Review: Sid Meier's Civilization V - PC

by Steven Williamson on 4 October 2010, 08:55 4.5

Tags: Take 2 Games, Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO), PC, Strategy

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa2dc

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What else is new?

What else is new?
Obviously, the graphics have been improved, but with a game of this type, it is not that critical. The leaders of each nation are now fully animated, usually in a surrounding that is appropriate for them (Queen Elizabeth on a throne, Alexander the Great on horseback etc.).

The UI has also been given a bit of an overhaul. There's a lot of information to show in a Civ game, and the UI does a good job showing it. A list of events that need to be brought to your attention for that turn are brought up as icons on the right-hand side just above the "End Turn" button. This allows you to set new research goals, pick a new policy and so on as needed before ending your turn. The only slight problem with it might be the build orders in the city screen, which could be streamlined a little bit to make it less “clunky”; especially when creating a queue.

Espionage, religion and corporations from Civ 4 have gone (for now), and “civics” is now replaced by “policies”, which are mini tech-trees and are advanced by the empire-collected culture. A small amount of the micro-management has also been removed as happiness has been transferred from individual cities to empire wide. Happiness also now affects how often a Golden Age occurs. However, some micro-management is added and you now have to set the priorities of each city yourself (or allocate civilians manually) as the empire tax rate from Civ 4 is also removed. This results you having to go around each city if you want to move the focus from production to money for example.

Finally, city-states have been added. These are single cities that are not there to win like the other civilisations, but instead can either be conquered or be bribed to become your allies. They also set you certain goals during the game which if you complete, increase your favour with them. Becoming allies grants you certain benefits, but the “favour meter” decreases over time, so it can seem like they are more like gold sinks than anything else. Fortunately you can turn them off if you so wish.

Conclusion
So after all these changes, is it still Civ? Definitely. It’s evolved certainly. The combat changes may not be to everyone’s liking as more thought is required and may be detracting from the focus of some people’s goal of simply building up cities and an empire. The change to hexagons can only be seen as a good thing in my opinion. The AI is decent enough, although can be exploited a little bit here and there, normally through the new “no-stacking” system allowing to you to corner them and prevent their progress whilst at peace! Ultimately though, everything is still there as it was before. Play-styles should still transfer for the most part from previous versions as you strife for the usual victories (Space, Culture, Diplomatic etc).

I haven't played multi-player, so cannot comment on that aspect of the game.

Worth buying if you're a fan. If you're not sure, then might be worth waiting until it's in a Steam sale.





HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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1 question from me though. is it really worth buying if you already have civ 4 and all its expansions from a previous steam sale.
It's got a different feel to it, I've really enjoyed it so far.

A word of warning though, it may be worth waiting for some big patches as the game has a large numbers of bugs in it's current form and the AI is currently horrible at using the game's units and diplomacy tools.
Will there be a more in depth review of this game? Possibly by the hexus crew after playing it for a few weeks so they can comment on all the bugs and the slowness of multi player etc?
Just to add my comments to the mix. As a heavy single player Civ4 fan. I purchased Civ5 on Friday and gave it a whole lot of hammering over the weekend (much to my gf's dismay). First the hex grid actually reduces you movment options, with the square 8 possibilities are available, with the hex only 6 are available. The lack of stacking causes alot issues with congestion on map bottle necks (for instance egypts/israel border is just one tile wide so as civ's fought across continents they were just queing to get by). The free states add another dimension each contribution something different. However, the militristic ones give you units every so many turns which remove the need to really build your own and work out cheaper. the lack of summary tax/luxury control is annoying as you have to control each city individually. The ability to annex, raise, or pupet a captured city is good. Especially puppet when you want the benifits of its resources and incomes, but without having to control it directly, which is ideal when capturing cities in parts of the world ou are not interested in, however you can choose to annex or raise it at a later date. Religion is gone, which is only a good thing, and they've summarised the social policies and now you can choose multiple perks from different policies to best suit your civ, policies are purchased using culture points which is earned by your cities, or from allying a free “culture specilised” city, or finding ruins. The ability to purchase tiles is not to be understimated, its real game changer and a great addition.
The game runs badly on my 3ghz c2d, 4850, 4gb rig. With processing end turn towards the later half of the game taking almost 4-5mins. Although i was a little optimistic with the graphics, world and number of civs playing at the same time (all set to max).
Overall i do like it, its different from Civ4 and while not as deep as 4, it does have its own qualities which i do enjoy, i imagine in time i will end up switching back to Civ4, however in the mean time im happy to play this for the forseeable future. 87%
Shev
It's got a different feel to it, I've really enjoyed it so far.

A word of warning though, it may be worth waiting for some big patches as the game has a large numbers of bugs in it's current form and the AI is currently horrible at using the game's units and diplomacy tools.
I came across a major one this weekend with save-games files. It seems if you constantly reload and save whilst in game (for new “seeds”), then they esculate pretty quickly until it takes minutes to load or save a game (assuming it doesn't get corrupted). I've found some minor graphic bugs as well (no cities showing on the map, but are still there; or tiles displaying incorrectly).

I've always found the AI to be a bit predictable in Civ games, but do agree that it could do with a tweak.