ 5 since most people consider that to be the best Civ game.

Music: Both Civ 5 and Civ III have fantastic soundtracks as with pretty much all Civ games. CIV 5’s soundtrack is better, but that doesn’t mean this soundtrack isn’t worth listening to.

Diplomacy: The diplomacy here in Civ III, in my opinion is better. You can trade maps technologies, change how agressive the AI is. The AI does get quite a bit agressive once you get to medium agressiveness although.

Real player with 328.3 hrs in game

I will start this review in two seperate forms, one for interested newcomers and then the Old Guard.

I will list off the pros first before the cons of this game, Civilization 3 is a different twist of the game than you may be familar with 4 and 5. Go in understanding this switch:

-Its an old game, if you can run the actual game, there should be no real issues.

-Graphically, it’s a sound experience and not many real issues, the modding community can find you bug fixes or new skins. Its pleasing regardless and you won’t really be let down by this game.

Real player with 325.2 hrs in game

Sid Meier's Civilization® III Complete on Steam