Sid Meier's Civilization V

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2963 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,247 out of 2963
  2. Mixed: 454 out of 2963
  3. Negative: 262 out of 2963
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  1. rant
    Oct 16, 2012
    3
    I've been a Civ addict since the first version, and I was excited when I heard this was coming out. Unfortunately, it's probably the worst game to ever bear the name. I don't know what was going on in the studio when it was being developed, but the result looks as if nobody involved had ever designed a strategy game before. They had some interesting ideas but they failed to implementI've been a Civ addict since the first version, and I was excited when I heard this was coming out. Unfortunately, it's probably the worst game to ever bear the name. I don't know what was going on in the studio when it was being developed, but the result looks as if nobody involved had ever designed a strategy game before. They had some interesting ideas but they failed to implement them. I don't like to post bad reviews, but I think they earned this one. It's pretty much the "strategy game for people who don't like strategy games". Superficial, clumsy design, bad AI (even worse than usual), it might be an interesting failure from a new studio, but it loses a couple of points due to the pedigree.… Expand
  2. dam1730
    Aug 6, 2012
    3
    In the past few years there has been a theme of streamlining strategy games. With new technologies the perception is that people lack the patience they once had. Civilization V makes an attempt to streamline the game compared to past games in the series. Unfortunately, Civilization V goes too far. Let's start off with the good. First of all I like the hexagonal tiles better than the usualIn the past few years there has been a theme of streamlining strategy games. With new technologies the perception is that people lack the patience they once had. Civilization V makes an attempt to streamline the game compared to past games in the series. Unfortunately, Civilization V goes too far. Let's start off with the good. First of all I like the hexagonal tiles better than the usual square ones. I think it makes the map look much better. The graphics are better in Civilization V, which you would expect. I like how accessible mods are in this game. It is much easier to use mods than past installments in the series. Now, the bad. The one unit per tile was a nice try, but it simply doesn't work. What should have been done is a Victoria II style supply limit system, where each tile could support a certain number of units. You could put as many units as you want on the tile, but there would be significant combat penalties for going over the limit. One unit per tile makes wars something you dread, as opposed to something you enjoyed in Civ IV. The diplomatic system is still messed up even two years after release. The AI leaders are inconsistent and change their minds quickly. The game got rid of religion which makes it less interesting. Finally, I'll explain my review score. Automatically, the game receives a four point deduction for not improving on its predecessor, the receives a 3 point deduction for OK gameplay.… Expand
  3. Atr0s
    Jun 23, 2012
    3
    It's actually insulting to think of this game as the sequel of the much-more-awesome Civilization 4. Besides the combat system, which saw some neat improvement, everything else was dumbed down to the point your only management consist of choosing what's next on your cities' production queue. Extremely accessible for newcomers, an insult for old gamers. The User Interface looks good if youIt's actually insulting to think of this game as the sequel of the much-more-awesome Civilization 4. Besides the combat system, which saw some neat improvement, everything else was dumbed down to the point your only management consist of choosing what's next on your cities' production queue. Extremely accessible for newcomers, an insult for old gamers. The User Interface looks good if you say you're playing it on facebook though.… Expand
  4. toad_svk
    Jul 29, 2012
    3
    Boring game, nice but boring. Same thing than Civilization 3 (the only other one I played): play a couple of games when you're really bored then put back in its box where it belongs.
    Couple of things that annoyed me:
    - no real information accessible (like: how many happiness this town is generating ? from what ?) so you never know what to do when you capture a new city - stupid, dumb,    Boring game, nice but boring. Same thing than Civilization 3 (the only other one I played): play a couple of games when you're really bored then put back in its box where it belongs.
    Couple of things that annoyed me:
    - no real information accessible (like: how many happiness this town is generating ? from what ?) so you never know what to do when you capture a new city
    - stupid, dumb, irrational AI ever: I am at war with some Civ, we make peace, another Civ crushes them, I liberate them, they're on guard towards me (despite the liberation..) then 20 rounds later, when they spawn one pikeman, they decide its a good thing to declare war on me (with my numerous tanks and foreign legion, good going AI!)
    - advisors interface completely designed by indian staff (yes offense): like 10 pages saying the same thing about which city is best to develop military units (instead of putting it on one page...)
    - talking about the advisors: they're high, and I mean real high: I am at war with a more powerful CIV (at least I guess in term of number of units) and Im kicking their asses (like 13 victories on 15 battles -> resulting in destruction of enemy units) and still the military advisor tells me the war is going bad.
    - nasty scrolling bug when you click on next turn: if you go on some side of the screen, it will scroll forever until the end of opponent actions
    - automatic selection of unit horrible: like you manually select an unit at some critical place in the game (like a big fight), it will then go somewhere else completely (despite the fact you actually shown interest for THIS specific place), ok maybe there was a setting for that, I didnt look for it.
    - there is no automatic focus on enemy / ally movement sometimes so you might miss what is happening (not when it involves you - thanks god)

    If you want the rolls of management game, try Anno series, if you want the rolls of Turn based strategy / fighting game (well the fighting is more deep so it might not be the best choice for you), try Total War series...    … Expand
  5. jesterx7769
    Jan 13, 2013
    3
    I enjoy strategy games but this game is unbearable to play. It is SO slow moving and boring. A single game will take you 20 some hours to play even on the quickest time setting. There is a multi-player option which is pointless because you will never finish a game. If you want to play on a tiny/small map with the quickest time setting you may finish some games but what is the fun in that?I enjoy strategy games but this game is unbearable to play. It is SO slow moving and boring. A single game will take you 20 some hours to play even on the quickest time setting. There is a multi-player option which is pointless because you will never finish a game. If you want to play on a tiny/small map with the quickest time setting you may finish some games but what is the fun in that?

    The game does everything to slow you down it seems. The movement restrictions are ridiculous, hills/forest/marshes are everywhere and waaaay overloaded simply to slow you down. When it comes to actual gameplay it is your average typical strategy game and you will be able to get way ahead of the computer barring the hardest difficulties.

    If you want a strategy game play Crusader Kings 2, this game is a dumbed down pour excuse for a game with their length making it seem hard and deep. There are no special diplomatic mechanics with the game and the units are very bland to choose from. Even if you spend hours to get your research up you will be disappointed.

    There is also not much difference in leaders which is lame. Each leader gets a bonus and some are clearly better than others which limits who you will play as right away. Some of the special units or building are helpful but hardly make a huge difference on the overall game.    … Expand
  6. evvo
    Dec 23, 2012
    3
    Signed up to metacritic purely to not recommend this game. Buy Civ4 which is superior in almost all aspects. They've taken all of the depth out of city building, empire maintenance, diplomacy, subterfuge, trade... the list goes on. The only improvement is the new combat system, but they didn't match that with an AI that could utilise it. Such a disappointment - glad I got it on the steamSigned up to metacritic purely to not recommend this game. Buy Civ4 which is superior in almost all aspects. They've taken all of the depth out of city building, empire maintenance, diplomacy, subterfuge, trade... the list goes on. The only improvement is the new combat system, but they didn't match that with an AI that could utilise it. Such a disappointment - glad I got it on the steam sale, otherwise I'd be furious....… Expand
  7. Vayra
    Jul 15, 2013
    3
    As deep as its previous installments were, Civilization V in its original form simply does not deliver an experience that even remotely approaches the finesse of its prequels. While the hex tile change does add some freedom and depth, too many options have been removed and replaced with very uninteresting combat mechanics that, especially at endgame, result in a clickfest without any soulAs deep as its previous installments were, Civilization V in its original form simply does not deliver an experience that even remotely approaches the finesse of its prequels. While the hex tile change does add some freedom and depth, too many options have been removed and replaced with very uninteresting combat mechanics that, especially at endgame, result in a clickfest without any soul or body to it.

    Graphics 6/10 High detail but has various graphical glitches (such as terrain changes applying far too late).
    Sound 8/10 The soundtrack and fx add a lot to the experience of immersion and never annoy.
    Gameplay 5/10 Fun to play once or twice, tedious and boring after having seen the first few games you play. The AI is not up to scratch either and very easily defeated, even at high difficulty.
    Mechanics 1/10 Extremely lacking game mechanics that get worse as a game progresses along the tech tree late game virtually always results in mass nuking everyone, because every other option results in an endless, tedious clickfest to push through your turns and execute the attacks.

    Final note: the DLC's and expansions to this game, completely change the picture and fix most of its flaws.    … Expand
  8. Cruel100
    Jul 30, 2013
    3
    I've played all versions of civilization: Civ Dos, Civ II, Civ III, Civ, IV and all Civs expansions. Played Call to Power, C-Evo, Freeciv, too. By far this is the worst version already launched.
  9. Hanzl
    Oct 16, 2013
    3
    Big dissapointer. The only thing i liked were the graphics and animations. For the rest the game sucks and is nothing more then a cheap quick, simpel wargame. I played Civ 1 and 2 and i love Civ 2 (still do and play it now and then). I just got Civ 5, played it a few hours and removed it. Not going to play it anymore. The negs? To small world, slow responding... well read the negativeBig dissapointer. The only thing i liked were the graphics and animations. For the rest the game sucks and is nothing more then a cheap quick, simpel wargame. I played Civ 1 and 2 and i love Civ 2 (still do and play it now and then). I just got Civ 5, played it a few hours and removed it. Not going to play it anymore. The negs? To small world, slow responding... well read the negative reviews here. No need to say more. I support them all. This game is a waste of time and money. The reviews gave me hope and i will try Civ IV. Otherwise i stay to Civ II. I can't believe the positive reviews. They dont come from ppl who played Civ before (or they are payed by Sid Meier).… Expand
  10. BFG-1337
    Apr 24, 2021
    3
    Things i hate the most: Gambling, drug and alcohol addiction and soulless addictive games like WoW, Candy Crush and so on..

