Sid Meier’s Best Games

Key Takeaways

• Sid Meier crafted a variety of iconic games, like SimGolf and Colonization.
• Each game offers unique gameplay experiences, such as building golf courses, colonizing new territories, and fighting Civil War battles.
• Sid Meier’s Civilization series, particularly Civilization 5, remains a standout with improved visuals, streamlined gameplay, and patented 4X strategy elements.

There are many names in the world of gaming responsible for bringing fans some of the most beloved franchises of all time. Names like Tim Schafer, Hideo Kojima, and, of course, Sid Meier, are synonymous with many players, and the moment they hear one of these names, they know they can expect something worth checking out.

Sid Meier has lent his talent time and time again to produce a vast catalog of marvels — with the most iconic being the Civilization franchise. A lot of these games are nestled firmly in turn-based affairs, but some of them require on-the-spot thinking and plenty of foresight to avoid potential failure.

1 Sid Meier’s SimGolf

A Golf Course Builder & Simulator

Most golf games are there in the sports genre or featured as an online browser minigame to pass a couple of minutes. There are a small handful of sports games that make use of RPG mechanics and/or the turn-based formula, with SimGolf being one of the oldest among them.

Players can build holes in golf in the same way they would build a house in a Sims game — not surprising as the original SimGolf was developed by Maxis. Golfers have different stats for which areas they shine in, and which they can be outclassed.

2 Sid Meier’s Colonization

Discovering The New World

• Developer: MicroProse Chapel Hill Studio
• Platforms: DOS, Amiga, Windows, Macintosh
• Release Date: 1994

Colonization acted as a successor to one of Sid Meier’s most well-known franchises, Civilization. Players will choose a different power to start with — such as England or France. Players will start a colony in the New World and can interact with the indigenous people of the continent.

Players will need to make many well-thought-out decisions like with any strategy game, such as establishing relations and trade routes. The game would receive a remake from Firaxis Games in the form of Civilization 4: Colonization.

3 Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth

A Successor To Alpha Centauri

Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri is an iconic game, but its age shows far too much for the modern gamer. Enter Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth. This game is everything a fan of the Civilization games could ask for in a space-centric entry in the genre.

The game features almost all the features one would expect from a Civilization game but with plenty of unique differences to set it apart. Terrain that alien creatures inhabit may be deadly to humans, and players can experience a sense of wonder over discovering what new experiences lie hidden on the map.

4 Sid Meier’s Gettysburg!

Reenacting The Civil War

• Developer: Firaxis Games
• Platform: Microsoft Windows
• Release Date: October 14, 1997

Sid Meier has offered a vast array of different experiences, with many different times of war throughout the ages. Gettysburg!, as the title implies, revolves around the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. At the time, this style of game was a unique concept that didn’t quite align with real-time strategy or real-time tactics games.

Formations are very important, and being unorganized or rushing all of one’s troops in for a frontal attack, will most likely result in failure. Instead, players will have to think like real Civil War generals and look to flank their enemies for the best results. This makes it great for players looking for a very challenging and rewarding experience, especially on the higher difficulty levels.

5 Sid Meier’s Pirates!

A High-Seas Adventure

Pirates are a topic that has experienced an on-again off-again boom in popularity. This can be seen across numerous genres. Sid Meier’s Pirates! provides players with plenty of options about how they wish to live out their pirate-themed adventure for the game.

It features a plot where the player starts as the child of a rich family, only to have everything ripped away from them. The bulk of the game revolves around sailing a pirate vessel but includes a slew of smaller alternate gameplay features for naval combat, sword fights, and navigating dialogue trees.

6 Sid Meier’s Civilization 5

An Ever-Evolving Classic

To this day, no Sid Meier game franchise is more well-known than Civilization. The 4X genre is named for its focus on its core principles of exploration, expanding, exploiting, and exterminating — with each word having the “ex” sound at its start. With each new entry comes improved visuals, but also changes that can make or break its appeal to fans of the previous installment.

Civilization 4 used square tiles, and offered elaborate religious options for players to make use of. Both of these are removed from Civilization 5 — with Civ 5 using hexagonal tiles. Civilization 6 is more complicated than Civilization 5, which can be intimidating for new players. Out of all the games, Civilization 5 balances all the modern crunch fans could want in a Civilization game while keeping things streamlined and easier to pick up for all players.