Millennia review

Our VerdictA rough-edged but worthwhile spin on historical 4Xs that oddly leaves Civ’s greatest flaws untouched.

Our Verdict

A rough-edged but worthwhile spin on historical 4Xs that oddly leaves Civ’s greatest flaws untouched.

PC Gamer’s got your backOur experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you.Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.

Need to knowWhat is it?A Civ-like with a new spin on nations and victory conditions.Expect to pay£35/$40DeveloperC Prompt GamesPublisherParadox InteractiveReviewed oni7 9700K, RTX 2080 TI, 16GB, Windows 10Steam DeckUnsupportedLinkOfficial site

Need to know

What is it?A Civ-like with a new spin on nations and victory conditions.Expect to pay£35/$40DeveloperC Prompt GamesPublisherParadox InteractiveReviewed oni7 9700K, RTX 2080 TI, 16GB, Windows 10Steam DeckUnsupportedLinkOfficial site

What is it?A Civ-like with a new spin on nations and victory conditions.

Expect to pay£35/$40

DeveloperC Prompt Games

PublisherParadox Interactive

Reviewed oni7 9700K, RTX 2080 TI, 16GB, Windows 10

Steam DeckUnsupported

LinkOfficial site

(Image credit: Paradox)

Millennia map

Millennia is, as you’ll have noticed, quite a lot like Civilization. Like Amplitude’s Humankind, it promises an enticing shakeup of the decades-old formula and offers a fresh spin in particular on how nations work, how eras are ushered in, and how you achieve victory.

(Image credit: Paradox)

A battle with barbarians

Identity crisis

(Image credit: Paradox)

Building menu

Another faintly fumbled chance for Millennia to assert a deviation from Civ comes with the chance to adopt a National Spirit for each age which gives you unique perks and units. It sounds like a way to tailor your nation according to the victory you’re going after, but it plays out feeling more like a concession to the fact that nations are basically interchangeable. I chose the Warriors spirit in the early game and buffed up my military units, which felt quite Roman to me at the time but didn’t grant me any unique units. Similarly, the Olympians diplomacy buff I picked for the next era was a bundle of perks selected from a menu that speaks no more to Roman civilization than the Persians, Germans or Zulus I was waging war with.

National Spirits have to work this way, because nations don’t have an identity. Their only unique traits are the city names that appear when you found them. Otherwise, there’s nothing particularly American about the way America’s AI goes about a campaign, nor anything Spanish about the Spanish. There are perks for each nation, but they’re simply assigned from a list, as you learn when, like me, you excitedly delve into the custom nation creator then realise how the system actually works.

The knock-on effect is that during a campaign, you don’t feel like your own nation has a distinct character—nor do your enemies. Diplomacy isn’t exactly thrilling even in big daddy Civ, but at least you get well-illustrated leaders and their quirks. Without them, Millennia really does feel like you’re having conversations with colour-coded menus. That robs being at war of sufficient drama, or forging alliances of an emotive payoff.

(Image credit: Paradox)

Improving hexes

Despite that rather flimsy approach to crafting its nations, some of Millennia’s ideas do lead you to feel like you’ve built something unique. City production is all about the goods it can produce, rather than the resources that lie within your territory, and this leads to a complex but gratifying sub-game of building supply chains using improvement tiles. Get it right, and you forge a nice little advantage exporting spices, lemons or iron goods. Since you can only work with the resources within your territory, there’s real replay value here from one campaign to the next as you figure out how to make good on the clay, sheep or gold within your borders.

Ages also create compelling wrinkles. I enjoyed facing a choice of upcoming ages I could progress to, some positive and some negative, and found myself working hard to avoid crisis ages and triggering good ones. And when the worst happens, those crisis ages are truly horrible to deal with, completely disrupting the strategy you had in place for centuries beforehand, but that’s kind of the point. Sometimes we need that. We need to be forced to improvise, and to have to use the resources we’ve been stockpiling in unexpected ways.

(Image credit: Paradox)

Units surrounding a city

The late game falls victim to exactly the same scourges as Civ, unfortunately. Watching enemy units mill about pointlessly, and interminable waits between turns as your CPU chugs through sub-optimal code. It’s so strange to see such a single-minded Civ-like tackle elements of the formula that weren’t particularly broken in the first place, like nations or ages, but leave glaring issues like this untouched and intact.

The Verdict64Read our review policyMillenniaA rough-edged but worthwhile spin on historical 4Xs that oddly leaves Civ’s greatest flaws untouched.

The Verdict

64Read our review policyMillenniaA rough-edged but worthwhile spin on historical 4Xs that oddly leaves Civ’s greatest flaws untouched.

64Read our review policy

MillenniaA rough-edged but worthwhile spin on historical 4Xs that oddly leaves Civ’s greatest flaws untouched.

Millennia

A rough-edged but worthwhile spin on historical 4Xs that oddly leaves Civ’s greatest flaws untouched.

Latest

Wormhole

Wormhole is an impeccable arcade revival of Snake that plays like it fell off the back of Derek Yu’s van

The protagonist of My Summer Car smoking a cigarette outside while a truck in the background pumps out a septic tank.

My Summer Car, the absurdly detailed Finnish life sim about vehicle maintenance and drinking in your underpants, smashes into 1.0 after nearly a decade in Steam early access

Dead By Daylight: The Junji Ito Collection

See more latest►

Most PopularTurtle Beach Stealth Pivot reviewIkea Matchspel gaming chair reviewASRock DeskMini X600 reviewZotac Zbox Magnus EN374070C reviewMinisforum AtomMan G7 Ti reviewSamsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra reviewNoctua NH-D15 G2 reviewGulikit KK3 Max reviewBallionaire reviewMarvel Rivals reviewBe Quiet! Dark Rock 5 review

Most Popular

Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot review

Ikea Matchspel gaming chair review

ASRock DeskMini X600 review

Zotac Zbox Magnus EN374070C review

Minisforum AtomMan G7 Ti review

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra review

Noctua NH-D15 G2 review

Gulikit KK3 Max review

Ballionaire review

Marvel Rivals review

Be Quiet! Dark Rock 5 review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Our Verdict#

Identity crisis#

Our Verdict

Identity crisis