I don't often play with other civs, so I don't get much utility out of this, but I can see if adds a decent layer of mechanics if you don't play isolationist like me. I can't speak to how well its implemented th

The 6th iteration of Civilzation is now a turn based strategy game slash city builder. While in the previous games you built a city on a single tile, in Civ 6 you build the city around the first tile. First the districts, then buildings, wonders and whatnot within the appropriate districts. This means you can't just build everything willy-nilly, you have to make some tough decisions, but with a bit of experience it allows you to build some ridiculously powerful setups. Especially with the governors and policy cards (and secret societies, and heroes, and...).

There are some other changes, like the splitting of the tech tree into technology and civics, or now you can combine the same combat units to make them stronger, provided you have the technology, but none as big as the district system.

The rest is similar to the previous games: many different civs, each with multiple avenues to victory, and the expansions add a little extra on top of that (apocalypse mode with overtuned disasters, secret societies, corporations, etc). The new art direction fits perfectly, and each civ having their own theme that changes throughout the eras is a nice touch.

All in all it's a worthy addition to the series, a great game that allows for hundreds of hours of entertainment.

Best game a played for a while. Would recommend for anybody!

In WH40k: Mechanicus you command a cohort of the Adeptus Mechanicus, your job is to investigate a Necron planet, and of course to deal with the threats.

The combat takes place on procedurally generated maps, it's kind of like XCOM, but with less RNG. You have your tech priests and their auxiliaries, basically use the latter the soak up damage and the former to shoot everything that moves. You can go melee, but the ranged options are just far-far superior. It can get a little easy (and samey) in later parts of the game.

Before you get to the combat you explore the necron tombs, chose your adventure style. The tricky part is the more you explore (and the longer the fights take), the faster the planet "wakes up", meaning the mission you are on and all subsequent ones will get harder. But the more you explore the more likely you'll have better equipment, and that makes your job easier. It's easy enough to manage.

On the campaign layer you advance the story, upgrade your stuff, and pick your next mission. You'll get options from several individuals, one wants you to explore and catalogue stuff in the tombs, the other to burn down everything, another wants you to get resources, yet another to help your pinned down troops. Their musings are hilarious.

Mechanicus oozes atmosphere. The writing, the visuals, the music, the "voice acting" of the high priests, all the little details show that a great care went into making this game. If you liked XCOM you will probably enjoy this one too.

Very enjoyable game and it works great both on PC and Steam Deck.