    This game falls under the soulless addictive games category. Most people do the "MUST PRESS NEXT TURN", I however didnt feel that it was fun pressing next turn, i felt dread every time i pressed next turn because nothing would happen for 20+ turns and every time    Things i hate the most: Gambling, drug and alcohol addiction and soulless addictive games like WoW, Candy Crush and so on..

    This game falls under the soulless addictive games category.
    Most people do the "MUST PRESS NEXT TURN", I however didnt feel that it was fun pressing next turn, i felt dread every time i pressed next turn because nothing would happen for 20+ turns and every time something happened it was very slow.
    This game isnt the fun type of addicting, its the ALCOHOL type of addicting, every time you press next turn its like "just one more shot and im going home". I personally didnt fall for the **** "gameplay" of this "game".
    I played Civ 3, Civ5 and Civ 6
    Civ3 was a great 4x strategy game that required thinking and real strategy, this and civ 6 dont require any brains, its a pure **** of a game.    … Expand
  11. Discerning
    Sep 30, 2010
    2
    What an enormous disappointment. I am shocked that this game came from Sid Meierâ
  12. arkangel
    Nov 4, 2010
    2
    Oh dear. I've been a Civ addict for many years and I was really looking forward to this one. What a disappointment! I want to like it; I've tried to like it - but I've played for many hours and I still hate it. I play the dx10/11 version with maxed-out graphics and I still don't agree that it looks better than Civ4 - it simply looks like those trading/settling games that I find ratherOh dear. I've been a Civ addict for many years and I was really looking forward to this one. What a disappointment! I want to like it; I've tried to like it - but I've played for many hours and I still hate it. I play the dx10/11 version with maxed-out graphics and I still don't agree that it looks better than Civ4 - it simply looks like those trading/settling games that I find rather tedious. In my (very humble) opinion, strategy games should be about strategy - tactics, planning, logic, and common sense. (You don't improve chess by painting the board pretty colours!) Why can't more workers be used to build a road more quickly? How can I use a ship before I've built one? And (unless I'm missing something here), why can't I know what workers are doing or how long they'll take without having to click on them all? And why did I only get a DVD in the box? (Okay, that one's easy - they've saved money on the manual and chart.) Oh well, it's back to BTS...… Expand
  13. Arctarus
    Dec 24, 2010
    2
    2 points for graphic improvement over previous versions. The rest is garbage and the same old concept with this Civ traditional game. It looks like Civ 5 has seen an upgrade in graphics but got a downgrade in the process by it. Since it is turn-based, it plays like a risk game, but the turns are creating a new phenomenon called "creative boring royale" syndrome. You wait and wait and2 points for graphic improvement over previous versions. The rest is garbage and the same old concept with this Civ traditional game. It looks like Civ 5 has seen an upgrade in graphics but got a downgrade in the process by it. Since it is turn-based, it plays like a risk game, but the turns are creating a new phenomenon called "creative boring royale" syndrome. You wait and wait and wait and wait until kingdom come to the point it's ridiculous to even try. That tells you there is a problem with the game code programming in itself. Good games runs flawlessly and require less space to begin with. Looking at the game sheer size for a turn-based, you get a good idea how bad it will be on your pc. I dub Civ5 The "please wait" civ game instead, and I'm certainly not alone with that saying. Saying no to 2k games for a while and you may actually get better results. Why give them good grades when they don't deserve it? Peace.… Expand
  14. Suyadon
    Dec 25, 2010
    2
    I give this game a FAIL. I would rate this game quite differently based upon its playability, but considering the fact that the game can become unplayable due to CTD's. No crashes BEFORE the December '10 patch release, but now always crashes one I reach the 1600's. I don't deal with games crashing on my PS3 or Xbox360 and don't feel I have to settle for less on my PC. OK, update driversI give this game a FAIL. I would rate this game quite differently based upon its playability, but considering the fact that the game can become unplayable due to CTD's. No crashes BEFORE the December '10 patch release, but now always crashes one I reach the 1600's. I don't deal with games crashing on my PS3 or Xbox360 and don't feel I have to settle for less on my PC. OK, update drivers and some tweeking, I'll take that and I make exceptions when this happens with mods, but c'mon, a clean install of civilization V? I would prefer to get slugged in the face then spend another minute getting half-way through an epic strategy game only to have the game end with CTD's.… Expand
  15. hk-47
    Dec 30, 2010
    2
    I permanently hate turn based strategy games because of Sid Meier i had the game en in the first ten minutes i put it in the blender so there is one less copy of that lame game .
  16. Pandalicious
    Feb 2, 2011
    2
    This is a game that seems great at first but loses its shine once you dive in. The deep strategy that's been the hallmark of the Civ series just isn't there. It feels like all the years of stored up wisdom and lessons learned that had culminated in Civ 4 were thrown out the window for this one. The game is just boring now. The AI utterly sucks at combat and is schizophrenic when it comesThis is a game that seems great at first but loses its shine once you dive in. The deep strategy that's been the hallmark of the Civ series just isn't there. It feels like all the years of stored up wisdom and lessons learned that had culminated in Civ 4 were thrown out the window for this one. The game is just boring now. The AI utterly sucks at combat and is schizophrenic when it comes to diplomacy (and there's not much you can do through diplomacy anyways), so there's just not much in the ways of interesting gameplay. Huge disappointment.… Expand
  17. phil24
    May 2, 2012
    2
    This is a very addictive game. HOWEVER. No normal human has the time to play it. I have put 40 hours into this game, finished 1 match (wich i lost in the 1400s) and just lost my second after putting 20 hours into a match. The game itself is so enraging that i almost punched my computer. you should never be able to put 20 hours into a single match and loose the entire game in a matter ofThis is a very addictive game. HOWEVER. No normal human has the time to play it. I have put 40 hours into this game, finished 1 match (wich i lost in the 1400s) and just lost my second after putting 20 hours into a match. The game itself is so enraging that i almost punched my computer. you should never be able to put 20 hours into a single match and loose the entire game in a matter of minutes. its sickening.… Expand
  18. Drakan
    Mar 21, 2011
    2
    In one word: boring.

    A complete letdown for a long-time Civ fan (since Civ II). Abundant technical problems mar gameplay causing huge lags between turns that allow you to peacefully read Tolstoy's War and Peace and even finish it in between turns. Huge lags just firing up the game FGS! Continuous CTD ( I must have suffered easily over 200 CTD) litter gameplay killing off immersion. And    In one word: boring.

    A complete letdown for a long-time Civ fan (since Civ II). Abundant technical problems mar gameplay causing huge lags between turns that allow you to peacefully read Tolstoy's War and Peace and even finish it in between turns. Huge lags just firing up the game FGS! Continuous CTD ( I must have suffered easily over 200 CTD) litter gameplay killing off immersion. And yes my rig is high-end so I shouldn't be having these problems but I do. In fact I even upgraded specifically it for its release. What a sucker. Now let's talk gameplay. The biggest change by far is the one-unit-per-tile rule, which although opens up a bevy of new strategy paths and may seem interesting on paper, in practice kills all the fun and addictiveness the game is renowned for. Lack of movies on winning, lack of statistics, INDIVIDUAL DLC's for each and every additional civilization (WTF!! you have to be kiddin's us) at 7 USD the pleasure...I must have "rich civ sucker" tatooed all over my forehead and the list goes on and on. On the positive side, undoubtedly the most beautiful graphics and sound a civilization game has ever been graced with. But then again, strategy games are NOT about pretty graphics (SMAC I'm looking at you). If I want them, I pick up Crysis 2 instead. Strategy games are about gameplay. Let me write that gain, "gameplay". You know, immersion, fun, addictiveness (one-more-turn), wife yelling at me, playing until the wee hours of the morning with a coffee. That sort of thing. Let me just add the civic tree is a great addition that spices up the game.

    I hope the Civilization franchise has not been killed off as a result of this disaster.

    Conclusion:

    It feels dumbed down from Civ IV and I wasn't even a great fan of the latter mind you. Hey, I LIKE MM my workers and fielding huge armies with hundreds of units you know...don't remove these things, make them optional at most.

    My advise, wait until they release the GOTY edition and see if it's been patched up or something. Although the biggest killer, the one-unit-per-tile rule, cannot be fixed with a patch. Pick up Shogun 2 Total War instead. It crashes from time, but compared to Civ V it is "stable" and runs smoothly; worth every penny.    … Expand
  19. Levarneus
    Apr 2, 2011
    2
    Lets start with the good.
    I'm not necessarily a hardcore Civ fan. I only started playing at 4, and in comparison with 4, 5 is quite fun (imo). I never liked the stacks of doom that the ai packed tons of, and I feel what they did with the combat was a huge improvement. The flanking bonuses/ability to fend off dozens of units with 3-4 well placed ones is a really awesome concept.    Lets start with the good.
    I'm not necessarily a hardcore Civ fan. I only started playing at 4, and in comparison with 4, 5 is quite fun (imo). I never liked the stacks of doom that the ai packed tons of, and I feel what they did with the combat was a huge improvement. The flanking bonuses/ability to fend off dozens of units with 3-4 well placed ones is a really awesome concept.
    Unfortunately, the AI are duuumb as anything and instead of realizing they have no hope, they'll move to stupid places and get slaughtered. The worst of all is when you have a naval unit by the coast and they embark right next to it, free kills >.>
    I've clocked over 300 hours playing it, and its an alright game. I haven't tried multiplayer, because like yahtzee I believe a game should be judged by its single player. But I've heard it's crap.

