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I think the title says it all.  As I must confess before I right this review, I am a major fan of the Civilizations series having played every version except colonization.  For those who want to know from the beginning, is this game worth the $49.99 price tag? Yes.  And here is why.  Civ 5 has taken a lot of information, a lot of original game play and what it’s learned over the 4 previous versions, compiled it, mixed it, cleaned and created an extremely beautiful, smooth and intelligent game.

This is not a twitch RTS by any sense of the imagination.  This is a thinking man’s game where you want to start seeing the whole picture 10 or 20 moves in advance.  It is about taking gambles on decisions of which technologies to choose, how to move your units, which ones to sacrifice and which to hold back.  And as effectively, who to become friends with and who to back stab.

In the last 24 hours, I got a chance to play a little single player, a few hours of multiplayer in which we really got to put the screws into the game and check its performance.  Last night, 6 members of the PCPCGames community sat down and hashed it out over the Internet and the overall experience, based on reactions, comments, TIME, we had a blast.  While the game is very well polished, we did discover a few blemishes that we will highlight later in the review, but without a doubt, Sid has another classic on his hands.

In regards to multiplayer, the emphasis to make multiplayer viable, was clear from the beginning with a few unannounced features that really impressed us.  Before I get into a clinical break down of the good and bad of Civ 5, I want to relay the FUN we had last night.  Civ 5 is definitely a great game to play and thought that went into its depth is very clear.  Importantly, the developers who make the game also play it.  This was noticeable even by the fun achievements we get with Steam (including a current favorite: “Seriously?!”). 

During last night’s multiplayer sessions, we had enough laughs, swearing and whining by all 6 of us to know from the start that this is a good multiplayer game when you can sit down and play it.  While I did not get into the battle action, I do know that BT had to fend off both F16Freak and Lunchmonkey as they constantly tried to invade his territory.  Hearing Kommie scream out at one of us as we swooped in and stole a “ruins” before he could get there was great, and not to mention hearing me scream, “Are you kidding me! I was 1 turn away from completing that!” lend to a fulfilling game experience.

Clinical break down of the Good and Bad of Civ 5:

The good, and there is a lot of it, came in all shapes and sizes.  From the huge (hexagons) to the minor (reconnection for players in multiplayer) the list below lists the top 10 in my opinion.  Some were constantly touted during the pre-release blitz, but others are simply from game play.

 The good:

1.  Hexagons – It really really makes a difference.  The game looks soo much better in hexagons, looks organic, and just plain works
2. Changes in Strategic Resources – In previous versions, you get an iron resource, you can make as many swordsmen, etc as needed. Now, you have a limited number of iron deposits that can be used in creating these units.  Making the decision between catapult vs. swordsman key
3. True Strategic Tactics – The one unit per square is a simple, but brilliant move.  The strategies, not just in combat, but in using a unit to block exploration, etc is amazing.  The ramifications go well beyond getting rid of the stack of doom. 
4. Ai improvements – The AI is better.  Completely better, and smart too.  Best example I can give is a tactic I used a lot in Civ4 that was flagged in a round last night.  I moved a lot of my units to the Roman border in preparation of an attack.  And first thing that happened was the AI sends me a message about amassing my army on his borders and asking my intentions.  It was awesome.
5. Villages are now Ruins – Simple change makes more sense
6. Barbarians are fun – and a great way to learn some combat and train your units.  But they can also be a hindrance and are an X factor in any round.
7. Policies – We saw this a lot in the teaser trailers and walk through.  A great new way to customize your civilization as you move through the game, without being forced to choose the same thing over and over again.  In Civ4 – when you reach modern era, everyone has the same civics.  Now, there are differences.  Great touch, I need to get more into it, but the upside is great.
8. Deal Notifications – in Multiplayer, this was AWSOME!! One of the issues I had in civ4 was when someone wanted to make a deal with you; many times you may miss the notification/chime that said someone was trying to contact you.  No longer, the notification system in Civ 5 is designed very well.  They did a great job in helping you find key interactions and notifications without taking away from the game play.
9. Reconnect Feature in Multiplayer – this was a huge and pleasant surprise.  Simply put, if a player gets disconnected, crashes, etc, they can get right back into the game.  Their night isn’t over, and that was brilliant.  We lost f16freak at one stage and 5 minutes later, he was reconnected and playing his civ right where he left off.
10. Graphics – they very good, even using direct9x for game play.  They’re clean, do the game well, and the depth/3d feel of the game is very clear and apparent.
11. Combat Retreat – in combat, your units don’t just die (unless you are throwing a warrior against a tank).  In many cases, you’ll do damage to each other and it will take an additional round or two to kill a unit.  This changes the tactics of the game, allowing for damaged units to withdraw and have healthier units step forward protecting the retreat.  Again, goes back to point #3.  True strategic emphasis on the game.  In last night’s multiplayer, I was using horsemen with hit and run tactics keeping them out of retaliatory strikes.

The Bad:

There are some blemishes to Civ5 that we discovered last night, and we’ll highlight some important ones here:

1.  Network/pipe is key to multiplayer.  After turn 80 or so, we began to really encounter a form of in game lag.  Clicking on a unit and sending an order would take up to 3-5 seconds.  We had a few time outs and crash out.  While not a perfect scenario, it was clear that there is some work to be done on the netcode for Civ5.
2. Lack of Civilizations – call it being spoiled from Civ4, but there were a significant less number of leaders to choose from (though the existing ones were well designed)
3. Lack of a physical game manual in the retail box – personal irk, but I had to make note of that.
4. It’s a beast of a game; the minimum requirements are just that, minimum.  Don’t expect to have your computer do much else if you are running minimum specs.
5. Multiplayer world options were limited compared to Civ5.  No anonymous choosing of civilizations.  No random world selector.  No control of the actual “timer” for timed turns.

In short, I think it’s pretty clear that Civ5, out of the box, was a winner for the money spent.  I’m desperate to get home and play more, but life is interfering.