Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Rise and Fall

Civilization 6: Rise and Fall’s ideas are all good, and most of them are good in practice, too. It makes the sequence of eras more meaningful and rewarding with Golden and Dark Ages and its Governors’ buffs can be developed into powerful, portable upgrades for your cities. On the other hand, the nuanced Loyalty system can grind a lot of traditional strategies to less satisfying a crawl, and Emergency pacts are usually a non-starter due to the other nations’ unreliable AI.

Rise and Fall adds a lot of well-meaning nuance to the base game of Civilization VI. The new Loyalty system allows for more peaceful play, offering border expansion and bringing back city flipping as a strategy. The combination of Golden/Dark Ages and Emergency Situations mean it's now harder for one player to surge ahead in a game. There are still issues though, including illogical AI decisions and espionage needing another pass. It's a great addition to the base game, but Civilization VI isn't quite done yet.

Rise and Fall adds numerous new leaders, buildings, units, and wonders. It also tinkers with the nation-building strategy in some bigger ways thanks to the additions of loyalty and golden ages. In the end, Rise and Fall’s moment-to-moment action isn’t dramatically different from the base game, but the new bells and whistles provide a good excuse to return to Firaxis’ excellent strategy game.