    I *would* have given this game a 9/10 if there was hotseat, which would counter the necessity of stupid ai by allowing me to play for them =D
    But 6 months after this games release, and 6 months of promises have passed, and hotseat is not here. Hotseat isn't a big deal for some people, but paying 50 bucks to support a company that makes false promises isn't worth it in my books.    … Expand
  20. CivforBrains
    Jun 4, 2011
    2
    CivforBrains
    Jun 4, 2011
    2 CivforBrains Jun 2, 2011 3 I've been playing Civ games since the Civ I and have thoroughly enjoyed them all. (Civ III was my least liked Civ though.) This latest Civ however, I have tried my hardest to like but I just can't do it. Besides an awful AI and terrible diplomacy, this game flat out isn't very fun at all. It's streamlined and frankly quite dumbed down.    CivforBrains
    Jun 4, 2011
    2
    CivforBrains Jun 2, 2011 3 I've been playing Civ games since the Civ I and have thoroughly enjoyed them all. (Civ III was my least liked Civ though.) This latest Civ however, I have tried my hardest to like but I just can't do it. Besides an awful AI and terrible diplomacy, this game flat out isn't very fun at all. It's streamlined and frankly quite dumbed down. Expect a console version within 1 1/2 years after they finish their true love Civ World.

    It is truly incredulous how the "professional" reviewers gave this piece of crap such high marks. Something definitely is rotten in the state of the gaming industry. Likely there are more than a few guerrilla posters on here as well. The developers also seem more intent on releasing DLC than properly fixing the game. In my opinion, 2K Games is largely responsible for ruining the Civ franchise. I don't blame Jon Shafer very much. This game was clearly released at least one year too early. Not much more to say. Perhaps they'll right the ship with Civ VI but I wouldn't count on it.    … Expand
  21. skuby
    Jul 24, 2011
    2
    I would recommend either part IV and or part III over part V.
  22. zigazaga
    Nov 27, 2015
    2
    Having played a previous version of Civ, I thought this one might be an improvement. Sure, the graphics are nicer, but it still gets very boring very quickly. Build monument, build granary. Settler. Worker. Click - build, click - build. Annex city. Build armory, harbour, barracks etc. This unit is out of moves. Discover same technologies as last time. Picture of half naked man. He'sHaving played a previous version of Civ, I thought this one might be an improvement. Sure, the graphics are nicer, but it still gets very boring very quickly. Build monument, build granary. Settler. Worker. Click - build, click - build. Annex city. Build armory, harbour, barracks etc. This unit is out of moves. Discover same technologies as last time. Picture of half naked man. He's angry. I promise not to settle in your lands. Oh, no! It's war. Upgrade artillery unit. Hexagons. Wait your turn. Yawn. Exit to windows. Uninstall.… Expand
  23. mrpepperkitty
    Nov 2, 2011
    2
    Terrible, played it for 4 hours, won, put it back in the box. Where is the 'civvyness' in it? My enemies never scheme against me, never see through me mechanations against them, Hard here feels like beginner in civ IV. If you're new to the series, don't like thinking too hard, love mediocre graphics and gameplay, then this is for you. And if all the Civ games had been like that I would notTerrible, played it for 4 hours, won, put it back in the box. Where is the 'civvyness' in it? My enemies never scheme against me, never see through me mechanations against them, Hard here feels like beginner in civ IV. If you're new to the series, don't like thinking too hard, love mediocre graphics and gameplay, then this is for you. And if all the Civ games had been like that I would not be nearly as disappointed, or for that matter, have bought it. But as a sequel it is an Elementary school play released after a Blockbuster movie, and it even costs more than the movie! Disappointing.… Expand
  24. Ulnari
    Feb 3, 2012
    2
    The lead designer of Civ5, Jon Shafer, made a lot of changes to the game mechanics of previous versions, in order to make the game more simple, stylish, and streamlined. Hex tiles, less roads (due to maintenance costs), one unit per tile (1UPT), global happiness, no religions, no change of policies, less tech/no tech trading. Unfortunately the many changes are badly integrated, and makeThe lead designer of Civ5, Jon Shafer, made a lot of changes to the game mechanics of previous versions, in order to make the game more simple, stylish, and streamlined. Hex tiles, less roads (due to maintenance costs), one unit per tile (1UPT), global happiness, no religions, no change of policies, less tech/no tech trading. Unfortunately the many changes are badly integrated, and make the game feel rushed and boring.… Expand
  25. RedKey
    Mar 7, 2013
    2
    If this game was the first of a series I wouldn't rate it so low, but this is Civilization 5 not 1! The Civ series should be nearing perfection not becoming worse. Civ4 is a better game even without any of its expansions. I will break up the rest of my review into what Civ5 did better, different, and worse than Civ4.

    The only part of Civ5 game play that I found better than Civ4 was that    If this game was the first of a series I wouldn't rate it so low, but this is Civilization 5 not 1! The Civ series should be nearing perfection not becoming worse. Civ4 is a better game even without any of its expansions. I will break up the rest of my review into what Civ5 did better, different, and worse than Civ4.

    The only part of Civ5 game play that I found better than Civ4 was that there is a limited quantity of strategic resources like iron.

    Civ5 has some things that are different than Civ4. To me these things don't really make the game play better or worse, just different. City states, more ranged combat, hexes instead of squares, and updated graphics are examples.

    Now the list of things Civ5 does worse: 1 unit per tile (this one has a lot of repercussions on the pacing of the game), global happiness, the AI, less flexibility in your economy due to the removal or research/culture sliders, less flexibility in your government due to policies that last eternity rather than civics, removal of the health system with nothing to take its place, and probably many more things I'm forgetting at the moment.    … Expand
  26. RiceWarriior
    Feb 13, 2013
    2
    I have to say, when i first saw this game, I was very impressed with it. The atmosphere, the choices, the models, all of it. However, as I played more than just a few games, Civ 5 's many shortcomings became apparent to me. The absolutely horrendous AI, for example, renders diplomacy useless. It is impossible to trade with any AI, because they will not accept any reasonable offer. Instead,I have to say, when i first saw this game, I was very impressed with it. The atmosphere, the choices, the models, all of it. However, as I played more than just a few games, Civ 5 's many shortcomings became apparent to me. The absolutely horrendous AI, for example, renders diplomacy useless. It is impossible to trade with any AI, because they will not accept any reasonable offer. Instead, they will demand everything you own for a scraps of iron or horse. Plus, the unpredictable way in which AIs act makes it impossible to make plans that relies on AIs. Random civs denounce me for no reason, or acts aggressive despite have an army a tenth of mine. The gameplay is also very shallow. The tile improvements look good at first, but eventually one realises that the only way to win is to spam build trade posts and farms. Every time. The combat is the same. There is no hint of infrastructure or anything, and the combat animations are repetitive and breaks one's immersion by being very cartoonish. Overall, I disliked this game mostly because of the absolutely horrendous AI. After all, it is no fun building an empire if everyone around you is acting like a dumbass.… Expand
  27. Qgal5kap
    Mar 8, 2013
    2
    As a kid, I remember waiting for the original Civilization to come out. I don't know how many times I read the review and how much I waited. The actual experience was amazing. I've played every single Civ game since then, and I've always been a huge fan of the franchise. I feel the quality of it all, started to fall with civ4,
    and came to it's climax with Civ5. It's almost like a    As a kid, I remember waiting for the original Civilization to come out. I don't know how many times I read the review and how much I waited. The actual experience was amazing. I've played every single Civ game since then, and I've always been a huge fan of the franchise. I feel the quality of it all, started to fall with civ4,
    and came to it's climax with Civ5. It's almost like a derivative of the music industry. They make cool bands play crap songs, in order to sell more records.

    Civ 5 was massively dumbed down, in order to reach a broader audience. As so many others have said,
    the lack of proper politics, tech trading and the likes, just makes this a very boring experience.

    I am not going to mention the bugs in this review, but the game is full of them!    … Expand
  28. redmike
    Oct 24, 2014
    2
    If you enjoyed Civ 4, this game is... not good. It continues the painful trend from Civ 3 of making you focus on smaller civilizations. Happiness is hard to understand, the units look all the same, and the game is slow... Stick to Civ 4.
  29. Caobei
    Oct 20, 2010
    1
    Beautiful graphics and some nice changes, but this game took a turn for the worse and seemed to feed off the PS3 version more than the PC games. I highly anticipated this game and feel quite let down having been a player of Civ I on up, the lack of depth in diplomacy,no espionage, homogenized leaders and countries. I do not recommend this game if you're a big fan of the PC games. If youBeautiful graphics and some nice changes, but this game took a turn for the worse and seemed to feed off the PS3 version more than the PC games. I highly anticipated this game and feel quite let down having been a player of Civ I on up, the lack of depth in diplomacy,no espionage, homogenized leaders and countries. I do not recommend this game if you're a big fan of the PC games. If you enjoyed the style of PS3 version this is an upgrade and quite enjoyable at that level.… Expand
  30. dddd2
    Jan 28, 2011
    1
    Dumbed-down version of Civ 4, very dissapointed, the only reason i spent 2 weeks playing it was because the everytime I pressed end turn it took up to 5 minutes for the next turn to start.
  31. Serinde
    Feb 2, 2011
    1
    I was so looking forward to this game, but it was a waste of money! I have loved and played all the Civ games as well as Alpha Centauri, yet with this game I have yet to get past the 1700's due to repeated crashes. I hope it is patched soon as this is absolutely ruining the franchise for me.
  32. pazmacats
    Apr 14, 2011
    1
    Civ5 is a rather bad action game. Controls are limited and it is best played with a gamepad. It also helps to be intoxicated while playing. I takes about 10 hours to beat the game on STEAM difficulty. Most of the time is spent navigating the mouse pointer and hitting "end turn" about 300 times. Everything else is more or less autopilot. Your opponents (barbarian tribes and barbarian bossCiv5 is a rather bad action game. Controls are limited and it is best played with a gamepad. It also helps to be intoxicated while playing. I takes about 10 hours to beat the game on STEAM difficulty. Most of the time is spent navigating the mouse pointer and hitting "end turn" about 300 times. Everything else is more or less autopilot. Your opponents (barbarian tribes and barbarian boss tribes) don't know who they are what they are where they are and what they are supposed to do, so it is a single player. Mulitplayer is broken, but totally ROCKS according to the devs. I recommend thsi game to enyone who is short of hate and / or boredom.… Expand
  33. kruelgor
    Mar 12, 2011
    1
    The game was designed by a young novice, John Shaffer. The end result is an unfinished and unpolished mess. The game itself is okay. The mod tools that came included are extremely user unfriendly and are bug ridden. Very poor game.
  34. Doublecross
    Sep 3, 2011
    1
    Wow, what a load of disappointing crap. If this game would just have the exact same graphics and the same game mechanics CIV 4 had, this game would be already better lol. But they dummed it down that my dicks dick could be my advisor in the game. Very dissapointed and sad :(
  35. maettsook
    Jul 19, 2011
    1
    Played Civ on the playstation, then moved to PC for II,III and IV. Loved IV and spent many many hours playing it. Installed Civ V, what a dissappointment. It's very slow, no fun, ultimately tedious. I'm back on Civ IV these days and Civ V sits on the bookshelf gathering dust, they won't catch me out again!
  36. Reo
    Aug 22, 2011
    1
    I have been a CIV 1 to 4 addict. I am trying to get into CIV5, but over the last 4 months every time I get a good game going I get to around turn 390 to 410 and then somthing always goes wrong. It wont load, or validate. The game crashes. I am sick of it. The only game I have completed is one I started in the industrial age and beat the game in under 200 turns. It seams you can only playI have been a CIV 1 to 4 addict. I am trying to get into CIV5, but over the last 4 months every time I get a good game going I get to around turn 390 to 410 and then somthing always goes wrong. It wont load, or validate. The game crashes. I am sick of it. The only game I have completed is one I started in the industrial age and beat the game in under 200 turns. It seams you can only play the game on standard or quick speed, on normal or small worlds. Have not been able to play past 400 turns on a large world. The game looks great and plays great only on standard settings with very few civs. The whole steam thing sucks! It takes for ever to load a game and then it crashes. Worse, it freezes and you dont know, becouse it normaly takes 5 minutes to load. Check integrety? This has never worked. It says it cant be verified and it has to be reloaded. You wait and wait and finaly its done and you go threw the 5 min wait to load another game and the it freezes. You try to post about the problem and they tell you a patch is coming, only I get the patch and it works fine on a new game, so you play it and boom the same thing at about the same point. I like the social policy thing and the game is balance tword world domination, thats ok. But I think the MODS may be the problem becouse all my crashes and freezes tend to happen during a mod game. But the vanilla civ 5 is not that fun. There are alot of aspects to this game I like, but what good are they if you cant play a game from ancient to futer with alot of turns. I am trying for a culter victory or a science, but I always end up freezing or crashing. Gonna try Historic speed as the only mod on a random map and see if that crashes or freezes, if it does I am putting this game away.… Expand
  37. DrIron
    Sep 8, 2011
    1
    Get Civilization 4 and BtS instead (you don't need Warlords, BTS has all of Warlords in it).
    5 has worse AI, only just barely matches the visual quality of modded Civilization 4, is much harder to mod and thus barely enjoys any modding community unlike 4, and the game is just too damn easy due to how unbalanced everything is. On top of that, there's hardly any multiplayer support.
    Just get    Get Civilization 4 and BtS instead (you don't need Warlords, BTS has all of Warlords in it).
    5 has worse AI, only just barely matches the visual quality of modded Civilization 4, is much harder to mod and thus barely enjoys any modding community unlike 4, and the game is just too damn easy due to how unbalanced everything is. On top of that, there's hardly any multiplayer support.
    Just get Civ4. Want more civilizations than 4 has to offer? They've been modded in. Want better graphics? They've been modded in. Hell, you can get mods that make each nation's units look unique, so that a Portugese and a Dutch unit will not be clones like they are in 5. Then to make things worse, Firaxis has actually started -selling- civilizations, putting less work into them than modders do, for $5 each.
    This sequel doesn't even deserve to exist if it can't compete with its predecessor on any field.    … Expand
  38. WookieInHeat
    Oct 26, 2011
    1
    as a long time fan of the civ series, this one was a massive disappointment. it seems they've removed or "streamlined" many aspects of the civ formula that made all the predecessors to this one great games.

    by far the most glaring issue is the AI. the AI in civ games was always a weak point, but in this one the stupidity of the AI players is on a whole new level. small empires with no    as a long time fan of the civ series, this one was a massive disappointment. it seems they've removed or "streamlined" many aspects of the civ formula that made all the predecessors to this one great games.

    by far the most glaring issue is the AI. the AI in civ games was always a weak point, but in this one the stupidity of the AI players is on a whole new level. small empires with no army will declare war on huge empires with massive armies, friendly empires will denounce you for having too many units in their territory after you've just rescued them from being conquered and returned their cities, declaring war on too many other civs will cause friendly civs to denounce you as a "war monger", even if all the civs you declared war on were attacking your friends, etc.    … Expand
  39. Choppa
    Sep 10, 2013
    1
    I bought the game with the Inca expansion pack, I had just finished reading about the Incas and was hoping to get some sort of Spaniards vs Incas gameplay. The Inca set has NOTHING to do with the Incas and the landscapes do no even begin to reflect it (ooooh +2 agility points to maneuvering through mountains!! GMAFB). After accepting it has little bearing on the historical figures itI bought the game with the Inca expansion pack, I had just finished reading about the Incas and was hoping to get some sort of Spaniards vs Incas gameplay. The Inca set has NOTHING to do with the Incas and the landscapes do no even begin to reflect it (ooooh +2 agility points to maneuvering through mountains!! GMAFB). After accepting it has little bearing on the historical figures it portrays, I continued to play this game for 7 hours straight, with every turn you're hooked thinking something will happen, maybe a few more turns, a few more, then you finally give up realizing it's a joke... nothing happens, efforts in this game amount to nothing, it is a time wasting cycle of thinking something will happen. Civ5 is one of the most pointless game I've ever encountered in 20 years of gaming. If you get this, don't come crying to me about wasting your time and money.… Expand
  40. vasek45
    Jun 2, 2012
    1
    The single player is good and works fine. The games itself is not as deep as previous games but that's not the worst thing for me. The worst thing is: my 3 friends and me have bought this game on steam last weekend to play multiplayer. It's been like 1.5 years since realese, right? But it's still incredibly unstable. The "please wait" bug is ridiculous. For each 100 turns we reloaded theThe single player is good and works fine. The games itself is not as deep as previous games but that's not the worst thing for me. The worst thing is: my 3 friends and me have bought this game on steam last weekend to play multiplayer. It's been like 1.5 years since realese, right? But it's still incredibly unstable. The "please wait" bug is ridiculous. For each 100 turns we reloaded the game around 6-7 times. And after the second time our save became corrupted and we couldn't make it to the next turn because of the bug, we simply deleted the game. Multiplayer is simply unplayable. Also, typos in russian version are horrible. 1C-Softclub just as usual did their awful job.
    If not for multiplayer, i'd put it 6/10, because despite the lack of religion and other cool things previous parts had, it's still a rather enjoyable game. But the multiplayer just doesn't work properly for us. Therefore => 1/10    … Expand
  41. ZEMTEK
    Aug 18, 2012
    1
    I have been playing civ since the first one came out. I bought civ5 from a store and you cant even play the game if ya dont have internet to activate. Which is stupid. To cap it off you had to sit there and download yet another aplication to activate it. Why did the game designers not have this other ap on the disc? poor design ? Then after i fianlly got the game activated I was so veryI have been playing civ since the first one came out. I bought civ5 from a store and you cant even play the game if ya dont have internet to activate. Which is stupid. To cap it off you had to sit there and download yet another aplication to activate it. Why did the game designers not have this other ap on the disc? poor design ? Then after i fianlly got the game activated I was so very disapointed in the game. Less options than other versions. time between turns is stupid long. Load times take for ever and i have 4gigs of ram dual core. I would feel sorry for anyone trying to play this game on some older model computer. The only thing i actually liked about civ5 is razing cities. Unless they were former capitols or those city states which could not be razed. They also got rid of the stupid public works which was a nice change.liked the new culture thing. Things i hated were not able to raze capitols and city states. Not able to pass or do anything with mountains,
    No mags to move troops faster. Could not terriform. Stupid other nations would not even trade resources i had to go over an just take the resources from them.
    Could not activate till i went to a place with internet.
    Had to down load another stupid program to activate. the scenario editor dont work. When Civ VI comes out i hope it will actually be an improvement all the options of the old civs.    … Expand
  42. Gamed2long
    Mar 8, 2013
    1
    If you haven't played another civilization game before and are looking to start I suggest you go out and buy Civ 4. Its significantly better than this one. I was amazed when I first saw the graphics of this game. They are beautiful and seamless. I also liked the idea of resource scarcity where an iron supply can allow you to build up to 5units. (For example) In Civ 4 once you have theIf you haven't played another civilization game before and are looking to start I suggest you go out and buy Civ 4. Its significantly better than this one. I was amazed when I first saw the graphics of this game. They are beautiful and seamless. I also liked the idea of resource scarcity where an iron supply can allow you to build up to 5units. (For example) In Civ 4 once you have the critical resource there is no incentive for you to get another one of it. You'd have to be stupid to trade it and so except for the shield bonus it goes to waste. I was unsettled by the move to hexagonal tiles and the no unit stacking. Also cities acting as their own (Flawed it turns out) defense. However I found all 3 changes tolerable and even enjoyable for a time. I like the move to range units however what unit is "ranged" seems kind of arbitrary. The fact that two units can attack each other for a few turns without utter destruction of one in a way compensates for the lack of "stack".

    The main thing however that I cannot abide is the dumbed down gameplay. I only played 1 game on medium difficulty. Won with the top score. And uninstalled the game knowing I never want to do that again. There was no challenge to it. Worse it felt like the game was steering. To do modestly well I needed only to click whatever was flashing and do the suggested thing. Same with suggested buildings/units. It was the difference between strategizing and being the guy who says "I approve this message".

