5. Civilization VI

Although the Civilization series of strategy games has a glowing reputation in the video game world, some criticized the earlier Civilization V for shipping in a rather unpolished state, with the game only coming into its own after Firaxis released two expansions for it. But thankfully Civilization VI turned out to be a far more feature-packed game right of the bat, offering one of the best turn-based strategy experiences to date.

And the game’s features like the new city districts which let players spread their cities out on the map, attaching specific requirements to certain buildings (the Pyramids could only be built on desert tiles for instance) made the map something more than just a random canvas on which the game took place, plus the improved diplomacy and leader agendas and actor Sean Bean’s voice acting added to what undeniably was one of the year’s best PC games.