One more turn, just one last, and the sun comes up without you noticing.

When the community decides on instinct, Civilization edges out three quarters of all games. Real esteem, and the profile partly explains it. The desert island score climbs ahead of 90% of titles, the perfect companion for years of isolation, which makes total sense for an endless 4X. The fun confirms it, ahead of more than three quarters of games, on the steadiest footing here. On the flip side, controller feel and attachment stay around or below the middle, and the art direction lands near the bottom. Logical: the beauty of Civilization is not in its pixels, but in the game that never ends.

Among the great strategy titles, it remains the patriarch, the founding game of the modern 4X, the one everything else descends from.

So, who is it for? You, if you love building, planning, watching a civilization cross the ages under your command. Much less so if you want a visual punch or an instant, twitchy grip.