    Due to the lack of stack it is quite easy to gang up on individual units making military conquest quite easy. Even when you are the supposed underdog. While I initially enjoyed the city states they quickly turned into an annoyance always demanding gold or new things to stay payed off and under my influence. I started wiping them out to build my empire and was glad I did. Even though it did mean they ganged up on me and all declared war. Nothing came of it. Just more cities for me. I found it was more efficient just to have the city then to be trying to bribe my way into their good graces.

    When it came to technology I understand the move away from tech trading. Much kinder on isolated starts. But doing so removed 90% of diplomacy for me. The "research deals" which replaced them were a sad surrogate. As well sometimes a civic would make a research deal with you and then break it prematurely. Costing you both gold to no ones benefit. That is either spite or poor game design. All and all this game is beautiful. But being a strategy game stripped of any real strategy it is quite pointless. I wish they would re-release civ 4 with this level of graphics.    … Expand
  43. Fench21
    Dec 1, 2012
    1
    Want to know how boring this game is. Type the word boring over and over again for ten hours straight. Do that, and you'll be starting to get a notion of how boring this game is.

    The game is very pretty, and there are some nice tweaks. But,I don't play a game to just look at pretty pictures. I play it, and I bet most other folks do as well, for the challenge. Where CIV IV had one of    Want to know how boring this game is. Type the word boring over and over again for ten hours straight. Do that, and you'll be starting to get a notion of how boring this game is.

    The game is very pretty, and there are some nice tweaks. But,I don't play a game to just look at pretty pictures. I play it, and I bet most other folks do as well, for the challenge. Where CIV IV had one of the best AI 's I've ever seen CIV V has a zombified AI. The computer run civ's are in desperate need of BRAINS! They aren't out to conquer the world, or even knock off your particular civilization. Instead they're largely content to let you slowly fossilize or conqure the world yourself. Conquering the world is actually the easiest way to win this game...yeah, go figure. Partly though, that because you can get started early and get the pain over with sooner. IF you have the patience, you could go for the space race victory. But, if you have that kind of patience, you should be able to hold off on buying this waste of computer memory of a game and spend your time finding something worth your time and money.    … Expand
  44. jlg28429
    May 28, 2014
    1
    The game itself is awesome... Maybe a 9/10. Unfortunately it is ruined by STEAM, like most PC gaming nowadays. This was the first and last game I will ever buy that forces me to use STEAM. Adios PC gaming.
  45. Derringer
    Jun 28, 2015
    1
    You ruined this game!

    Its almost impossible to reach the scientific victory from the Prince difficulty & above, Also the 2050 Time Victory (If nobody achieve any kind of victory the one who has more points instantly win at turn 300) is a F***** BS! Besides, You cant manage your culture and religion like CIV IV. You cant trade maps or technologies with other players. So tell me exactly    You ruined this game!

    Its almost impossible to reach the scientific victory from the Prince difficulty & above, Also the 2050 Time Victory (If nobody achieve any kind of victory the one who has more points instantly win at turn 300) is a F***** BS! Besides, You cant manage your culture and religion like CIV IV. You cant trade maps or technologies with other players. So tell me exactly how this game could have the merit to call itself "The V game of the franchise" if it is worst than the others?    … Expand
  46. maximgorky
    Dec 11, 2014
    1
    Wow, what a complete snoozer. I really enjoyed the earlier versions of Civ which at least had the virtue of moving right along but this one, OMG, how utterly slow and un-fun. When I first started playing Civ it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to get started and then to have fun while learning how to play. This sluggish piece of dreck took forever to do anything. I gave up,Wow, what a complete snoozer. I really enjoyed the earlier versions of Civ which at least had the virtue of moving right along but this one, OMG, how utterly slow and un-fun. When I first started playing Civ it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to get started and then to have fun while learning how to play. This sluggish piece of dreck took forever to do anything. I gave up, let it gather dust and resurrected one of my old 32 bit machines so I could use that to play earlier versions.… Expand
  47. RRRay
    Apr 4, 2015
    1
    I'm never playing this game again! Super boring. Very aggressive and plentiful barbarians. Stupid and greedy city states. Super slow game play. Cannot stack units. Uninstalling...!
  48. Thomaswiden
    Oct 6, 2016
    1
    A friend convinced me to buy this crap game. I had read that it was dumbed down but I let myself be persuede i deeply regret that. I loved Civ 4 this is an insult to all the fans. The game took forever to play a round and that they had removed all the micro manegment. 2 hours play was enough for me. Hated it so much that I deleted it of steam. They have a lot to do to make up for thisA friend convinced me to buy this crap game. I had read that it was dumbed down but I let myself be persuede i deeply regret that. I loved Civ 4 this is an insult to all the fans. The game took forever to play a round and that they had removed all the micro manegment. 2 hours play was enough for me. Hated it so much that I deleted it of steam. They have a lot to do to make up for this **** hope civ 6 can save the series… Expand
  49. Jinglepants
    Oct 3, 2010
    0
    Unplayable due to lock-ups. Game freezes after an hour or so and the only way to shut it down is with the Windows Task Manager (ctrl+alt+delete). The problem is well documented on the Steam and 2K forums. Needs to bake for a few more patches. Might be worth picking up on sale in a few months.
  50. Rumpelstiltskin
    May 24, 2011
    0
    Piece of crap. Espionage and Religion are gone in place of a garbage diplomacy system. Unless the deal you offer them is completely in their favor they will not agree to it, as well with the friendship system. You can agree to announce your friendship then they will turn around and **** on you. The enemy A.I. will endlessly harass you with you crap deals, declare war on you and call youPiece of crap. Espionage and Religion are gone in place of a garbage diplomacy system. Unless the deal you offer them is completely in their favor they will not agree to it, as well with the friendship system. You can agree to announce your friendship then they will turn around and **** on you. The enemy A.I. will endlessly harass you with you crap deals, declare war on you and call you the warmonger, denounce you out of nowhere when you've supplied them with resources and gold for many turns and not to mention the barbarians in this game are incredibly annoying; coming into your territory only a few turns into the game with multiple units and taking your workers then leaving. The happiness system is trash and the game punishes you for expanding and conquering. All options with conquered cities give large amounts of unhappiness and only decrease if you waste points on policies or have a large amount of luxuries that counter the unhappiness. Also, the tech tree has been severely trimmed... turning many technologies into one thing instead of taking multiple trees to complete it.

    Other than the unique traits and few unique units nothing really sets the civilizations apart from eachother. Multiplayer is extremely laggy and even a 100 or so turns into a quick game it takes several seconds sometimes minutes to go to the next turn... Marathon is a nightmare. What really disappoints me about this game is the fact that the computer will declare war on you or something of that nature and then try to make peace... asking for everything you have and if you decline they keep harassing you even though it's extremely easy to defend against them so it becomes just a hassle.

    Overall it's just a huge disappointment. Too many features cut and too many things dumbed down to appease the idiots and lazy people who don't want to take the time to learn and play the game correctly. If it's not spoon fed to them they complain and it totally shows in the way Firaxis designed this game. Total piece of crap to be honest.    … Expand
  51. chris999
    Oct 7, 2010
    0
    Great graphics, very beautiful to play, a lot of potential here. But it is like a great car ... that keeps stalling on you. This game has such a huge crashing problem that it is virtually unplayable, unless you stick with small maps and only 3 or 4 civilizations ... and you turn everything down to low, etc ... so what is the point then of all the eye candy then? Play Civ 4 instead.Great graphics, very beautiful to play, a lot of potential here. But it is like a great car ... that keeps stalling on you. This game has such a huge crashing problem that it is virtually unplayable, unless you stick with small maps and only 3 or 4 civilizations ... and you turn everything down to low, etc ... so what is the point then of all the eye candy then? Play Civ 4 instead. This game has to be seriously patched. Oh, the problem won't show up right away (usually), but just try playing a large map with lots of stuff happening ... and then see if you can actually win the game ... be prepared for big pauses, sloowwww map scrolling .... and then a total freeze up. Did the company release a beta or something?
    ... Until it is patched, make sure you turn everything to low or medium, make sure you have a powerful system (quad core, high end video card, etc.). Doesn't seem to make any difference whether you are running XP or Vista or Windows 7, the game game still crashes. Especially when you play a large map with many civilizations. After a while, it's like your PC just can't cope - indicates a big memory leak problem in the game. Type into Google "Civ 5 crashes" and you'll get the picture. I have a Core 2 Duo 2.16 with 9800GT and 4 gigs Ram, XP sp3. I have the latest nVidia drivers (256) .. and none of my other PC games crash like this baby. Hopefully firaxis can fix what should be an incredible Civ experience.    … Expand
  52. Megatanis
    Oct 30, 2012
    0
    I don't know where to start. I grew up with civ, it was the very first game I played when i was a kid. It had, as most of the products in that time, an aura of legend around it. I learned history from civ. All of a sudden, I wanted to know who exactly was Shaka of the Zulus. My mind expanded imagining alternate histories. When you played civ, you got smarter. Yes of course it had problems,I don't know where to start. I grew up with civ, it was the very first game I played when i was a kid. It had, as most of the products in that time, an aura of legend around it. I learned history from civ. All of a sudden, I wanted to know who exactly was Shaka of the Zulus. My mind expanded imagining alternate histories. When you played civ, you got smarter. Yes of course it had problems, it was just a game after all. But one of those games you would forgive anything, simply because it has something magical around it. Civ 4 is, as many have pointed out here as well, the pinnacle of the series. Again, of course it had aspects which could have been improved, and btw the Civ series was NEVER the hardest, toughest or most complicated strategy game out there. Try playing the Europa Universalis or Hearts of Iron series, or many others, and you'll see what I mean. Civ has always been a coulourful, entertaining gem, a perfect mix of micro and macro managing, even though the AI was never any good, and some mechanics were certainly improvable. Now we have this..I don't even know how to define it. So, Dear Sid, all of a sudden, after 20 years of pure genius, you decided that people saying "oh no, I have to actually research a tech that will allow me to build transport ships and THEN I must load my units on them?? BOORING" were the ones to listen, while those that made it possible for you to be in business today, those that bought and supported your products in a time when even owning a PC was something (I don't live in the US by the way), were to be insulted in this way. For the respect I still have towards your past wonders, I'll just stop it here, because you know what I'm talking about, the negative comments are really not necessary. You, above everyone else in this world, know perfectly well what has happened to the Civ franchise.

    I firmly believe a compromise between complexity/Traditional civ (for the old fans) and simplicity/moar money (from sales/ influx of newcomers) would have been perfectly doable, and it would have been accepted by everyone.
    To screw up a game like civ in this way is totally unbelievable.

    So bottom line, sure there is nostalgia involved, but I tried to give a balanced judgement. Civ 5 is a shallow, unintersting, boring game. Graphics are only marginally better than civ4, and who cares about "amazing" graphics anyway (in a turn based strategy game). It seems to be riddled with bugs. Gameplay choices are reduced to a minimum, illogical and outright broken mecahisms are everywhere. And, of course, it's a game for 12 years old kids. On top of this, since it's a successor to a great series (and because it's called CIV FIVE), old fans will inevitably compare it to the previous titles. And this is not good. You know it, I know it, everyone that should knows it. The ones that don't, probably have no idea who Sun Tzu was or where the hell is Costantinople, and are wondering why they can't headshot Montezuma, so why bother. You just want their money.
    Right?

    ps I just hope you are spending more money to buy these "The best Civ ever!!!" reviews (LOL) than what you made by selling the game. Maybe when you'll realise that alienating what were probably among the most loyal videogamers in history (civ fans) was a bad marketing decision, you'll see your error. But it will be too late

    Quoque tu, Sid    … Expand
  53. Dipex
    Sep 26, 2010
    0
    I'm a long time Civ fan, I've been playing back since the days of Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri, but this game just sucks. In a nutshell, the UI is non-functional, the AI is broken, the diplomatic system doesn't work, and the game is buggy as hell. It feels rushed, looks rushed, and will play like its rushed when it either crashes or grinds to a halt an hour or so in due to a memory leak.

    As    I'm a long time Civ fan, I've been playing back since the days of Civ 2 and Alpha Centauri, but this game just sucks. In a nutshell, the UI is non-functional, the AI is broken, the diplomatic system doesn't work, and the game is buggy as hell. It feels rushed, looks rushed, and will play like its rushed when it either crashes or grinds to a halt an hour or so in due to a memory leak.

    As to the new combat system that everyone seemed to go so crazy about- its just Civ 4s combat system with one unit per tile. I will say that its actually a nice improvement, because wars are much more about strategic position and tactical maneuvers. However, its also applied to non-combat units and has a tendency to break workers that you have set to any level of automation. And, as nice as it is it just can't fix the fact that everything else in the game is so bad.

    On a final note, I know that a lot of hardcore Civ fans don't exactly have the best computers. Well, you might want to rethink this game. If you don't meet the rather high recommended requirements you will not be able to play on a map larger than standard- and even then the game will run like crap. I'm just below the recommended reqs, and with all my settings on minimum the game starts to chug on mid-late game standard maps. I have to say, for the performance the game doesn't even look that good so be warned.    … Expand
  54. IndyGuy
    Oct 2, 2010
    0
    As others have said, I get that they wanted to make a less complicated game for the masses, but they really outdid themselves on that count. This silly game practically plays itself. I'm really not a gamer and Civilization is by and large the only series of games that I have ever played with any regularity. So when a new version comes out, I want more complicated, not less, moreAs others have said, I get that they wanted to make a less complicated game for the masses, but they really outdid themselves on that count. This silly game practically plays itself. I'm really not a gamer and Civilization is by and large the only series of games that I have ever played with any regularity. So when a new version comes out, I want more complicated, not less, more challenging, not less. I really wanted to like it, but after playing for a while and getting a feel for the new setup it just dawned on me "Holy cow, this is actually lame". I am obviously not the target audience for Civilization V.… Expand
  55. shmackdaddy
    Oct 3, 2010
    0
    Until the A.I. can fuction in a 1upt environment this game is basically an RPG. As an RPG I'd give it 8.5. As a strategy game Civ V is basically a slap in the face. While it desearves a 4 as a strategy game I'm giving it a 1 as a protest for 2k releasing this BETA into the market.
  56. Staiden
    Oct 4, 2010
    0
    The game is great but the AI needs to be cleaned up you cant play a game on a map larger than the "small" size without it taking over 30 seconds between turnss at about turn 300. This makes the game unplayable at this point. If you continue it just takes longer. Its not my computer either. I have a core I7 920 overclocked with 6 gigs of DDR 3 ram. with two GTX 260s in SLI. The game looksThe game is great but the AI needs to be cleaned up you cant play a game on a map larger than the "small" size without it taking over 30 seconds between turnss at about turn 300. This makes the game unplayable at this point. If you continue it just takes longer. Its not my computer either. I have a core I7 920 overclocked with 6 gigs of DDR 3 ram. with two GTX 260s in SLI. The game looks great but if you cant play it whats the point. Im sad I wasted my 50 bucks on it.… Expand
  57. Mateops
    Oct 6, 2010
    0
    Bugs, dumbed down to the lowest common denominator... this game is half finished and it will need a miracle patch or some modders to actually finish this game. ALOT of features of the previous games have just been dropped; the best we can hope is to be spoon fed the rest.
  58. stuntaneous
    Oct 24, 2010
    0
    It got the mainstream treatment. Easy to spot when Meier's there saying it's been "streamlined" ahead of release. One of a few words to fear. This is a good game but nothing more. Certainly not worthy of the Civ franchise name and a huge shame the series has come to an abrupt and unwelcome end. I'm sticking to Civ 4.
  59. GreenJelly
    Oct 28, 2010
    0
    I would love to give this game a higher score. The game has the heart to become top notch. I do not share in the negative opinions about the mechanics, I kinda see these reviews as being absolutely absurd, or people wanting CIV IV... ITS A NEW GAME!
    The reason I have to give this a 0... and I give it a 0 as being a completely worthless game, is because even AFTER the latest patch, the    I would love to give this game a higher score. The game has the heart to become top notch. I do not share in the negative opinions about the mechanics, I kinda see these reviews as being absolutely absurd, or people wanting CIV IV... ITS A NEW GAME!
    The reason I have to give this a 0... and I give it a 0 as being a completely worthless game, is because even AFTER the latest patch, the game crashes ever other turn in late stages. If I cant FINISH the game because of BUGS, I cant give it any credit. I hope to see more patches to come out, and would love to see the game become steady. At that time, I will change my vote, and probably highly recommend it. Now, it is a spot on my hard drive that I haven't bothered to delete.    … Expand
  60. mscience
    Nov 5, 2010
    0
    It appears, from the many threads that have been started in the 2K Games forums, that Civilization V has many issues related to the latter part of the game, when one's empire stretches through many tens of cities as well as the opponents'. Time between turns starts to increase to over a minute after a few hundred turns, and later still, the game starts freezing or otherwise crashing. ThisIt appears, from the many threads that have been started in the 2K Games forums, that Civilization V has many issues related to the latter part of the game, when one's empire stretches through many tens of cities as well as the opponents'. Time between turns starts to increase to over a minute after a few hundred turns, and later still, the game starts freezing or otherwise crashing. This seems to happen irrespective of the computer's hardware specifications, as even very capable gaming setups have problems with Civilization V after a certain number of turns. This is indeed a very tricky situation, as I have discovered myself: I tried the demo version of the game and liked it, but later discovered that the game is prone to crashes. The demo version is restricted to only 100 turns, during which most users would not experience crashes (though a few still do). I am pretty sure that most critics who reviewed Civilization V, did so only based on playing the demo version, otherwise their scores wouldn't be as high as they are, and would not be such a wide gap between their score and that of the playing community.… Expand
  61. TheTim
    Jan 9, 2011
    0
    Highly overrated game. It can take dozens of turns for a single small event to happen and there's not a single interesting thing in the entire game. Anyone who plays actual games such as Starcraft II will fall asleep watching or playing Civ V because it's such a dumbed down simple game that a 5 year old could play it.

    If you build 1 thing every 15 turns there's no skill or thought    Highly overrated game. It can take dozens of turns for a single small event to happen and there's not a single interesting thing in the entire game. Anyone who plays actual games such as Starcraft II will fall asleep watching or playing Civ V because it's such a dumbed down simple game that a 5 year old could play it.

    If you build 1 thing every 15 turns there's no skill or thought needed.
    Attacks can take dozens of turns to do anything, again making people simply fall asleep.
    Play the demo if you'd like, skip buying it.    … Expand
  62. jarnold
    Mar 10, 2011
    0
    I am sorely disappointed. I love the old civilization games, and was looking forward to this game for quite some time. The graphics are hardly better than Civ 4, and there are loads of glitches. The lag is horrible, and there are fewer choices of people or options. They dumbed it down. This may be fine for an introduction to the Civilization series, but I wanted a step forward, notI am sorely disappointed. I love the old civilization games, and was looking forward to this game for quite some time. The graphics are hardly better than Civ 4, and there are loads of glitches. The lag is horrible, and there are fewer choices of people or options. They dumbed it down. This may be fine for an introduction to the Civilization series, but I wanted a step forward, not simplification.… Expand
  63. scotius
    Mar 17, 2011
    0
    well, another game has been dumbed down in order to appeal to the WoW audience. CiV is a real crying shame of a game. Instead of building on the achievements olf Civ 4 they havespoiled it by making an entirely new game.

    A game that is shallow, too easy, dumb and has very little going for it once you get into the industrial age. Be very aware that Firaxis employees are spamming    well, another game has been dumbed down in order to appeal to the WoW audience. CiV is a real crying shame of a game. Instead of building on the achievements olf Civ 4 they havespoiled it by making an entirely new game.

