Currently, everyone can test a new 4x strategy game for free on Steam for 60 turns: Millennia. It’s a really clever variation of the tried-and-true formula behind Civilization, says MeinMMO author Schuhmann. It could even solve some issues of the genre.
What kind of game is this?
- Millennia is a classic 4x strategy game. In principle, it’s just like the legendary Civilization series, which you can famously play for 16,395 hours: You guide a people from the invention of the wheel to the future – but there are some twists on the familiar formula.
- The game is currently playable as a demo on Steam during the one-week “Steam Next” event: The free-to-play demo covers the first 60 turns (via steam). It is only available in English; at launch, Millennia will also offer a German interface.
- The game does not have a fixed release date or price tag yet. A release in 2024 is expected.
Who’s behind Millennia? The game is being developed by a new studio, C Prompt. The studio consists of well-known developers who have worked on games like Age of Empires II, System Shock 2, or Starcraft.
The game is published by Paradox, the strategy experts, who are responsible for hits like Crusader Kings 3 or Stellaris.
Less Micromanagement – More Dynamics
These are the deviations from the formula: There are some clever deviations from the Civilization formula that make the game more dynamic and exciting, similar to Humankind:
- There are no “workers” to micromanage, but improvements on individual tiles in the world appear conveniently at the push of a button: You use a limited resource for this.
- The micromanagement with 15 cities is also eliminated – you personally develop only your capital – everything else are vassals that pay tribute. When you conquer a new city, you decide whether to make it a vassal or forcibly relocate the inhabitants to your capital.
- In Millennia, you collect not only normal resources (wood, bones, meat) but also meta-resources like points in diplomacy, exploration, or combat, which you can redeem for immediate effects, such as summoning new troops, further developing cities, or obtaining a research boost.
- Battles take place automatically, in small cutscenes, which you can watch or skip.
This allows for more active responses to threats or changes in the situation.
This is the special twist: The game starts off like Civilization as well, in historical ages, but depending on how an age plays out, you can switch to a different one.
If you fight many opponents early on, the “Age of Blood” might dawn, a famine could trigger the “Age of Plague.”
The ages only include a handful of research options each, so they are relatively short-lived.
Millennia has the potential to solve some problems of the genre
This is our first impression: Anyone who knows Civilization knows that 60 turns at the start of a game are actually nothing; just a taste. But this really makes you want more in Millennia.
Anyone who has ever played Civilization and enjoyed it should definitely spend half an hour or 60 minutes with Millennia, then they will surely know if the game is right for them and if they want to whitelist it on Steam or quickly ignore it.
The 2 games I have played so far have indeed made me crave more. Especially in the endgame, Civilization, like almost every strategy game, becomes very micromanagement-heavy, and individual turns increasingly feel like a tedious task, with the number of important and meaningful decisions per hour decreasing.
Here, Millennia could truly solve some long-standing issues of the genre. However, I wouldn’t bet my hand on it: Evaluating a 4x game after 60 turns is like judging a 7-course meal after the soup or an marriage after the wedding night.
For those who have gotten tired of Civilization and are already looking for something new, we recommend Humankind:
It was criticized at release, but now Humankind is a strong strategy game on Steam
