I've been a fan of the civilization series since II. However I haven't played all of them due to being busy at different points in my life. Didn't play VI for example, but I did enjoy V, some of the DLC for it was good IIRC.
I'm concerned about the pre-order push, and that there is going to be a Switch version. But it does look like it could be good? No way I'm pre-ordering, but would like something to look forward to.
It's going to suck, no question about it.
I was dumb enough to pay full price for Civ VI shortly after launch, and because exploring a 4x strategy game takes longer than 2 hours, that's $60 I'm never getting back. It was inferior to Civ V (talking base game to base game here, let alone the DLC) by every measure.
If you don't already have Civ V with the Brave New World expansion, I suggest taking a look at FreeCiv (an open source game based more on Civ II and Civ III than anything that came after, in active development since 1996, with the option for both desktop install and playing from the browser).
Edit: Or if you are willing to put in the effort, try to get Civilization II: Test of Time installed and working alongside the ToT Patch Project.
Test the free demo on the Seven Seas first.
CC: u/TheOutlaw
Thing is, on a surface level I knew that even then, but I will admit to having a lapse in judgement (plus being somewhat inexperienced at the time and not knowing how to safely "Arrgh" newer more modern games at the time that I didn't want to risk it). On top of that, I just wasn't expecting such a massive downgrade coming from Civ V which I put a lot of hours into both pre- and post- Brave New World, that it burned me that much more.
Needless to say, I learned my lesson the hard way.