Civilization V is one of the few games to grab my attention in such a way that I am no longer aware of my surroundings.

Civilization fans will know what I'm talking about. The series, whose newest entry releases Sept. 21 for PC, has players construct a functioning civilization from the ground up, starting from B.C. 4000 and ending at 2050 A.D. To do so, they must explore the world, research new technologies and build up their economy. The result is a deep and complex turn-based strategy game that has had players hooked for close to 20 years.

Civilization V will have them hooked just the same. The other night, I was so entranced in my session that if anyone were to walk by, they might assume I had turned into a mindless husk. In reality, my brain was firing on all cylinders, assessing the consequences of my every move. At the end of that night's session, I looked at the clock to see three hours had passed since I started playing. It felt like 10 minutes.

Civilization V is so addictive because it appeals to the nurturing side of human nature. Every move you make in the game bears its own positive or negative consequences. You must constantly evaluate what your civilization needs in order for it to improve.

For example, if you expand your borders too close to another country's, there's a chance you'll anger its inhabitants and make future negotiations more difficult. Continuing to anger them will cause them to declare war on you. Like a good game of Chess, Civilization V requires that you always think several moves ahead.

Civilization V features a diplomacy system where you can negotiate deals with other world leaders.

Images courtesy 2K Games.

There are many things to keep track of. When you start a game of Civilization V, you begin with a single settler as you start to build your capital city. From there, you send out spare warriors to explore and get the lay of the land. Then you have workers start farms or mines in order to increase your land's food supply and production rate. Throughout the course of the game, you must make sure your civilization's growth never stagnates.

There are several ways to win a game of Civilization V. You can be the first country to make it to space or you can construct the United Nations and win the vote for world leader, just to name a couple. The various paths to victory mean there's a good amount of replay value: If you tire of winning through one method, you can experiment with another.

With so much complexity, it's good that Civilization V is more newbie-friendly than its predecessors. The interface has been given a thorough overhaul, relegating some of the more extraneous information to sub-menus. The main screen does a good job of giving the essentials without being overwhelming and there are tooltips for just about every single button you can click.

Additionally, some gameplay elements have been streamlined. For instance, you no longer need to build roads on resource tiles in order to actually get the resources. New players will also receive frequent pop-ups that give them recommendations on what to do next or simply instruct them about how a particular gameplay element works.

But, for me at least, most of the enjoyment comes from simply watching your civilization grow. The interesting graphics go a long way toward accomplishing this. The changes your cities go through are small and slow, but they're rendered with precise detail. Dust clouds rise as your citizens strike the earth to produce buildings, and sparks fly when they construct a mine from the ground up.

With each turn, your workers make steady progress and the landscape changes. Watching your civilization grow from just a few patches of land all the way to a world superpower with a space-exploration program and several skyscrapers is an absolute joy.

In a sea of shooters with pounding soundtracks and frenetic gameplay, Civilization V is one of the few games to challenge players' minds – to have them sit back and analyze situations methodically. If Halo: Reach is heaven on earth for twitch-gamers everywhere, then Civilization V is the thinking man's paradise.

WIRED Deep and complex gameplay; multiple ways to win provides good replay value; more accessible than previous Civilization games.

TIRED Appeal is limited to patient gamers.

$50, 2K Games

Rating:

Read Game|Life's game ratings guide.

See Also: