Millennia Preview: The Future Of Grand Strategy?

Millennia is an upcoming grand strategy game by Paradox Interactive. In this era-spanning title you will guide your people from the Stone Age through into Industrial Revolution, and into the modern era and beyond. All the while you must try to guide your people into powerful golden ages which will grant you powerful buffs, buildings, and units. And avoid dark ages that will, well, send you down a dark path. One that may lead to the end of your people, or possibly the end of the world as you know it.

Long-time readers of Keengamer will know that I have covered several strategy games. And a number of the expansion packs for Hearts Of Iron IV. So when I learnt that Paradox was going to dip their hand into the world of Grand Strategy games I was interested to see what they could bring to the table. And having played the demo build released as part of Steam’s Next Fest I have to say that I am impressed by what I see so far. And quite honestly, if they can stick the landing with this, then it could become one of the best strategy games of the year. Now with that said let’s get to this preview of Millennia and I’ll tell you what I found.

Millennia is available to wishlist on Steam now.

Story – Build Your Own!

As one can expect from a grand strategy game like Millennia it is without a story or story mode. And this isn’t because this is just a preview build. That is just how these games operate. I know that goes without saying but, hey, for some this may be the first game in this genera that they are looking to play. So now you know! That isn’t to say that the game isn’t without flavour text. Here and there you will see it popping up when you unlock a new technology and in the descriptions of your units. Beyond this, there isn’t much. The game lacks flavour at the moment. But that is understandable given where it is in its development.

Millennia’s tutorial text is great compared to most other Paradox titles.

On a more technical level, I do feel that certain aspects of the UI aren’t large enough. This can make resource and city management harder than it needs to be but more on that shortly. I will see however the tutorial is probably the best I have seen in a Paradox title. As it is actually helpful and tells you everything you need to know in digestible slices. However, some tutorial text seems delayed. With it informing me of certain aspects of the game a good few turns after I have unlocked them. Not the biggest issue. But as a new player, I’d like my tutorial to be there to help me when it is needed. And not after I have figured it out myself.

Gameplay – New Era?

The core of Millennia’s gameplay is very much in the tradition of Sid Meier’s Civilisation games. In particular the most recent releases. It is a hexagonal turn-based strategy game where you must lead your people through thousands of years to victory. All the while you will expand your territory, build up your nation, and research new technology and advance your culture to succeed. The basic mechanics are easy to learn for seasoned players of these kinds of titles. And are easy enough to pick up for newbies too. There are a few twists on the formula here and there. For example, you don’t build workers to harvest resources, you instead just build improvements onto the tiles in your territory to receive them.

Additionally, you can unlock extra buildings which will further improve your resource gathering. For example, if you have access to wool you can build a weavers which will net you extra money. All building that is done in the cities is to enhance and upgrade that city and by extension your wider empire. The core is solid. But it is the title’s tech trees which may well end up elevating it over many of its contemporaries. In Millennia your tech trees are more than just a means of gaining new buildings and units. They can influence the direction that your people will go down and could help make or break a playthrough.

Age Of Ages

There are chances to enter into Golden Ages or Dark Ages depending on if certain criteria are met. These can offer upgrades and bonuses that you might not otherwise get were you to focus on just researching the key technology. In this demo build if you engage in war and kill six units belonging to another civilisation then you can enter into the Age of Blood. But, if you can find three landmarks then you will enter into the Age of Heroes. This helps to add variety to what otherwise would be just a rather repetitive series of playthroughs. And can reward you for playing a certain way. Plus your actions during an age can lead to sudden innovations or chaotic events happening which can help or hinder your progress.

Innovations can grant great buffs!

Additionally, you can build up your culture via certain buildings which will unlock rewards for your empire as you advance which will help you to improve and customise them more to your needs. The full scope of this aspect is, naturally, not present in this build. It is built around only 60 turns after all. But it does pose an interesting prospect. All too often in these grand strategy games that culture is just some passive resource that oftentimes only adds to an end score if it is just present at all. Sure, for some games it makes for a victory condition. Or helps expand your borders. But here it helps to define the feel of your people. As well as give your playthroughs extra spice. And can help you gain an advantage in otherwise rough starting locations.

War Huh?

How combat works in Millennia is rather interesting. Unlike similar games, it is possible to band units together on the same tile to form larger armies. And as time goes by the number of units you can include in them goes up. And some units can be upgraded to become leaders which will provide buffs for the units in said army. There is a “Rock-Paper-Scissors” style to this with some unit types being stronger against some units and weaker against others. In addition to this, there is a morale system for each unit which acts as you’d expect it to. A feature I’m not too keen on as it really doesn’t seem to do much aside from making a unit stop fighting in combat.

The combat is simple enough to understand. Just bring a bigger stick!

Additionally, there is this weird aspect where a barbarian warlord (their version of a leader) can be just as powerful as a whole army when they are only a single model unit. Which does feel rather absurd to see. I get that they are supposed to be a strong unit. But seeing a giant of a man smacking down almost an entire army in a title that seeks to be a somewhat serious historical strategy game is just daft no matter which way you slice it. Give them a bodyguard or something! Yet despite this, the combat system in Millennia is fine enough. I feel it lacks the depth that other similar titles have. But at the end of the day, it is still easy to understand. And likely will be built upon by the final game.

A new Millennia

Millennia is an interesting gaming prospect even with what little I have seen in this preview build. With the title offering a host of quirks and gameplay elements, it will be great to see in greater depth when the game is finally released. I will admit that seeing such a limited slice of it with this preview build does hinder my excitement for it. The Dark Age/Golden Age system looks fantastic, and the culture and government system looks great. The various buffs you can get and how city building is done is decent. However, how well or not these things will hang together in a final build is harder to say.

It was hard to unlock, but I think it was worth it.

Though given the quality of the development here and now I do feel cautiously optimistic about where this will all go. It may sound overly optimistic but if handled well Millennia has a chance to really shake up the grand strategy genera and create something that will leave a major impact on it. Granted part of me is worried that, given the history of the developer, this is just going to be a DLC mill. And the scope of this game at launch may be limited, far more so than it really should be to support that.

Graphics & Audio

Graphically speaking Milennia is a fine-looking game or at least is fine enough in this preview build. I don’t think it is the most boundary-pushing title of the generation. However, with a game like this, that doesn’t bother me. Whilst it may lack flare, it is easy to see where your units are and which is which. Navigating around the menus is largely a simple task. One of the more disappointing aspects here and now is just how dry the diplomacy menus are. In most other titles you’d get an animation or a piece of artwork representing who you are talking to.

This about as visual as cross civilisation interaction gets.

In Millennia you simply don’t get that. And instead, just get a blue box. To be fair, this is a preview build after all. And things may change. I hope they do at least. On a semi-related note, you can select to play as many different nations at the start of the game. And at present that doesn’t change anything about your experience. None of them have their own unique units or buffs. Just a different faction logo. Something I’ll be honest that I’m not sure how to feel about. However, you can pick whatever buff you want to give yourself or the other players which feels like a fine alternative to having one baked into a civilisation.

UI Aye!

An area I have an issue with, as mentioned previously is the UI. With some lines of text and data being too small or hidden away to be noticeable. And with a lot of your information spread out across the screen. I don’t see why all our resource information couldn’t be on the same bar in the same area of the screen. But as it stands, until you know where everything is your eyes will be racing about the screen trying to figure out how much production you have and how much food you lack.

Millennia’s UI really needs streamlining.

As far as the soundtrack is concerned it is fine. It is brilliantly well-produced and performed. And it helps to add a sense of time and place to the era that you are in. With it changing as you advance through the ages. It is just one of those things where it is so good that it is hard to talk about. This may sound like damning with faint praise but the audio side is the most polished side to Millennia. And I am interested to see how it may evolve with time.

Millennia was previewed on PC.