So you want more games like Civilization? As the undisputed king of 4X games (for now), there are many who’ve tried to copy what Sid Meier created, and plenty who want to play a Civ-like experience that wasn’t created by Firaxis.
Civilization games offer a unique vision of turn-based strategy where you start from humble origins, and lead a people through the ages, founding more cities, enriching your empire with cultural or technological advancements, and quite often, fighting other civilisations. It’s not a historical strategy game, more of an historically-inspired sandbox, and few other games have attempted to offer the breadth that Civilization has.
While we have a dedicated list of great 4X games in general (which Civilization is on), some of you may be interested in looking at games that more closely resemble Firaxis’ popular series, so we’ve spun-off a separate list of games like Civilization that you might want to check out. There’s very little overlap, as we’ve dug up some very specific examples for this one. Enjoy!
Games like Civilization
Here are five neat games like Civilization:
- Warlock: Masters of the Arcane
- Old World
- Age of Wonders 3
- Freeciv
- Humankind
Warlock: Masters of the Arcane
If you take Civilization V, and then add in fantasy elements such as magic (instead of tech), NPC monsters, and portals to other dimensions, then you’ve got Warlock: Master of the Arcane. Published by Paradox Interactive 2012, it was a mash-up of experiments that elevated it beyond a ‘fantasy civ’ game and proved a fascinating counterpoint to Civ 5.
What was especially cool was that, if you were bored doing the more run-of-the-mill Civ-like stuff on the main map, you could take your armies and try to find portals – these would lead to other ‘maps’ and represented different dimensions, with tougher monsters and better rewards. You could also colonise these spaces, and expand your empire that way.
Warlock got a sequel in 2014 called Warlock 2: The Exiled, which leaned into the dimension hopping a bit more. It wasn’t as creative as the first game, but it’s still pretty decent. Both are notable for the fact that Civ V’s UI is replicated quite accurately, making it very obvious what the primary inspiration was.
Old World
Recently released from early access, Old World is a 4X game that attempts to deconstruct Civ and innovate in ways that push the boundaries more so than any other rival. It’s the brainchild of Soren Johnson – the former lead designer of Civ 4 – and his studio Mohawk Games. Old World is locked to the ancient and classical ears, featuring civilisations such as Rome, Carthage, and Assyria.
The mechanical elements around empire management are fine, but the real innovations lie in the addition of Crusader Kings-style character elements, events, and the ‘orders’ system, which converts a player’s ability to act into a finite resource, as opposed to every unit getting to do something every turn. Check out our Old World review for more, but this is definitely one worth checking out.
Age of Wonders 3
While Age of Wonders: Planetfall is on our 4X games guide, it’s the third game in this long-running turn-based wargame series that’s closer to the Civilization roots, albeit it’s another fantasy twist. There’s everything here you’d expect from a Civ-like – the empire management, armies, tech trees and spells, as well as hero units. The main headline feature for Age of Wonders 3 is that there is a separate tactical battle mode where armies fight it out in more granular detail.
The world is filled with NPC dangers, as well as other empires, but there were also quest-like nodes you could interact with as well, such as dungeons or abandoned mines, and maps could also spawn a subterranean level that can only be accessed by certain points on the map. Some of AoW3’s races (like dwarves) prefer being underground. What I always found cool was that, in addition to building the usual cities, you could also build smaller ‘forts’ and outposts to hold key positions without needing to found an entire city.
Freeciv
You can’t have a conversation about games like Civilization without discussing the ultimate copy-cat, Freeciv. As the name implies, it’s 100% free, and has been actively developed and worked on as an open source project since 1996. In terms of rules, it has more in common with Civilization II than it does with more modern games, and in terms of architecture it was actually based on an old shooter game called XPilot.
The project has grown and evolved since then, with a new ‘longturn’ format introduced in 2004 which involves day-long turns, and games involving up to 30 people. The game can support 2D and 3D graphics, and is very flexible if you know what you’re doing.
Humankind
Last but certainly not least, the ultimate game like Civilization has to be the game that’s actively trying to topple Sid Meier’s giant off its gilded throne. Humankind, from developers that brought you Endless Legend and Endless Space, seeks to become King of the hill through a reinvention of diplomatic, empire, and victory systems, as well as a turn-based tactical mode where armies can clash over large swathes of terrain.
This is the game Amplitude has spent its entire existence working towards, so there’s a lot riding on it. It’s not due out until August 17, but our last hands-on earlier in the year showed a lot of promise. The main concern right now is late-game balancing.
Pre-order: Pick up Humankind early for exclusive content
Hopefully these five gems will satisfy your lust for other Civilization-like experiences.
{“schema”:{“page”:{“content”:{“headline”:”Five strategy games like Civilization”,”type”:”guide”,”category”:”civilization-vi”},”user”:{“loginstatus”:false},”game”:{“publisher”:”2K Games”,”genre”:”Strategy Gamer”,”title”:”Civilization VI”,”genres”:[“Strategy Gamer”,”Simulation”]}}}}