Sid Meier's Civilization V Review
PrintA leaner, meaner version of the classic series
It may not move games in Modern Warfare numbers, but Civilization is the definition of a venerable gaming franchise. Spanning nearly two decades, the series has seen five full games, a half-dozen expansion packs, and a handful of spin-offs. But this isn’t Call of Duty—there’s not going to be another core Civ game every year, or even every couple of years, so every version has to satisfy the fan base for at least three or four years.
So, is Civilization V good?
Yes.
That’s not terribly surprising, so let’s get at the stuff you want to know: How does Civilization V change up the time-tested Civ formula? Basically, by keeping the best elements intact, while streamlining, polishing, and upgrading the rest.
Civilization V's new hex-based grid makes for much more natural-looking terrain.
Perhaps more than anything, combat in Civilization V has undergone a huge improvement. In one of the biggest changes the series has ever seen, you can no longer stack multiple military units on a single tile. That means no more 40-tank-strong unstoppable “stacks of doom” crashing through your territory. Additionally, the cost and upkeep on military units has been increased, putting the emphasis on smaller armies, smartly composed and commanded. All in all, the combat feels much more strategic—like a game of chess played across Civilization V’s hexagonal grid.
The game looks great, and that new hex-grid allows for more natural-looking, beautifully rendered landscapes to conquer and cultivate. Unit models are more detailed than ever, and the combat and movement animations are greatly improved. Civilization V forces you to make more strategic decisions about what to build in your empire. In previous games, you’d end up trying to build almost every building in every city, and carpeting your entire territory with roads. In Civ V, roads and most buildings have upkeep costs, forcing you to consider what each city really needs, and which routes are worth building roads on.
Many of the game’s systems have been streamlined, while others have been removed altogether. Religion is completely gone, as are espionage and corporations. Culture counts toward the new civics system, which does away with the all-or-nothing civics from Civilization IV, and replaces them with a “talent-tree” system that allows you to gradually unlock different bonuses for your civilization.
You'll visit your fellow world leaders in their fully rendered war rooms in Civilization V.
The importance of commerce in the game is increased, as money can now be used to buy land tiles on the map. Additionally, money is used to win the favor of City States—another major new presence in Civilization V. City States are single-city civilizations sprinkled liberally around the map. They’re easy to take over, but they provide even more valuable bonuses if you befriend them—through monetary donations or by completing small “quests”—instead.
The game is not without its flaws. The AI is a little fishy—it provides a challenge at any of the game’s many difficulty levels, but it doesn’t play like a real person, especially in combat.
Multiplayer also is oddly incomplete—the game turns off all animations when playing multiplayer, so it becomes a bit more like a board game, and it’s hard to keep track of your armies as they teleport from space to space. Additionally, multiplayer is missing the hotseat mode, which allows you to play with your friends on one computer.
The bottom line is that if you’ve ever been into a Civilization game, or you could see yourself getting into a deliberately paced, strategic game of epic proportions, Civilization V will grab hold of your attention and not let go. The multiplayer mode is marred by a couple of questionable design decisions, but the game is otherwise top-notch.
Sid Meier's Civilization V
Wonders
An excellent refinement of the classic Civ formula; beautiful graphics.
Blunders
A few odd omissions from multiplayer; some AI issues.
9
More like this
15
Comments
Toadies
December 21, 2010 at 2:46pm
I was disappointed to see that Maximum PC's review of this game is no where even near the reviews done by consumers who actually purchased and played the game. There is something wrong with your review process when the 500+ consumers over at Amazon are giving this game 2 stars while your magazine is giving it a 9. Sorry to say that you guys lost some credibility with this one. =/
Xorg
December 02, 2010 at 5:09pm
I have been playing the CIV games from the start and am a long time board and computer gamer. I simply can't believe that anyone who likes this game has spent any time playing it - it's a disaster and simply not worthy of the Civilization title, a major step back from where the series was.
Nothing makes any sense (Archers can shoot across hexes but Rifleman can't??) The game is horrendously slow even on the fastest machines. The diplomatic part of the game is next to useless - as are City States. Adding hexes was a good move - but not limiting stacking. Unit promotions are next to meaningless and also make no sense - advantages for open vs. jungle terrain? Are you kidding? Leaders have almost no real impact.
The whole game is a mess that just plods along and is so predictable, its not worth playing.
Hopefully they can fix this in CIV 6, or better yet Call to Power III - the game series that had it right!
Trooper_One
December 02, 2010 at 2:36pm
It's an excellent that's strategically different than previous versions. That said, I still prefer Civ4.
jabber63
November 30, 2010 at 10:35pm
I'M dissapointed in CIV V , I believed the hype and went out and bought it and found it to be too boring a game, First off I loved the original CIV, hate the social policy of CIV V bring back the old style of picking which nationality you wanted to be and have their attributes, get rid of the social policy, the eye candy is nice, but that is about it, took me 4 hours just to get 5 cities, in the old game i would have about 20 by then, it is more like SIm City then CIV the original , in my view I wasted money on this one which is a shame
JohnP
November 30, 2010 at 10:43am
Pretty much all of the reviews for Civ V are just like this one, glowing reviews. Me, I love the game and is the only Civ game that I have said that about or have actually played through an entire game!
The comments online tho are all about two things.One, they ruined the game because they removed "X" or they changed "Y" to actually make the game more accessible to the average player. "dumbing down the game".
The other is that the game arrive with huge bugs, games getting hung up, poor AI, slow response during turns, and other maladies. One poster actually accused Civ V of destroying his power supply! Unlike the other Civ games, Civ V has all the graphics candy turned on and needs a hefty system to play it. They are patching the game as fast as they can with 4 patches already in place and the AI has already shown much improvement. Me, I have had no issues running the game through to the end and I am kinda mystified why folks are having any issues. This game has been torrented to hell and gone and I am wondering how many problems are due to having non ungraded bootleg copies but of course, no one mentions THAT fact when they post so who knows.
Civ V is already a great game with enough challenges to keep me going through this winter. Any improvements with just add icing to the cake.
Hagenlund
November 30, 2010 at 2:10am
I tried it out, but having to wait for the animations to finish before being able to click the end turn button really made me hate Civ5.
Leo Scott
November 29, 2010 at 8:47pm
Every game I've played crashes around turn 700. There are plenty of people with the same problem, look at the 2k forums to see. Also, the engine is pathetically slow as the game progresses. It takes forever for the game to process the AI turns. This is with only 7 AI opponents on a Core I7-920 @ 3.6gz and 6gig ram with a AMD 5770 video card. Also, the engine doesn't fully render some tiles at the correct detail and puts some little red flairs on random tiles. It will be a great game when it is fixed but this puppy was not ready for prime time when it was released. Hold on to your money for a few more months.
georgeo
November 29, 2010 at 5:42pm
OK, I'm a bit of a dinosaur whenit comes to gaming. 90% or more of what I do is racing sims. Occasionally I'll fire up Trains or Rise of Nations for a change of pace, which get's me to this review.
I've tried all the earlier versions of Civ, and just couldn't get warm to them. Nothing wrong with the games themselves, I just liked the relatively simple gameplay of RoN much better. For sure the graphics were better with the Civ titles, but there was just too many different things to manage at once for me to realy get a handle on it. I won;t claim to have mastered RoN, but at least I could be challanged playing against the AI without always being defeated. Result - if I felt like relaxing with an RTS title, RoN it was.
I've had my hands on the Civ V box a half dozen times, but never made it to the checkout. After reading this review, I'm going to giv Civ V a chance. It sounds like it's been simplified a bit without being dumbed down too much. Just what I've been hoping for.
Thanks.
georgeo
JohnP
November 30, 2010 at 10:29am
georgeo,
I was in the same boat. I liked the IDEA of the Civ games but they were just too nit-picky and obtruse for me to play them much. Civ V is MUCH more user friendly. It was the only one of the series that I actually finished a game! I purchased it.
Baer
November 29, 2010 at 3:17pm
I have played every version of Civ and they have all had their plusses and in some casses minuses. Civ 5 has lots to like and this article discribes them well. There are two big flaws however. I have found when at war and when I am kicking an enemys but they still will not give in to my demands even though it is obvious I can and will wipe them out. That makes no sense. One other disapointment is when building the spaceship I expected great graphics shown as each componnent is added. Nada. Either I am missing something or the ship build graphics which were so much fun to see as your ship takes shape in previous Civ versions are just not there in Civ 5.
I do like the addition of the city states and the new combat. I also do not miss the Pol Correct religion that was in Civ 4.
lunchbox73
November 29, 2010 at 1:55pm
I dunno. I actually failed a class in college because I was addicted to the original way back in 1993. I played the demo of this release and I just couldn't get into it. Maybe it's just me. I'm too bitter and hard to please in my old age.
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