Civilization V Review

It has been 5 years since Civilization IV graced our computer screens and three years since the last expansion, Beyond the Sword, was released. Since then, the PC gaming scene has been in a decline. The recent and very successful release of Starcraft II has shown us that the PC gaming model still has quite a lot to offer. Does the new Civilization, in its fifth installment, continue the resurgence of PC gaming?

In 2008 the Civilization franchise made the leap to the consoles with Civilization Revolution. To my dismay, it was not the deep life stealing game from a franchise that I had grown to love since my first exposure with Civilization II. With the release of Civilization V I feared that much of what I disliked in Revolution, over simplified for the dumb masses game play, would be carried over onto this new installment. Thankfully, that is not the case. I can gladly say that Civilization V is a great mix of streamlined game design and rich PC game mechanics. There are new takes on the old Civilization model, presentation improvements, and some conventions have been let go.

There are three significant changes to the basic Civilization models. The first is the transition to the hexagonal grid. The game is now laid out in hexagons rather than squares. This feels more aesthetic than strategic. More important is the second change from stackable units to single units. No longer are you able to stack units and no longer can two units be on the same tile, with workers and special units as exceptions. This adds a significant change in strategy, one which I think is for the best. The third change in Civilization V is that it does away with government types. These are replaced with civic policies that create a less clear-cut form of governance, but it also seems to do away with the give and take nature of government types.

There are smaller changes as well as new additions that continue to distinguish Civilization V from previous installments. Gone are the spaghetti strings of roads that a player could lay upon their entire kingdom. Roads are an expense and no longer give a gold bonus but rather only serve to speed up movement. Your civilization’s influence doesn’t spread like a viral infection. In order to spread your culture, you must build special cultural building or buy land adjacent to your current influence. New to the series is the concept of city states. These are non-barbarian cities with no interest in winning the game, they don’t spread their civilization and don’t venture far from their borders. You can use them to trade with or ally against an enemy. I found them a bit annoying so I conquered them instead.

Civilization V’s presentation is in my opinion the most polished presentation of any Civilization game. The user interface is designed in the art deco style and is the most streamlined of any PC civilization game. There are notifications on the right side of the user interface that keeps that of units needing orders or cities that have completed production and are awaiting new instructions. This ensures that you do not end your turn without giving instructions or setting a new technology to be researched. You can change your view to a strategic icon based map to better view cities and resources. You can also opt to see the new hexagonal grid to better plan your units movements. Sadly, the game no longer zooms automatically into units to highlight a confrontation.

Visually, Civilization V is a treat provided you have a computer that meets the game’s recommended system requirements. Played on a dual core pc, though a quad-core is recommended, Civilization played well enough but did slow down significantly during the AI’s turn, sometimes taking about half a minute to complete the turn when playing on the largest map type. The difference between the default settings and the max settings on my PC were negligible. The multi-core system requirement seems to be a more significant bottleneck to the game’s performance than the 512MB recommended discrete graphics memory ( I had 1GB at my disposal). Those with the latest hardware will certainly see Civilization V in all its glory. In all honestly, I did not consider the graphical update in Civilization V to be a significant leap from the graphics in Civilization IV. The graphical update is not even as significant as the leap between Civilization IV and Civilization III, or Civilization III and Civilization II. You get the idea. The game simply feels like a resource hog.

The sound effects and soundtrack in Civilization V are also among the best for the series. Every inch of a map feels alive with various sound effects applied depending on the resource present and type of tile. The music has a more natural quality than previous games, feeling less synthesized and mixed. Overall, the presentation of Civilization V is more mature than all the previous games. Sadly, gone are the CGI movies depicting completed wonders. Those were always a treat after waiting so long for a wonder to finish construction.

Civilization V is a more user friendly game as well as an easier game. While the game still features the seemingly impossible Deity difficulty settings, the default Chieftain setting is easier than previous games. There is a Settler difficulty setting, easier than Chieftain for players new to Civilization. Those who are used to the difficulty of previous Civilization games will breeze through their enemies in the default difficulty setting of Civilization V. Veteran Civilization players would be more comfortable raising the difficulty setting up a notch as there are 8 to choose from and the first two make the game too easy. The more granular controls for setting up a single player game have been moved onto an advanced menu in the game setup screen. Here, you can still control the temperature and sea levels of a world map, etc.

Overall, Civilization V is a well-executed installation of the Civilization franchise though its implementation does not come without issues. My greatest gripe with this game is that it requires the Steam network to play. Many buyers who are unfamiliar with Steam will consider the service to be a roadblock between them and the game they just purchased. Steam has its own issues with regards to installation, conflicts with firewalls, and network congestion. I for one was quite displeased with the Steam requirement as the service did not get along well at all with my firewall. In a separate incident, my network was congested by a download of World of Warcraft and steam refused to launch my game. By the time I resolved those issues, I was quite frustrated with the whole experience and some of that dissatisfaction carried over onto the actual game.

With that said, Steam does add achievements to Civilization V, online multiplayer, automatic updates, as well as cloud game saves so that you may continue your regardless of what computer you are on. I am not yet sold on those services as Steam feels more of a middle man between me and my game. Those who purchase a retail copy of Civilization V might be less than thrilled at the idea of a 3rd party between them and their $50 game.

Civilization V is a very good game. It mixes the old and new very well in an effort to propel the Civilization franchise to new heights. Some may like the changes, while the diehard Civilization will probably hate Civilization V’s guts. The recommended system requirements are opposite to the game’s more simplified and streamlined approach. Steam can be a deal breaker for some. All-in-all, Civilization V is the most mature presentation of any Civilization game to date and it does not sacrifice the core game experience to appeal to a greater audience. I do hope that games like Civilization V and Starcraft II are in fact marking the resurgence of PC gaming.