Diplomacy becomes redundant, culture and science are suddenly a grind and religion is reduced to a fun distraction. In previous Civilization games, the switch to easy mode (or ‘Chieftan’) means abandoning some of the game’s core features.
Related: new to 4X games? Check out our comprehensive Civ VI strategy guide to master the basics. Civ VI should suffer from the exact same problem of having no middle ground, but a couple of changes to other systems have made both ends of the difficulty spectrum that bit more engaging and – crucially – fair. The former renders most of the game’s features useless, while the latter, rather than actually making the AI smarter, unfairly buffs your opponents to ensure you’re always playing catch-up. For a game with matches that last anywhere from three to 30 hours, it’s always either too easy, or too difficult. It’s an issue extends to both ends of the difficulty slider.
I don’t mean it’s too hard, and I’m not here on braggart duty to claim it’s too easy. The Civilization series has never handled difficulty well.