    A game that is shallow, too easy, dumb and has very little going for it once you get into the industrial age. Be very aware that Firaxis employees are spamming Metacritic with good reviews in order to bump its rating up.    … Expand
  64. Isisius
    Mar 17, 2011
    0
    This is an abomination!!!!
    Civ 4 with its expansions is perhaps the best game ive ever played.
    Intricate Diplomacy, Religion, Corporations, basically EXCITEMENT. And missions, they were awesome. The game tells us to build 20 coliseums and we get a bonus. Now we have a choice, do we crank out coliseums and wear the halt in progress, or do we forgo the permanent bonus it would give us.    This is an abomination!!!!
    Civ 4 with its expansions is perhaps the best game ive ever played.
    Intricate Diplomacy, Religion, Corporations, basically EXCITEMENT.
    And missions, they were awesome. The game tells us to build 20 coliseums and we get a bonus. Now we have a choice, do we crank out coliseums and wear the halt in progress, or do we forgo the permanent bonus it would give us.
    Random events, forest fire, oh bugger, exocitc furs in yay for money. These made it interesting.
    This game has potential, and it gave us a couple of GREAT things, i love the hex combat, and i love the new modding system, but why, WHY did it have to take out everything that was good, interesting and exciting from the game, just to add a few good features.
    You have really dissapointed me here, i took the day off to play this game when it came out, simply because i assumed that i have spent so many hours on Civ4 i would need at least 1 day to get through this. Imagine my horror when i play this POS for 3 hours and am already bored with its complete lack of depth.    … Expand
  65. andreaskarlsson
    Mar 27, 2011
    0
    The game runs very poorly on my new macbook pro i5 with SSD. In addition to this the game crashes after playing only a few minutes. The graphics have to be set to the lowest quality for the game to run at all and thus are awful. A purely horrible experience and such a disappointment that I had to make an account here and express my opinion. I would gladly take my money back for this one!
  66. Mittsies
    Jan 14, 2014
    0
    Trash game. Horrendous multiplayer. Incredibly boring and weak compared to its predecessors. Is 0 out of 10 a fair score? Probably not. But it's an insult to the franchise, disrespecting its own line of games, so why should I leave a respectful review? Even if the game was free to play, I'd be more worried about wasting my time. Go play Civ 4 or something.
  67. obrien1984
    Apr 30, 2011
    0
    Extremely clunky game that does not warrant the franchise name nor the $50 I paid for it. Could not be more frustrated or disappointed. Am curious and wish I could determine how many of these ten scores were posted by company employees protecting their paychecks. Release of this game will likely hurt the company. Alas, the CEO probably got a $3 million bonus for keeping to schedule.Extremely clunky game that does not warrant the franchise name nor the $50 I paid for it. Could not be more frustrated or disappointed. Am curious and wish I could determine how many of these ten scores were posted by company employees protecting their paychecks. Release of this game will likely hurt the company. Alas, the CEO probably got a $3 million bonus for keeping to schedule. Just so you know, you won't be getting $50 from me again. Trust has been broken and is now irreparable.… Expand
  68. Thothistox
    Oct 15, 2011
    0
    This is the most disappointing sequel I have ever played. I played Civ4 for well over 1000 hours of my life. I played Civ5 for 36 hours according to Steam, and I haven`t had the slightest urge to pick it up again. Civ 5 is like Civ4 with slightly better graphics, a hexagonal playing field and a whole lot of things removed including everything I considered fun, and it was clearly made byThis is the most disappointing sequel I have ever played. I played Civ4 for well over 1000 hours of my life. I played Civ5 for 36 hours according to Steam, and I haven`t had the slightest urge to pick it up again. Civ 5 is like Civ4 with slightly better graphics, a hexagonal playing field and a whole lot of things removed including everything I considered fun, and it was clearly made by people who don`t know why gamers played the previous Civ games. Where do I begin... Let`s start with the AI. It has obviously not received any QA time whatsoever. You will repeatedly encounter the other civs behaving in a way that makes no sense whatsoever. The other civs will declare war at random, and ask you for help and then brand you a warmonger and hold a grudge against you for thousands of years because you did what they asked for and helped them. The other civs have a way of ganging up on the human-controlled civ and making demands of it that they don`t make of each other. Wonders feel useless, and instead of animations you just get a cheesy image.There is no technology trading. The technology race feels irrelevant. Making research pacts is idiotic. Renewing research pacts is idiotic. Neutral nation states that give you `missions` -- idiotic. Punishing civs for expanding by making cities exceedingly expensive while half the world map remains empty well into the industrial age -- idiotic. On occasion, other civs won`t bother to build a second city or any units for that matter. Cities are weapons -- idiotic. Archers can fire over hundreds of kilometres. Only one unit can fit per tile, meaning that vulnerable units often have no protection. This game feels like the war is actually happening between 10 soldiers versus a tank rather than a unit that symbolizes a whole infantry or armored division. The war is a cartoon of Civ4`s war. Hexagonal tiles are a very lazy improvement, and the game gains little through them. There are no ending animations and no summary of history, probably because it would expose how broken the AI is.

    If I were to make a real sequel to Civ4 here`s what I would include: 1) theatres of war: when you fight inside a tile the camera zooms in to a strategic view where your divisions are split up into smaller units that you can move around on the zoomed-in map. These units support each other with indirect fire, flanking and fighting at short range. This would be far better than having one unit per tile or having stacks of doom like in civ4. It would also be a lot more work to implement, but that is exactly what I expect from a whole new game -- which civ5 is not

    2) Better population dynamics. Assuming I have the same amount of food, it shouldn`t make any difference whether I train settler and split into two cities or not. My total population should be the same. In civ5 the population dynamics make no sense.

    3) Intead of building an army, I should build equipment and employ a segment of my population to use it. You can`t build soldiers, only give birth to them.

    4) Smart and logical AI that doesn`t attack at random.

    5) More techs and more units, including many more in the modern era.

    6) Allowing backward civs to get third-rate versions of modern weapons (the equivalent of African AK47s) without a lot of research.

    That is the kind of civ game I would like to play, but of course it would take some thought to appreciate and lots of time and effort to construct. Civ5 on the other hand was rushed and designed to look good for 5 hours, just long enough for the reviewer to give it its high mark and then give up on it.    … Expand
  69. rstencel
    Jul 11, 2011
    0
    Have to log into steam and have it running to install and play this game. Steam isnt an app I am willing to run on my machine cause of issues had in past with it, and even through bought from brick and morter store, have to run steam in order to use it. They do not take returns cause they say it says need steam in fine print on back of box, after looking for 10 minutes was able to findHave to log into steam and have it running to install and play this game. Steam isnt an app I am willing to run on my machine cause of issues had in past with it, and even through bought from brick and morter store, have to run steam in order to use it. They do not take returns cause they say it says need steam in fine print on back of box, after looking for 10 minutes was able to find the fine print about steam. Will never buy another 2k game and cant play this unreturnable game at all now. Am very displeased.… Expand
  70. mrvirtue
    Jul 12, 2011
    0
    I love this game. The game and its developers don't love me back. I won't buy another Fireaxis game again. My major issue with this game is the lack of effort on the developers part. On loading the direct x 11 option is not even selectable. I have to do some backdoor entry just to play the game properly. When I'm actually in the game I get the worst FPS in the history of a game whoisI love this game. The game and its developers don't love me back. I won't buy another Fireaxis game again. My major issue with this game is the lack of effort on the developers part. On loading the direct x 11 option is not even selectable. I have to do some backdoor entry just to play the game properly. When I'm actually in the game I get the worst FPS in the history of a game whois graphics look like crap. Just to be clear I'm not complaining about graphics. I like civ because it is turn base. The graphics could look like chess figures for all i care. I just don't like how I can play a game like Crysis on max settings and I get terrible fps in a game like Civ 5. I don't normally write reviews but this game compelled me to complain. Almost a full year into the game and still no major patches to correct this issue. I refuse to play on the lowest settings or direct x 9 when my computer can handle the best graphic intensive games out to date. This game and its developer have lost a fan of many years.… Expand
  71. nicktaste
    Aug 7, 2011
    0
    The fact this game was given such high reviews by so many critics and sits now at a "90" is a testament to the lack of credibility of many professional critics. I played civilization 4 as well as other previous civ titles and I can easily say this game is a huge disappointment. The game is simply boring, tedious, and not fun. You can not stack units and the AI is far inferior to the AI ofThe fact this game was given such high reviews by so many critics and sits now at a "90" is a testament to the lack of credibility of many professional critics. I played civilization 4 as well as other previous civ titles and I can easily say this game is a huge disappointment. The game is simply boring, tedious, and not fun. You can not stack units and the AI is far inferior to the AI of Civ4. This game simply does not live up to its predecessor.… Expand
  72. flipkin
    Aug 27, 2011
    0
    Big fan of the franchise, but this game sucks. Big pet peeve of mine is when the AI opponent is able to do moves the human player is not. Lot's of bugs. Very slow loading. Slow in general. Hangs. Obviously rushed out before it was done.
  73. gerard
    Nov 19, 2011
    0
    I am a fan of civilization since CIV1 and I loved all the CIV until and including CIV4. And I am really disapointed by CIV5 concepts. The game is totally unrealistic and boring. It is not pleasant to play. I will not play any longer to CIV5.
  74. PositiveCritic
    Jan 25, 2012
    0
    Part II of II .
    Part B. The issues. The fact that in 2010 you get just a DVD in a box could already raise an eyebrow or two, with the exponential development of solid state memory, graphics, computer power etc, I would have expected more data, even a solid state item, and here is a marketing thoughtâ
  75. hit_doctor
    Mar 5, 2012
    0
    bought the game hours ago, disc just prompts a steam install requiring a key, key worked fine, steam install DOES NOT WORK. very poor steam customer support, email only, no replies, not to mention no solutions for other people with my problems. game is probably great, but if you're trying to buy it legitimately, you're going to get screwed.
  76. totem
    Mar 29, 2012
    0
    Mac OS X version is unplayable on my system despite meeting the stated computer requirements: check forums regarding compatibility before purchase. //While the Mac platform isn't known for excellent gaming, I'd never had any problems with Aspyr ports in the past. However, Civilization 5 runs so choppy on my system even at the lowest resolution and graphics settings that it becomes aMac OS X version is unplayable on my system despite meeting the stated computer requirements: check forums regarding compatibility before purchase. //While the Mac platform isn't known for excellent gaming, I'd never had any problems with Aspyr ports in the past. However, Civilization 5 runs so choppy on my system even at the lowest resolution and graphics settings that it becomes a massive waste of time after turn 100. Reading other user complaints, there seem to be an abundance of tech issues on both the PC and Mac platforms. IMO, the publisher is delinquent for releasing a title that plays so poorly according to its own recommended specs. Make sure other users with systems similar to yours don't have issues before purchase.… Expand
  77. steevm
    Mar 30, 2012
    0
    You've probably already noticed that loads of Civ fans are unhappy with Civ V. I'm one of them. I bought Civilization I on release, and every other version since. Civ V is the first one that I can't even begin to enjoy. It's a massive step backwards. It's basically no longer Civilization, but some weird war game without any of the depth that made all the previous versions fun to play andYou've probably already noticed that loads of Civ fans are unhappy with Civ V. I'm one of them. I bought Civilization I on release, and every other version since. Civ V is the first one that I can't even begin to enjoy. It's a massive step backwards. It's basically no longer Civilization, but some weird war game without any of the depth that made all the previous versions fun to play and saw the series progress with each iteration. If anything, Civ V is kinda like Civ I in that it essentially removes all the additions to the series in between. Except that Civ I was actually fun to play and gave you the feeling of building a "Civilization to stand the test of time". This is a monstrosity not worthy of the name. I definitely won't be purchasing Civ VI in blind faith - and I never thought that I'd say that about a Civ game! Please Sid/Firaxis: focus on what made the Civ series so great - the "interesting decision paradigm". If you want to make a war game, by all means do, but then don't call it Civilization.… Expand
  78. dsacedon
    Jun 9, 2012
    0
    I can`t play, I waste myI can`t play, I waste my time.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................… Expand
  79. Negativvv
    Nov 16, 2015
    0
    I've played Civilization since 1 back in the 90's. Played 2 to death, and quite a bit of 3 and 4 too.

