It’s been a while since I’ve followed Civilization very closely. Civ II very nearly made me fail out of college, but since then the series and its spin-offs seemed to get a bit off track from what I found so addictive. After a few minutes with Civ V it’s now very near the top of my DO WANT list.
The very first thing anyone is going to notice is that the terrain is gorgeous. That alone would be enough to justify the new and initially perplexing choice to switch to hex based maps. Not only does it stave off oddities like more rapid diagonal movement and adjacent formations of land and water that both unit types can incongruously pass through, it allows for some really smoothly joined terrain. Mountains, forests and shorelines look a whole lot less artificial this way. Even better, all those terrains have continent-specific versions, differentiating Africa, Asia, and Europe at a glance. It’s even easier to appreciate all the prettiness with most of the interface hiding away in pop-out icon lists pushed off to the corners; that “delete unit” button doesn’t have to be visible all the time, and seeing more of the screen is always good.
Other things that didn’t seem to be annoying me from before have been reworked. Notifications no longer pop up and demand immediate attention, instead they queue up politely so I can go through them at my leisure. The tech tree is entirely visible at any time, and the course of research from stone age to space age can be dictated with a single click (or of course, change plans mid stream and take it one discovery at a time.) Cultural expansion can be automatic or micromanaged. If the city needs, say, food, its governor will be smart enough to expand there first.
Probably the most notable change has been to combat, which no longer allows the stacking of units. It’s now a single unit to a tile, and rather than rewarding sheer numerical superiority a much greater emphasis is placed on terrain and positioning. A unit on a hill and across a river with allies on its flanks will enjoy a huge defensive bonus. Meanwhile, cities are considered their own unit in combat, with defensive and offensive stats which can be boosted through the garrisoning of units. Capturing a city now offers the option to turn it into a puppet state, which causes much less unhappiness with the populace, though the player won’t be able to dictate what it does afterward.
Also new is the addition of city states, which represent single city cultures that never expand and have no agenda of their own. They do, however, have their own personalities and can be influenced, traded with, and acquired as allies that will donate food, units, culture, money, etc. depending on their type. City state votes also count toward diplomacy victory conditions.
It might sound like a minor aesthetic tweak, but I’m loving that leaders now speak their native language, as well as appearing in full screen in their own environment. Napoleon is seated on his horse on a battlefield, Queen Bess is, naturally, on her throne, and with their bodies fully animated their moods are well conveyed by their body language. Also, Montezuma is a creepy looking dude.
Finally, I couldn’t help noticing Hiawatha leading a Mohawk faction. The prospect of unleashing my somewhat jerky ancestors on a world without smallpox was the last thing Civ V needed to win my heart. This thing just went from something I was barely aware of to possibly my personal pick for game of show. No foolin.
