Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Complete Edition Review (beastbod)
I absolutely loved Civ 5 and it is one of my favorite games of all time, so I immediately purchased this game back in 2016 with very high hopes it would blow me away and be the next game I sunk 1000+ hours into playing. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite even get to the 100 hour mark with this game in the 6+ years I've owned it and found myself going back to Civ 5 even to this day.
The game improves a lot in the features from Civ 5, allowing more ways run your civilization with the unit improvements such as allowing attachment of civilian unites to military ones to protect them as well as allowing districts so that a city that was started surrounded by land could still access the ocean if it was at least a few tiles away. But even with all of these improvements, I couldn't get over a lot of the aesthetic choices they went with this game. The cartoony and exaggerated expressions from the Civ leaders and units didn't really click with me and kind of made the experience feel more cheap as compared to the more realistic and compelling aesthetic that Civ 5 had. I also did not like the change of workers expiring after improving a certain amount of tiles whereas 5 kept your workers to continually improve.
The agenda system also does dampen the experience a little for me as well as I often found leaders despising me just because I wouldn't fit what they prefer, such as lacking in culture. I'm sure others would find this setting interesting as it adds another dynamic in relations, but I found it very annoying as it didn't make a lot of sense to ruin relations just because my empire wasn't progressing in a way that the AI thought suitable.
It may be a fit unfair with how much I do compare this game to Civ 5, but it is hard not to given this was the next step taken in the series. Given how I hold Civ 5 in such high regard and how much of a let down this game was in comparison, I honestly cannot recommend it to others. If you did not like Civ 5, this game might be a good change of pace to get into. But if you are similar to me and love Civ 5, I would recommend awaiting to see if Civ 7 will be the next step that takes the series to a higher level, as Civ 6 failed to do so in my opinion.