    Sid Meier needs a real job, rather than living off the back of a board game and re-skinning exactly the same game year after year. The idea is great but it's time to let it die and slip into history. Maybe I'm just jealous as I'd do what Meier does if I could make money with that    I've played Civilization since 1 back in the 90's. Played 2 to death, and quite a bit of 3 and 4 too.

    Sid Meier needs a real job, rather than living off the back of a board game and re-skinning exactly the same game year after year.

    The idea is great but it's time to let it die and slip into history.

    Maybe I'm just jealous as I'd do what Meier does if I could make money with that level of imagination and effort...    … Expand
  80. Viper482
    Nov 7, 2013
    0
    Overrated game because the combat absolutely sucks. Basically have more units than your enemy, you will win. Except on harder levels where instead of raising the level of AI they raise the level of units you need to survive ANY encounter. It is a stupid system and because of this alone I give this game a crap score.
  81. Rome
    Sep 28, 2014
    0
    Civilization V was pure crap when it was released in 2010. And despite all it's expansions and pointless DLC's it is still utter crap.

    Civ 5 is a dumbed down arcade game. As the game progresses you find that nothing interesting really ever happens. Turn after turn of pointlessly pressing the end turn button. Every design decision seems to come from the developers wish to do stuff    Civilization V was pure crap when it was released in 2010. And despite all it's expansions and pointless DLC's it is still utter crap.

    Civ 5 is a dumbed down arcade game. As the game progresses you find that nothing interesting really ever happens. Turn after turn of pointlessly pressing the end turn button.

    Every design decision seems to come from the developers wish to do stuff differently and cater to the casual masses. The results is the mentioned dumbed downed piece of turd, which is no doubt loved by casual gamers around the globe.    … Expand
  82. sandutter
    Jan 30, 2016
    0
    I loved Civ 1 (yes, 1). After that, things started to go wrong. I've tried several later versions, but to me, the 3D view is horrible. It just doesn't give you the overview that makes it enjoyable. Another thing with Civ5 is that it's so SLOW. I spent 2 hours trying to capture a tiny city-state with like 8 cannons. I think it must have been a bug, but what does it matter. It's a lousyI loved Civ 1 (yes, 1). After that, things started to go wrong. I've tried several later versions, but to me, the 3D view is horrible. It just doesn't give you the overview that makes it enjoyable. Another thing with Civ5 is that it's so SLOW. I spent 2 hours trying to capture a tiny city-state with like 8 cannons. I think it must have been a bug, but what does it matter. It's a lousy game. And oh yeah, you can no longer control your city's economy, i.e. relocate tile production. The whole thing is boring, slow, confusing, idiotic, completely forgettable...… Expand
  83. PKsoon
    Jan 23, 2014
    0
    thumb down to the max. worse game of the civ series. fell aslept in the game halfway. zero excitement. still enjoying Civ IV and don't think will buy Civ 6 if it ever launch.
  84. Velia
    Apr 10, 2014
    0
    More crashes and more money spent on my computer trying to prevent crashes than any game I've ever played. I will never buy another game from this company, ever. As far as gameplay it's poor to fair, but the fact that it crashes every other turn (literally; this is NOT an exaggeration) prevents me from enjoying the gameplay. At first I loved the no unit stacking. I thought it was aMore crashes and more money spent on my computer trying to prevent crashes than any game I've ever played. I will never buy another game from this company, ever. As far as gameplay it's poor to fair, but the fact that it crashes every other turn (literally; this is NOT an exaggeration) prevents me from enjoying the gameplay. At first I loved the no unit stacking. I thought it was a wonderful improvement over the Civ 4 unit stack of death. But it's not. It's hugely tedious to escort a settler, and don't quote the phrase "two ships passing in the night" because two ships can't actually pass each other. With two expacs, you think they'd fix the simple stuff, but they never did. (As an aside, I like hexes better than squares, but that is this game's ONLY redeeming feature.)… Expand
  85. Alex767
    Jan 2, 2015
    0
    Super boring....... such a waste of time and money, I heard from my friends that it was a good game, so I gave a shot , but it was so boring, Total war it is so much better....
  86. Zeeshan-Abid
    May 29, 2015
    0
    I have been playing Civilization series since 1998. Didn't play Civ 1 too much, but since Civ 2, I stuck to the game. I even played Call to Power by Activision (which were deviations from Sid Meier games, but had the same game concept). I bought Civ 3 twice. Civ 4 became my most favorite game. For Civ 5, I bought a new computer, and had a new graphic card. Honestly, I could never believeI have been playing Civilization series since 1998. Didn't play Civ 1 too much, but since Civ 2, I stuck to the game. I even played Call to Power by Activision (which were deviations from Sid Meier games, but had the same game concept). I bought Civ 3 twice. Civ 4 became my most favorite game. For Civ 5, I bought a new computer, and had a new graphic card. Honestly, I could never believe that I would be writing a bad review for a Sid Meier's game. I loved almost every game by them. And I tried very hard to like Civ 5, but I could not. This game is simply not the usual 'Addictive' tag that all the civilization games had.

    Civ 5 is not a game of the series, made for the fans of the series. Off course, it can be fun for many others. But the people who enjoyed 'Strategy' in terms of empire management, this game is a simple piece of trash. In Civ games you usually made the decisions based on the situation. In this game, you would have to build a simple chain of tactics, and once you would have that, you would be repeating that for almost every game. It's all based on the gaining 'Bonuses' by selecting different options. Once you know which bonuses are better than others, nothing would be anymore 'Optional'. No strategy, no tactics.

    The only place this game tries to excel is the war tactics. However, even in that it fails miserably. In the early game it gives you a feel of fun to play one unit on a hex tile. But after middle age, and mainly in late ear, when you have enough troops, managing them becomes a real problem. The game gets too boring if you're not at war. And if you're at war, it becomes simply irritating. With civilization game, I want to play an empire building/management game, and not a war tactics game. I can play lots of games much superior on war tactics.

    I know most of the Civ fans would not listen to me and would still try this game. But in the end, they will also quit the series. So sad, as we all all loved this series greatly.    … Expand
  87. RamaMan
    Jun 2, 2016
    0
    Civilization, more like UNcivillized, because of terrible characters, boring game play, badly paced story, an unlikable main character, and dull set pieces.
  88. volumass35
    Jul 13, 2019
    0
    It's a boring copycat of previous games. The graphics is adequate, the gameplay too. The Civ cant get any fresh idea.
  89. coachdds
    Jan 16, 2020
    0
    the amount of crap necessary to install the game is ridiculous. from steaming pile of dogcrap to the game itself
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Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best PC Game of 2010
5
#5 Most Discussed PC Game of 2010
3
#3 Most Shared PC Game of 2010

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 70 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 66 out of 70
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 70
  3. Negative: 0 out of 70
  1. Thunderbolt
    Apr 3, 2011
    90
    Despite my gripe with the animations in multiplayer, Civilization V is the perfect entry for the series' debut in the current generation of gaming.
    Read full review
  2. games(TM)
    Jan 20, 2011
    80
    We're just a little bit disappointed that this Civ evolution isn't as polished as we'd expected. [Issue#102, p.108]
  3. Eurogamer Spain
    Jan 15, 2011
    80
    An old franchise that knows who to evolve to adapt to modern times. Its latest new ideas might not be perfect, but serve the purpose of making the game even more interesting.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »