[Review] Civilization V

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Sid Meier's Civilization V is a 4X video game from the Civilization series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released on Microsoft Windows in September 2010, [3] on OS X on November 23, 2010 and on Linux on June 10, 2014.

In Civilization V, the player leads a civilization from prehistoric times to the future on a procedurally generated map, trying to reach one of several different victory conditions through research, exploration, diplomacy, expansion, economic development, government and military conquest. The game is based on a completely new game engine with hexagonal tiles instead of the square tiles of the previous games in the series. [5] Many elements of Civilization IV and its expansion packages have been removed or changed, such as religion and espionage (although these were reintroduced in subsequent expansions). The combat system has been revised, eliminating the stacking of military units and allowing cities to defend themselves by firing directly at nearby enemies. [6] In addition, the maps contain computer-controlled city-states and non-player characters that are available for commerce, diplomacy and conquest. The borders of a civilization also expand one token at a time, favoring more productive tokens, [7] and the roads now have a maintenance cost, which makes them much less common. [8] The game features community, modding and multiplayer elements. [5] It is available for download on Steam.

His first expansion package, Civilization V: Gods & Kings, was launched on June 19, 2012 in North America and June 22 internationally. It includes features such as religion, espionage, improved naval combat and combat AI, as well as nine new civilizations. [9]

On March 15, 2013, a second expansion package, Civilization V: Brave New World, was announced. It includes features such as international trade routes, a world congress, tourism, major works, as well as nine new civilizations, eight additional wonders and three ideologies. It was released on July 9, 2013, in North America and in the rest of the world three days later.

Playability

A player who begins the location with a city and a warrior unit showing.
Civilization V is a turn-based strategy game, where each player represents the leader of a particular nation or ethnic group ("civilization") and must guide their growth over thousands of years. The game begins with the base of a small settlement and ends after achieving one of the victory conditions, or surviving until the end of the number of turns of the game, at which time the civilization with the highest score, based on several factors , such as po[CENSORED]tion, land, technological advancement and cultural development is declared the winner.

During his turn, the player must administer units representing civil and military forces. Civil units can be directed to found new cities, improve lands and spread religion, while military units can go to battle to take over other civilizations. The player controls production in his cities to produce new units and buildings, manages diplomacy with other civilizations in the game and directs the growth of civilization in technology, culture, food supply and economy. The player ends the game when a victory condition is met. Victory conditions include taking the entire world by force, convincing other civilizations to recognize the player as a leader through diplomacy, becoming influential with all civilizations through tourism, winning the space race to build a spaceship of the colony to reach a nearby planet, or be the most powerful civilization in the world after a certain number of turns.

Artificial intelligence (AI) in Civilization V is designed to operate a civilization on four levels: tactical AI controls individual units; operational AI oversees the entire war front; strategic AI manages the entire empire; and the great strategic AI sets long-term goals and determines how to win the game. The four levels of AI complement each other to allow complex and fluid AI behaviors, which will differ from game to game. [6] Each of the AI-controlled leaders has a unique personality, determined by a combination of 'flavors' on a ten-point scale; however, the values may differ slightly in each game. [6] There are 26 flavors, grouped into categories that include growth, expansion, broad strategy, military preferences, recognition, naval reconnaissance, naval growth and development preferences. [10]

As in previous versions, cities remain the central pillar of the Civilization game. A city can be founded in a desired location by a settler unit, produced in the same way as military units. The city will grow in po[CENSORED]tion; produce units and buildings; and generate research, wealth and culture. [11] The city will also expand its borders one or more tokens at a time, which is essential to reclaim territory and resources. The expansion process is automated and aimed at the needs of the city, but the tiles can be purchased with gold. [6] [12]

The siege war has been restructured from previous Civ games. Previous city games depended entirely on defense garrison units, while cities in Civ V now defend themselves and can attack invading units with a ranged attack that expands two tokens outward. Cities have life points that, if reduced to zero, will signal the defeat of the city to the invading forces. Surviving an attack allows a city to recover a fraction (approximately 15%) of its hit points automatically each turn. In addition, any melee combat unit loses hit points when attacking a city, depending on the unity and strength of the city that can be increased by quartering a unit or building defensive structures (for example, walls). [12]

Captured cities can be annexed, razed or transformed into a puppet state, each option has different advantages and disadvantages. For example, puppet states will provide resources, give less unhappiness and provide minor increases to the cost of cultural policies, but have reduced the yields of science and culture. In addition, puppet states are controlled directly by the AI rather than by the player.

