Pic relevant. I’ve tried playing the new Civ games several times, and quickly end up quitting because I find them too overwhelming and find it hard to want to deal with the learning curve.
It occurred to me that part of the problem might be that I was jumping into a very old franchise that has been getting increasingly complicated over the years. Had a hunch I would have better luck with the original, so I went onto one of those play-dos-in-your-browser sites, dove in, and sure enough I am hooked!
Do I know what I’m doing? Not really, but stuff is happening and my civilization is growing, and it’s a good time.
Even just resolution has an impact as well. I started playing Alpha Centauri now. I can tell that this game’s visuals are something I would have loved back when my eyes still worked properly and I’d be playing it on a 1024x768 crt monitor. But now on a 1080p laptop display and my poor sight even with glasses, I’m finding it strains my eyes a lot to play.
By contrast the low rez blocky NES-style visuals of civ 1 are much easier on my eyes, making one more reason this game is easier to get into.