Millennia

Bon. Vous aimez Civilization ? Moins depuis, allez, le V pour les moins boomers d'entre nous ? Vous avez tâté du Endless/Humankind (perso : mouais), du Old World (perso : OH OUAIS), et même du Age of Empire (wololooo) et du Rise of Nations (oh yeaaahh) ? Et bien faites un mélange de tout cela, secouez non agitez et vous obtenez : Millennia. A part Old World, qui reste bien à part, bien plus narratif et antiquito-centré, je pense que si vous vous mettez à Millennia, vous pouvez jeter tout le reste (surtout Civ). Ouais, tout simplement. Là il est tard, il m'a fallu 3 parties pour bien comprendre la plupart des mécanismes et subtilités du jeu, car telle une matrioshka (poupée russe) y a toute une succession de mécaniques dans tous les sens, donc je vais pas m'épancher trop, mais clairement, ce jeu est une tuerie et renvoie Civ à un jeu pour mobile et bas du front. La richesse de Millennia est INCROYABLE, le jeu se décompose comme Civ et les autres en Ages et pioche les idées à droite à gauche des titres que j'ai évoqué mais il le fait tellement MIEUX (globalement, y a quand même de grosses erreurs de jeunesse notamment ergonomique, comme l'absence de file de construction, en 2024, lol, ou de centralisation des bâtiments, ou des données, ou de quel bâtiment on a ou pas, ou tout simplement de statistiques globales), énormément centré sur la progression enrobée de narration, et surtout, surtout ! le jeu est LONG. Vous n'avez pas l'impression de rusher une partie et ne passerez pas de l'âge de pierre à l'âge final en 2h (ni 3h, ni 4, ni... non, partez pas), chaque âge est DEVELOPPE, chaque âge limite se suffirait à lui-même et quand vous passez au suivant, vous hallucinez face au contenu, aux nouveautés qui arrivent, et paf ça recommence... jusqu'au endgame, d'habitude rushé, on en a marre, on veut plier la face du malandrin d'en face mais nooooooooon, non seulement de nouvelles mécaniques apparaissent pour se faire (et même non violentes, comme d'habitude, mais biennnn plus intéressantes qu'ailleurs) mais vous avez même un "jeu post-générique", oui madame ! Voilà, vous en avez marre, vous balancez la purée et niquez la planète sous une holocauste nucléaire, après moi le déluge de radiations, toussa... MAIS LE JEU CONTINUE SA MERE. Enfin si j'ai bien compris. Parce que j'ai évité ce funeste destin en finissant bien. Ah oui je vous ai pas dit, il y a des AGES PARALLELES. De ouf. Vous avez des "âges du chaos", qui vous font dévier de la trame principale pour passer un âge temporaire de gros malus ou bonus, un peu comme les Ages d'Or/Sombre de Civ ou de Humankind mais BIEN plus intéressant. Bref. Vous aimez Civ ? Vous lorgnez Civilization 7 ? Humankind vous l'avez rincé, ou il vous a déçu ? FONCEZ SUR MILLENNIA. Voilà. Cordialement. Bisous.

Without a specific nation with it's own way to play the game. There is no reason to play any of these Civ clones. The only reason I play Civ so much is because each civ gives it's own strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise I'm just playing a loop game with no real objectives.

Genuinely underrated. I personally find Millennia better than the civ series, as your nation isn't static, but gradually developing over time, as is in-game with the national spirits. The Ages mechanic also adds a level of replayability as you'll have to deal either with extraordinary circumstances or a crisis which your nation has to weather. I know that the "countries" are pure flavor and have little gameplay impact, but I think it's fine that way plus you can rp with national spirits There is a lot to improve, and I really hope this does not get abandoned and that the devs continue working on the game. It has a lot of potential

A clone of the Civ series, with some novel and interesting improvements on how technologies are researched. Especially interesting is that there are different domains of improvements, such as government or warfare, which you use to buy powerful improvements. The combat system is also novel, where units fight automatically and you watch it play out similar to the Dominions series. I had a lot of fun at first and didn't understand where the negative reviews came from, until I encountered enemy combat AI. The AI just sends its units directly at your fortified cities, even when there is obviously no chance of winning. Often not even breaching my city walls in pointless and suicidal attacks. It was only my second time starting the game, and even with half the army I destroyed the AI civilization near me without losing a single battle. At that point I realized it was pointless to put more time into the game, and quit.

if you want a good strategy game, civ 5 is better and cheaper. as long as the game wont let me play endless, then it's a no-go for me

The game has some interesting mechanics, but it's not a finished game and given that the last update came in December 2024 I think the developers have stopped supporting it. The most severe lacks (apart from the "old school graphics") are - the combat screen and lack of tactical depth (apart from the ridiculous graphics) - the win conditions: you can dominate the game and still need to keep on playing for hours to actually win and end the game. If this game is supported and improved in the future it might become OK, especially given that some of the mechanics made it into Civ 7 as well - for better or worse... (most apparent: lack of builders, overbuilding tile improvements, cities can have a different status in your empire, etc.)

They abandoned itttt :(

Can't recommend. I thought being a fan of various Paradox games as well as Civ, this would right up my alley. I was wrong. There are some interesting concepts implemented, but too many systems are barebones or just bad. For example: - Bad UI - Terrible movement system. Somehow this manages to be even worse than Civ 5/6. You can't pass/move through other units, neither your own nor of friendly forces. Other nation has a scout on the road outside of your capital? Bad luck, any units wanting to move to the front will need to find a way around it. Want to retreat a damaged unit/army? Better hope there's an adjacent tile leading back that doesn't have a reinforcement army. Makes no sense. - Probably the worst diplomacy I've seen in a 4x game. There is only 1 relevant factor: how much points your nation has overall. If you've more points than another nation, they'll accept almost any proposal. If you're weaker, they'll accept almost no proposal. The only other relevant modifier is a negative 'cities are too close', which is 100% of the time due to an AI forward-settling you. Even if you can create an alliance by being stronger than them, they'll drop it in some turns without any explanation given. - You can have a good 4x without diplomacy but then combat must be great. That isn't the case here. While there's a half-decent army feature, due the movement issues mentioned above, warfare is just a pain. Moreover the AI is horrible, even for a 4x game. They'll declare war on you, kill themselves on your defense, and this will go on forever. The only way they'll accept peace is if you manage to end up significantly stronger than them, otherwise they'll happily spend centuries flinging troops your way to be killed without doing any damage. - I don't really care about this, but graphics are terribly outdated, they would've been outdated 15 years ago. I appreciate what the devs attempted and there are some good things hidden behind the bad. But as this is 1 year after release, and they've found the effort to release 2 DLCs but not fix these absolutely basic things, can't recommend.