Civilization V

Preview from AJ - Saturday, 07 August 2010 @ 1:37pm

There are plenty of games that have sequel after sequel of exactly the same thing. Any EA sports game, any FPS and just about any racing game can be rereleased year after year with nothing but the odd tweak here and there and still sell. The danger in change is that if you make the wrong decision, you could potentially lose your core audience and, even worse, fail to pick up a new one.

Whilst this is the 5th version of Civilization, you certainly can't claim that it is a rehash. Whilst the game still feels and plays like you would expect it to, it features a host of new features both in terms of gameplay and graphics. Civilization has somehow, through 5 iterations changed entirely and yet still "feels" like the same game that came out nearly two decades ago. The fond memories of Civ 1 are something akin to our memories of Star Wars. 20 years of collecting dust in the back of our minds has us remembering an entirely different game to the one that actually existed. If you haven't played Civ in a decade, you could still sit down to Civ 5 and be feeling like you've just caught up with an old friend.

No unit stacking means for more dynamic, realistic combat

Throughout the past 20 years, Civilization has had much more than a graphical upgrade. The game has changed almost entirely from the Amiga version I first played. A quick look back through some screenshots will remind you just how far the game has come. The real Civ nerds out there will be able to rattle off the changes to tech trees, units, races, culture and upgrades, but the most obvious change in this iteration is the Hexagonal map. It's already been widely reported as the biggest change in Civ history, but that change in itself to me isn't the biggest difference. When it comes time to battle it out with a dozen other civilizations, the biggest change to the game turns out to be non-stacking units.

Even as recently as Civilization Revolution, unit stacking was the key to winning battle. The easy way to win any battle was to horde units for as long as possible and just overrun your opponent with sheer weight of numbers. Whilst you can still do that to a degree, combat now feels a lot more like Age of Empires than a traditional Civ game. It's important not only to have the right units, but it's also important how you use them. Ranged combat for example, is now a significantly more viable option as units like archers and battleships can shoot over several tiles. This is the real reason for the hex tiles. Combat just become a whole lot more strategic.

Border conflicts have a lot more at stake with the dire need to win access to resources.

Another outcome from non-stacking units is that the map itself becomes a strategic tool. Maps with narrow land masses form choke points where a battle can rage continuously for as long as the opposing factions can keep sending troops. When these locations hold rare resources, lengthy battles for control of the region are almost guaranteed. What it also means is that a small powerful army can quite successfully wage war against a much larger less-skilled army. An enemy that spends all their time amassing troops will often lose to a smaller more advanced civilization...no more of this "phalanx destroys tank" business.

Another major change in Civ 5 is the addition of city states. These are opposing civilizations that consist of one city and act almost like barbarian nations, except that they can be befriended and can even become allies supporting you with research, units and great people. More importantly, however, they can become friends with your enemies, increasing the overall resources available to opposing factions. Personally, I found the city-states to be more of a nuisance than anything, serving little purpose beyond getting in the way of my intercontinental land grabs.

If it weren't for the national borders, it'd be easy to forget this is a tile game.

The players own cities now have hitpoints and their own defensive attributes. Building structures such as walls and castles improve the city's strength without the need to station 101 troops inside to defend it. Whilst it is still possible to have a single unit defend the city, the city is capable of attacking and defending on its own, leaving the player's troops far more mobile. Of course, you still need to prevent invading troops destroying your farms and upgrades, but it means you don't have to have half your army hidden away in your own cities.

The other significant change to Civ 5, which bothered me quite a lot at first is the change to culture. Previously a culture victory involved taking over the world one city at a time with your impressive culture. Now, however, culture acts like another type of research. As you gain culture, you earn social policies which grant bonuses. There are 10 culture trees each with around 5 or 6 policies. Completing 6 of these trees allows you to complete the Utopia project, and thus win a cultural victory. Initially, I was a bit annoyed by this, until it became apparent how valuable some of the social policy bonuses can be at later stages of the game. Reduced unhappiness, increased production, improved standing with city-states can all become critically important, and importantly don't rely on your Civ having a gigantic number of cities. This really provides a new and unique way of winning.

...unless you're in city view of course!

I generally don't care much for discussions on AI, but I've been interested to note that (for once) Civ's AI characters actually seem to behave as you'd expect them to. Warmongering opponents literally will declare war on you for the smallest of reasons. Build a city within spitting distance, or amass an army near their border and they will declare war on you without a moment's notice, often bringing their city-states and allies with them. Conversely, peace loving nations will happily trade with you whilst you surround them with city after city ready to crush their puny little country. Not all civilizations seem hell bent on capturing as much land as possible either. With the new cultural win scenarios, it is quite likely that you'll see a quite successful opponent with only a handful of cities. The thing to keep in mind is that these same nations often have a lot of allies, so you really need to be careful who you pick a fight with. I was playing one 8 civilization game where I was slowly and deliberately taking over the entire map. I upset one city-state and before I knew it I had 5 of the 8 nations declare war on me. When you consider that you can now lose the game by losing your capital, war is no longer always the easy option.

For those players who are frightened that Civ 5 is the sequel to Civ Revolution, have no fear. The game is now very much back in the realms of Civ 4. Probably the only thing that seems to have been kept from Civ Rev is a much more appealing interface. The UI is far more vibrant and functional, yet still manages to squeeze in all the information you could need to know about your research, culture, gold and other resources. Probably the single greatest change to the UI, is the addition of a context sensitive "end turn" button. If you have any outstanding tasks, such as research selection, unit movement or building options, the "end turn" button will change to prompt you to complete these tasks before carrying on. In addition to this, the right side of the screen features a turn based "task list" of relevant activities occurring on this turn. For example, when a city is under siege, or when a an enemy has been discovered, you can simply click on the relevant item and be taken to that location to investigate. Whilst we always had an events list, it's nice that it's now more interactive.

UPDATE: After completing this preview, our press version of Civ V was updated on Steam... coincidentally the same day that I bought a new video card. I don't know whether it is just the new card, or whether the update helped, but the game performs so much better. In addition, the interface has become more refined, and a lot of the elements of the game that were missing or slightly broken have been repaired. I haven't had time to go through it that much, but the game is substantially more polished than what my preview is based on. So add another 1.5 points to my imaginary score.