In this iteration of the series, tactical combat play is encouraged instead of an overwhelming numerical force with the introduction of new game mechanisms. Most significantly, the square grid of the world map has been replaced by a hexagonal grid: a feature inspired by the 1994 Panzer General game, according to lead designer Jon Shafer. [14] In addition, each hexagonal tab can accommodate only one military unit and one civil unit or large person at a time. This accommodation forces the armies to spread over large areas instead of stacking in one piece and moves larger battles out of cities, forcing greater realism in sieges. City attacks are now more effective when city tokens are surrounded due to flanking bonuses. [6] [13]

Units can now be moved more accurately with increased movement points, simpler transport over water (boarding instead of transporting the unit with water boats), ranged attacks and exchange of adjacent units. [6] [13] [15] Distance and melee units are now more balanced. Remote units can attack melee units without retribution, but melee units will normally destroy the remote units.

In an effort to make individual units more valuable to the player (compared to the previous games in the series), they take longer to produce and gain experience in defeating enemy units. At established levels, this experience can be redeemed for promotions, which provide various bonuses to increase its effectiveness or to heal substantially. In an additional deviation from the previous games, units are no longer always destroyed if they are defeated in combat. Instead, the units may suffer partial damage, which can heal at different speeds depending on their type, location and promotions won. However, healthy units can still be completely destroyed in a single combat if the enemy unit is much stronger. [sixteen]

Special units of "Great Person" are still present in the game, providing special bonuses to the civilization that is born, with each Great Person named in honor of a historical figure like Albert Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci. Great people come in several varieties, and those available in the base game can be consumed to produce one of three effects: start a golden age, build a unique terrain improvement or perform a unique special skill. For example, a Grand General can create a 'Citadel' (a strong fort with the ability to inflict damage to nearby enemy units) or passively increase the combat strength of nearby friendly units. Capturing a Great Person destroys it, except for the Great Prophets in the expansion sets. Many Great People receive bonuses linked to the special ability of Civilization. For example, one of Mongolia's special abilities is to increase the movement speed of the great generals from 2 to 5 and rename them to "Khans."

Civilizations can no longer exchange technologies as in previous versions of the game, but civilizations can carry out joint technology companies. Two civilizations in peace can form a research agreement, which requires an initial investment of gold and provides both civilizations with a certain amount of science as long as they remain in peace. [17] Prior to PC version 1.0.1.332 of the game, civilizations received an unknown technology after a certain number of uninterrupted peaceful relations shifts. It is possible that a civilization signs an investigation agreement with the sole purpose of making an enemy spend money that could be used for other purposes; AI civilizations are programmed to sometimes use this tactic before declaring war. [18] British actor W. Morgan Sheppard provides the narrative of the cinematic opening of the original game and its expansion packages, quotes about the discovery of new technologies and the construction of landmarks, and the introduction of the civilization chosen by the player at the beginning of each new game .

