Game review for you this week: Civilisation V. Anyone with ears will know how much I liked Civilisation IV, and how little I think of its shiny new younger brother.
The Civ games allow you to create a civilization from scratch, building farms, mines and factories to generate gold. You interact with other civilisations, trading with them or crushing them in nuclear war. The whole thing is very pleasant and reassuring, and a terrific ego boost for anyone who isn’t an emperor.
Civilisation IV blew my mind. It allows you to do all kinds of things, and yes, the user interface looks a little as if, with a weekend and the right know-how you could do it yourself, but it made me feel, for the first time in my life, that I knew something about games.
Civ 4 gives the player an enormous amount of control about the type of empire they want to create. For example, picking Genghis Khan as the face of your empire will give you advantages in both war and philosophy. Researching different technologies give you different advantages, such as sailing or the ability to build the UN.
A typical game for me would include founding at least two major religions, allowing them to spread both within and outside my empire. Then, I would research weaponry that far outstripped that of my enemies. I’d take some cities, expand my civilisation to ridiculous proportions and claim a well-earned victory.
See, the only way I can illustrate that a Civ 5 is actually rather lacklustre is by telling you about all of the colour and depth it misses out on. Diplomacy, though better representing that in the real-world, has been oversimplified. There is less distinction between different leaders, and let’s not forget, an awful lot less leaders to choose from.
Religion is dead and war is costly, which makes my style of gameplay somewhat redundant. What’s more, the world is littered with city-states, who make unreasonable demands and take unfeasibly large amounts of gold to keep quiet.
Civ 4 had a variety of different ways to win, but in Civ 5, you are shackled by the fact that world wonders give the player a ridiculous advantage.
To be honest, the jury’s still out in some respects, but the fact that Civ 4 appears to have captured my heart the first time I played it bodes ill for the sequel. It’s probably too nostalgic of me, but... it’s just not the same. Provisionally, 3 stars.
