When comparing Desktop Dungeons vs Civilization V, the Slant community recommends Desktop Dungeons for most people. In the question“What are the best games to play without sound?” Desktop Dungeons is ranked 5th while Civilization V is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Desktop Dungeons is:
The game gets its roots from roguelikes, and the complexity of the combined genre really enhances the puzzle solving side of the game. Instead of being real time, or taking place in a large expansive world, Desktop Dungeons games take place on a small 20x20 dungeon. Although the map is small, there is tons of strategy to figuring out the optimal way to clear the dungeon. Unveiling tiles is how you recover health and mana, so the game is fundamentally about efficiently using the tools and resources available to you in each map and coming up with unique strategies in such a small space. You must balance the risk between trying to get experience from exposed monsters and exploring deeper into the fog of war.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Mix of puzzle and roguelike
The game gets its roots from roguelikes, and the complexity of the combined genre really enhances the puzzle solving side of the game.
Instead of being real time, or taking place in a large expansive world, Desktop Dungeons games take place on a small 20x20 dungeon. Although the map is small, there is tons of strategy to figuring out the optimal way to clear the dungeon. Unveiling tiles is how you recover health and mana, so the game is fundamentally about efficiently using the tools and resources available to you in each map and coming up with unique strategies in such a small space. You must balance the risk between trying to get experience from exposed monsters and exploring deeper into the fog of war.
Pro Tons of character combinations
There are 7 races and 12 classes that are combinable as well as 4 extra monster classes that do not allow choosing of race making for 112 unique combinations, all with their own custom avatar. There are also 6 additional special races as well as 9 different gods you can worship during the game for even more abilities.
Pro Great for short bursts of play
Since each game takes place in one small dungeon, it's a great game to play in small bits of downtime.
Pro Humorous tone
The game doesn't take itself too seriously with lots of clever dialogue parodying the fantasy genre.
Pro Deep amount of content keeps strategy interesting and fresh
Even though the core gameplay is simple, the amount of power-ups and enemies create a massive amount of ways to play the game which keeps the puzzle solving aspect fresh.
Pro Beautiful graphics
From the players cities and armies to the lush landscape, Civilization is quite a beautiful game for those with systems powerful enough to push the graphics to the limit. Even when on lower graphical settings the game looks lush and well animated.
Pro Endless scenarios and replayability
Civilization V has a large assortment of nation leaders to choose from that have an even bigger assortment of scenarios that are able to play out for said leaders. Each game can be quite unique in this way as each leader allows for a different nation to be controlled.
Pro Customization through policies
Policies are used as a tool to gain a variety of customizations that benefit ones society. There is a branching tree of policies that will allow the user to pick certain aspects that will suit them best such as adding law or religion to ones society which will give gains in certain aspects.
Pro Fantastic tactical combat
Civilization V has a great combat system that feels very tactical over previous versions as there is no stacking of troops, but with the new hexagonal grid players can surround enemies as well as allow for better tactics when planning attacks.
Cons
Con While polished the graphics are still simple
Compared to other modern roguelikes the graphics are pretty minimal where the characters are tile based and lack animation when moving.
Con Hidden map means you can't solve the puzzles on logic alone
The map is hidden by fog of war until you explore it, meaning you can't devise a solution from the start. Because revealing the map regenerates your health and mana you can't explore everything at the start. You need to spend most of the game not knowing the state of the rest of the map.
Con One unit per tile
Civ 5 restricts you to having one unit per tile, but has an AI unable to handle that restriction well, and doesn't even have decent pathing for units. Late game becomes a slog of ordering each unit individually due to poor pathing.
Con Most victories won by timed or military victory
It can be pretty difficult to win by diplomacy or culture which does add some challenge to the game but it can get tiresome if one keeps winning by only military or timed victories.
Con No stats on other Civ attitudes
Unlike past Civilization games there are no longer stats on the attitudes of the players surrounding Civilizations. This allowed one to see how each other nation felt about the player, but now that it is gone one has to guess, which is definitely not as helpful.
Con No steam workshop support on Linux
The Linux port currently does not support steam workshop, and as the mac port made by the same developers has not received workshop support despite having been out for several years, it is unlikely that it ever will.
Though there are unofficial workarounds to get the mods working.