Yet in any epic, it is the journey, not the destination, that defines the experience. True to its title, Sid Meier's Civilization 5 provides fans and newcomers alike with all the expected detail, control, and complexity of context they'll need to steer their own epic retellings of human history. The sound is better than adequate, although Civ 4 fans may miss the restrained brilliance of Jeff Briggs' themed compositions, if not the avuncular authority of Leonard Nimoy's new-tech recitations.

The overall aesthetic is pleasant, with easy-to-read menus and smooth animations on a contemporary computer. The clean, art deco interface is geared toward managerial execution at an empire-wide level. In its presentation, as well, Civilization 5 strays from predecessors not in its basic concepts or underlying complexity, but in how it handles along the way. Again, the player is freed from long-term coordination to focus on in-the-moment management. The new 'embark' ability affects unit movement at least as radically as the hex-tile maps, by eliminating the need for plan-ahead ship-building to send settlers or soldiers overseas. This makes army mobilization more cumbersome, but also easier to see and assess at any given point. Units move in six directions instead of eight, and they cannot share a tile. The player eventually chooses from the same spectrum of enhancements found in earlier Civilization games, but in Civ 5, it feels these bonuses are imparted from the top down, instead of cultivated from the bottom up.Ī few influential alterations to in-game logistics also contribute to this effect to make playing Civ 5 feel more simple, even if no less strategically sophisticated. Policies are acquired with culture points, which act as XP in the analogy. By earning these advancements, and the civilization-wide bonuses they bestow, players develop their empires in a manner akin to a fantasy role-player leveling up a character. Many of the game's most interesting choices are in the new Social Policies system. Civilization 5 is as intricate and deep as any earlier game in the series, but the interface and pacing make it easy to cruise across the surface, and miss a lot of that depth.Ĭompared to its predecessors, Civilization 5 is more about making abstract choices than it is about manipulating interrelated machinations. It is most different not because of any particular rule change or graphical enhancement, but because of the way it feels to play it, in its natural, turn-by-turn flow. It is also the farthest removed, most different game from its predecessors yet.

Civ 5 is a bona fide Sid Meier's Civilization game, worthy of the series' title and heritage.

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