I have been a Civ fanatic since playing the first game sometime back in the early 1990's. Since then, I've turned several friends onto the game and pretty much every gamer I know is aware of the addictive gameplay associated with this computer game. Now Civilization V is upon us, and those who didn't pre-order the game like me are probably wondering whether or not it is worth buying. Hopefully, this review will help you decide.

Gameplay

The object of Civilization V is to create a new civilization by starting out with a single city and only basic knowledge, then learning things like masonry and archery while deploying settlers to build new cities. The game begins several thousand years BC and ends past 2000 AD, so during the course of the game you go from discovering the wheel to sending rockets into outer space or developing nuclear weapons to use against enemies. You can win the game by focusing entirely on discovering new technology, or you can go all Ghengis Khan and try to take over the whole world. There are many different ways to win the game.

Each time you start a new game, a new map is randomly generated. This is why this game is so addictive and keeps players coming back for more. Having a new map for each new civilization you try to start means different terrain and different challenges, different enemies, and much more. To me, the random maps give this game endless replay ability. I have been playing Civilization IV all the way up until this game came out because the design is simply that good. This is my all-time favorite game series.

The game is presented using an overhead view and it is turn based. Your turns start out going pretty fast, but as your civilization expands, so does the complexity of your turns. Instead of managing one or two cities, you might have dozens. You might find yourself commanding armies in two different parts of the world and trying to send back-up units in between. What's cool is that you can save the game at any turn, so you can play as long or as little as you want per session. An entire gameplay session played from beginning to end will take a minimum of about six hours, though it can be twice that long depending on how you play the game.

New Features

Civ V is still the same main Civ as before, but there are a few new changes. For starters, combat is different now that you can't stack units. This feature, coupled with the new hexagonal movement scheme, makes combat more tactical in that you will have to balance ranged and melee attacks. It's actually more fun this way, and it seems to make things go more smoothly. You can also only garrison one unit per city, and cities have their own defensive strength, so you won't spend twenty units taking one enemy city like before.

Diplomacy is still basically the same where you meet with other leaders and trade technologies or resources, or develop war pacts and that sort of thing. You can now also do research agreements to help speed up technology discoveries. All you do is click on a city name and it'll give you the option to consult with their leader. It's a bit more streamlined than in previous versions, but you still have to deal with overly aggressive types which make the game more fun when you stomp them after they start talking smack to you. I love it when they start making threats, then you take over a couple of their cities and then they offer a bunch of gold and a peace treaty.

My favorite new feature in this game is something called ‘embark' mode which you gain pretty early on in the game. What this does is allow any unit to enter the water and travel in a boat. In previous versions of Civ, you had to build a boat, then have that boat wait until you built a unit to put into it, then you had to take them over to another land mass and unload them. With the new embark feature, the units can handle it all on their own. It makes combat and expansion across water so much easier.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in this new Civ game are the best yet, but you better have a good computer to run them. Individual unit animations actually portray small groups of soldiers instead of just one unit, so you can quickly look and see how much strength is left per unit. They are also very well animated when moving or fighting, and animations change depending on the weapons used, such as swords or guns. Everything is given way more detail, from the textures of the terrain to the diplomatic meetings with leaders. While Civilization has never been a game where graphics made much of a difference with the gameplay, this game still features tons of eye candy.

I was equally impressed by the sound design of this game, especially the music. The soundtrack adapts over time depending on your nationality, and it's always there in the background so subtle that you might forget about it when wrapped up in decision making. The sound effects all blend together really well so nothing is loud or annoying. It makes for very smooth gameplay and you could even turn the sound off and still play without missing too much.

The minimum system requirements to run Civ V are a dual core 1.8 GHz Intel or 2.0 GHz AMD processor, 2 gigs of RAM, and a 256 MB video card using at least the ATI HD2600 XT or GeForce 7900 GS or better chipset. Anything less and you can forget it.

Overall

Civilization V is awesome. It's about all my three year old computer can do to run it, but I still enjoy this game tremendously. I like that the changes that were introduced were enough to alter the gameplay slightly, but not so much that you have to relearn how to play. Civ veterans like myself will be able to jump right into it while newbies will have a slightly easier time than before. I will probably be playing this one until Civilization 6 comes out.

Recommended: Yes