Civilization V is
the latest of the Civilization games, and was published by Firaxis a while
back. It was… controversial on release to say the least. It was buggy as heck
to be fair, and the AI was pretty unpredictable. But let’s have a look at how
it is now.
I’m probably going to make
some enemies by the end of this review. Now, I’ve loved the Civilization series
for quite some time now. III has a special place for being the first I really
played, and one of the major reasons I got into strategy gaming. IV was just
brilliant, and many consider it the best. But honestly, I think that I like V the
most. If you’ve never played a Civ game then that won’t make any sense as being
a terrible thing to think, but just roll with it and trust me on that one. But
I’m not going to get hung up on comparisons between them. I feel that V was the
natural progression of the series, and really improved some major aspects.
The biggest change, at least
the most immediately noticeable one, is the combat. Gone are the stacks of
units which turned into invulnerable power houses by the end. Taking their
place is a new system, where every unit takes up one hex. It’s probably my
favourite thing which was introduced (except maybe the new culture tree) as it
creates experiences. Huge frontlines form, and the world takes on a new
strategic importance. Putting a city on a hex where two rivers meet could make
the difference between its destruction and survival. It also gives ranged units
a new lease of tactical life. Previously they just received a first-strike
opportunity, but now they can fire multiple hexes, making hills and forests
crucial for protecting your troops.
The other major change is the
way in which culture is handled. Previously it acted as your borders, and if
you had more culture than your enemies, you could start taking over their land.
Civ V simplifies this to a large extent, with no more creeping influence, but
instead a host of new culture trees. Each tree gives benefits to different
types of civilizations, so whether you’re a massive expansionist or prefer a
smaller empire, you can equally get hugely useful bonuses. Small civilizations
are also finally able to compete on a level with their larger counterparts.
Every time you found a new city, the cost of the next culture tree unlock goes
up massively. Thus, if you only have three cities, you’ll race through the
tracks compared to your sprawling enemies, granting you more and more bonuses.
It all works in a similar way to the technology trees, which are still present
in force and are still a joy to slowly progress through.
The civilizations are still
well defined, and nice touches like them speaking in their native language add
to the experience. Each civ seems to promote a certain way of playing, which
you can try to conform with or just strike out on your own. For example, France
gets a fairly decent culture bonus until they invent steam power, which happens
to be around about the time you’ll be unlocking France’s special units.
Therefore, your tactic becomes to have a pretty small civilization tomorrow,
and then when you lose the bonus to expand rapidly outwards. Or if you were the
English, you’ll put an emphasis on the navy and trade.
Another couple of cool
features are the city-states and new way in which resources are managed. The
city-states are small, powerful single cities which you can befriend to gain
extra resources, units or culture. The resources are now an actual consumable
resource in V as well, whereas previously they would simply be an unlimited
benefit. This adds an extra dimension to the resource management of the game, and
another layer onto the already decent, although not Total War level diplomacy.
There are still some issues
with the game. The AI is still a little unpredictable, although less though
than it used to be, and most of the issues with amphibious assaults seem to
have been pretty much fixed. The turns also pass achingly slow towards the late game. This is probably to be expected
with such a large game, but when you have the added issue of occasional bouts
of down-time, where you have nothing to do, it can all add up to a slow and long
game.
All in all then, I think
Civilization V is easily as good as IV, and even surpasses it in some regards. It’s
brilliant at creating stories, like the time you stopped two invasions at the
same time, and managed to sue one of them for their own cities for the
humiliation. The technical fidelity and care taken over your environment is
just great, and it’s always a fun game to go and play for a while to relax,
although you’ll probably notice three hours later that you were meant to cook
some food.
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