City-states
The city-states, a new feature of the series, are minor civilizations with which you can interact, but are unable to achieve victory. Unlike the great powers, city states can expand in the territory, but they never establish new cities (although they can conquer other cities with military units). In addition to direct conquest, the main civilizations have the option of befriending city-states, through bribery or services. The city states provide the player with bonuses such as resources and units, which increase as players advance to new times. In the brave new world expansion pack, city-states grant additional delegate allied players to the World Congress from the Industrial Age. There are three types of city-states in the base game, each with different personalities and bonuses: maritime, cultured and militaristic. Two additional types of city-state (commercial and religious) were added to the Gods & Kings expansion package to complement the new game mechanics. The city-states play a prominent role in diplomacy among larger civilizations, as well as make specific requests and grant rewards

Cultivation system
In a change in the cultural bean system, Civilization V players have the ability to buy social policies with earned culture. [21] These social policies are organized into ten separate trees, each with five separate policies. Before the Brave New World expansion package, the player had to complete five of the ten trees to win a cultural victory. Social policies replace the "Civics" government system of Civilization IV (where players had to change from old civics to adopt a new one) while social policies in Civilization V are cumulative bonuses. [22]

According to Jon Shafer, "with the policy system, we wanted to maintain the feeling of mixing and combining to build the government itself that was part of Civ IV, but we also wanted to instill a sense of forward momentum. Instead of having to change from one policy to adopt another, the player is based on the policies already unlocked.The thought process we want to promote is "What new cool effect do I want?" instead of the feeling of needing to perform a detailed analysis to determine if changing is a good idea "

Victory
As in previous games, there are multiple ways to achieve victory. The player can focus on scientific research and become the first to assemble and launch a spaceship, winning a victory in the Space Race. The player can focus on a diplomatic victory, which requires the support of other civilizations and city-states in the United Nations. In the new Civilization V cultural system consisting of "trees" of social policy, the cultural victory before the Brave New World expansion package involved completing five of the ten "trees" and completing the Utopia project (which recalls the secret of the Ascent to Transcendence). project in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri). [13]

World domination is an option, but the victory condition has been simplified compared to the previous games in the series. Instead of completely destroying the other civilizations, the last player who controls his original capital wins by conquest. [23] From the Brave New World expansion package, the player must control all the original capitals (including his own) to win by Domination. The player can also win by having the highest score in 2050 AD, or all victory conditions can be disabled. This and other settings, for example, deactivate the city dragging, can be modified in the "advanced settings" screen while a game is being set up.

Civilizations
There are 18 playable civilizations available in the standard commercial version of Civilization V. 7 DLC civilizations and another 18 were added by the two expansions, leading to a total of 43 civilizations. The player chooses a civilization and assumes the role of its leader, based on prominent historical figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte. Each leader of a civilization has a combination of two unique units, improvements or buildings. For example, Arabia has the camel archer that replaces the standard knight unit, and the bazaar that replaces the market. [24] In addition to the two unique units, improvements or buildings, there is a unique ability for each civilization. For example, Japan has Bushido, which causes its units to do maximum damage even when they harm themselves, and gives them 1 culture of each Fishing Boat and 2 cultures of each Atoll. The player can interact with the leaders of other civilizations through the diplomacy screen, by clicking on a city of that civilization, or by using the diplomacy button at the top of the screen. For the first time in the series, completely animated leaders are introduced, who speak their native languages. [5] [6] For example, Augustus Caesar speaks in his native Latin and Montezuma speaks in his native Nahuatl. According to Émile Khordoc, who expressed Augustus Caesar, the voices of the leaders were recorded in early 2009, about a year and a half before the game was launched. [25]

The 18 civilizations of the base game were: America (directed by George Washington), the Aztecs (directed by Montezuma I), Egypt (directed by Ramses II), England (directed by Elizabeth), Germany (directed by Bismarck), Greece (directed by Alexander), Songhai (directed by Askia), the Iroquois (directed by Hiawatha), the Ottomans (directed by Suleiman), Rome (directed by Augustus), France (directed by Napoleon), Japan (directed by Oda Nobunaga), China (directed by Wu Zetian), Russia (directed by Catherine), India (directed by Gandhi), Persia (by Darius), Arabia (directed by Harun al-Rashid) and Siam (directed by Ramkhamhaeng). Genghis Khan of Mongolia was added as a preorder DLC, until October 25, 2010, when it was made free.

Six other DLCs were added: Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, Isabel of Spain, Pachacuti of the Incas, Kamehameha of Polynesia, Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and Sejong of Korea