Sid Meier's Civilization V review

Setting up games

The game is relatively easy to set up, and if you don't know what to put as the settings then you can put it on "random" for pretty much everything. The pace at which you can play the game can also be altered, which is great for when you have a limited amount of time to play the game.

The box art

Strange glitches

Now, I know these glitches don't just appear on my version of the game as I have also played the game on a different system- perhaps it's because both games are the Steam version. One glitch which really irritates me is what I'll call the "ghost" glitch- a part of the map moves whilst you are looking around the map and you then get a ghost of that piece of the map following you around. Sometimes the glitch repairs itself, but sometimes the "ghost" will get friends and there will be several of these "ghosts" floating around the map. One  of the only ways to fix the problem is to restart the game.

Another glitch which can be irritating is where the NPCs either don't move or don't speak even though you've set them up to do so. The only way I've found to fix this is by altering the settings, restarting and re-altering the settings to work the way you want them to.

Actual gameplay

So this is a strategy game. I quite like the Civilization series and have a few issues with the gameplay of this one. Where before you could forge strong alliances between yourself and the NPCs, this is now only an option in the online play. I think this is a negative thing because the use of alliances can help players who are new to the trading system in the Civ games. 

The NPCs have set personalities (though these can be changed by choosing to have random personalities for them) and you do gradually get to know how to please them, which is why a diplomatic victory is possible.

You start off with no city, some settlers and some basic warriors. The game usually starts you off in a fairly good location to found a city, but there are both advantages and disadvantages to settling straight away. For example, if you are playing as Elizabeth and don't settle London by the sea, that creates a major disadvantage.

There are many different ways you can win Civ V- called victory conditions. 

Victory conditions 

Cultural victory

Time victory: Achieve the highest overall score of any civilization

Science victory: Assemble and launch a spaceship using the Apollo program.

Domination victory: Conquer every capital city

Cultural victory: Complete five social policy trees and the Utopia project

Diplomatic victory: Build the United Nations wonder and be unanimously voted as UN leader

The review

I actually love this game, even with its silly glitches and annoying NPCs. I have spent over 100 hours playing the game on my copy of Steam, so I know that it's a brilliant game. But because of the glitches, I'd say that you should only play this game if you don't mind stuff like that happening.

MmRed