Sid Meier's Civilization V

[Silvero]

Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis
Released: September 21, 2010
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1

With over nine million units sold worldwide, and unprecedented critical acclaim from fans and press around the world, Sid Meier's Civilization is recognized as one of the greatest strategy franchises of all-time. Now, Firaxis Games will take this incredibly fun and addictive strategy game to unprecedented heights by adding new ways to play and win; new tools to manage and expand your civilization; extensive modding capabilities; and intensely competitive multiplayer options. Civilization V will come to life in a beautifully detailed, living world that will elevate the gameplay experience to a whole new level making it a must-have for gamers around the globe!

In PC gaming, there are a few franchises that can be called classics; those games that, in essence, defined their genre for years after their release. While Sid Meier's Civilization, released in 1990, didn't create the empire builder strategy genre, it helped define it for years to come. Now, 20 years later, the series' fifth iteration is out and revolutionizing the way Civilization is played.

For those who've managed to miss this grand old strategy juggernaut, each game of Civilization is a journey through human history. Starting as a nomadic tribe, based on real world cultures ranging from the United States to the Songhai, each with their own unique power and units to reflect that civilization's historic achievements at their height, you found your first permanent settlement in the year 4000 BC, you guide your tribe through history. As you progress, you research technology, explore the world, and relate to your neighbors through either peace or war, trying to be the first to conquer the world, become elected world leader via the UN, dazzle the world with the supremacy of your culture, or just leave the world behind and be the first nation to take mankind to distant stars.

Civilization V offers what might be the most drastic and far-reaching set of changes in the game's history. Gone are the military units arranged into roving stacks of death that characterized the warfare of previous games, as well as the square grid that those units were moved on. Now, units are limited to standing on one space at a time on the hex grid, which makes the positioning of armies and the control of strategic locations much more important, with spread-out border patrols, elite units holding mountain passes, and encircling enemy troops becoming viable concepts of how wars are fought.

Often spurring these new wars are the city-states, computer-controlled players who aren't trying to win the game. Only expanding from their initial city in the rare times they take an enemy capitol, instead they hang back and issue missions for players. Their situation determines whether it's to build a road for easier trade, to destroy a barbarian settlement that threatens their borders, or to join against an aggressive player and destroy their units to help the city-state survive a war, among other choices.

Your reward for these conflicts comes in the form of influence points, which can also be bought with gold or gifted units and, when raised high enough, give you access to resources specific to each state, as well as a military alliance with the state. These bonuses are substantial enough to make influence with city-states worth fighting over, and some cultures are able to play the influence game well enough to make it their primary route to victory.

And as an aside, as someone who played Fall From Heaven II more than I played normal Civilization IV, I can't help but mention the excellent mod support, which includes an in-game browser and the ability to turn mods on and off from a central menu, allowing for easy control over your content and interface tweaks. We might not see Civilization V's equivalent to Fall From Heaven II any time soon, but when we do, getting it and keeping it updated will be easier than ever before.

Still, not all the changes are for the better. While a lot of the game has been streamlined and much inspiration has been drawn from Civilization Revolution's quicker and easier mechanics, the changes to civics have removed some of Civilization IV's depth. Rather than a series of choices with benefits and trade-offs that could shape your civilization and change over time, civics have been replaced by cultural policies which are bought by accumulating culture and give static benefits, locking your civilization into specific paths as it grows.

While the new system rewards smaller cultures and gives reasons to stay limited rather than inevitably growing into a continent-spanning blob, the inability to change cultural policies leads to a more limited narrative, as opposed to the grand journey of Civilization IV where a culture might develop from agrarian despotism, through feudalism and mercantilism, and finally end up as a democratic or socialist industrialist state, with each era providing a slightly different play experience. Now, you shape your civilization, as it will be at the end from the very beginning. It's a functional system, but I can't help but feel let down after the grand history shaping of the previous game.

Similarly gone, with nothing to replace it, is the religion system. While it was somewhat underdeveloped in Civilization IV, mostly providing natural allies in your co-religionists and extra gold for those who held the holy cities, now there's no easy, natural way to align yourself with a power bloc. In fact, without the strictures of religion to hold alliances together, the leaders of Civilization V seem to be alarmingly fickle and prone to realpolitik, banding together with you in a war against a common enemy, only to turn on you when they realize that the fighting wore you down. It seems like the only way to have a lasting peace for yourself is to foment frequent wars between your enemies to keep them distracted from your own borders. It's certainly a viable strategy, but for a game that stakes so much on diplomacy, not having anybody you can really trust is rough.

Unfortunately, when you really want someone you can trust and play multiplayer, the game verges on the edge of completely broken. You can't save your game manually, instead relying on the game to autosave. The core mechanics of the game also break under the pressure of multiple players, and in my test multiplayer game, players falling out of sync or losing the ability to end their turns was alarmingly common. These issues make it nearly impossible to finish a multiplayer game, which is a shame, since the new strategic additions and the streamlined mechanics would make multiplayer much more playable than previous games.

Despite these flaws, though, Civilization V brought me back to the series with that 'just one more turn' feeling that I haven't felt since I played Civilization II. Even though it has its share of problems and rough spots, especially compared to the state of Civilization IV after years of patches and expansion packs, it keeps bringing me back for more, and I could hardly tear myself away to compose this review.

Even for **** Civilization IV players, the game is different enough to warrant a purchase for anyone looking for something new. Civilization V took a whole lot of risks, and nearly all of them paid off. I just can't wait to get back to helping Alexander the Great rule the world.

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Video Review Here - Provided by GameTrailers

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