Australia for the win!
As a long term fan of the original, I approached this with a sceptical heart. I had been burnt badly by Civ Rev and wondered if I was doomed to Dosbox and my original copy of Civ 1. But I was actually amazed at how well Civ 5 took the series back to the heart of the game. Whilst the hand holding "auto improve" still exists, I am still a purist of the micro management days and can still manually control the development of my empire.
The move to Hexes is something long overdue, as any tabletop gamer will tell you the inherent flaws of a square based system were out of wack with a game that had always been 3 parts strategy 1 part CHARGE! Although I admit it takes a bit of getting used to when preparing your battle lines( surrounding a city only allows for 6 avenues now rather than the traditional 9.)
Unit composition remains as you would expect largely unchanged from the most recent incarnations ( however all features of the units have been tweaked and rebalanced)
Game play speed ups are a mixed bag. Whilst I appreciate not everyone has 12 hours to invest in a game that can suddenly go horrible wrong (anyone else had a sudden nuclear strike turn you from king to pauper?) I also think that maybe this isn't the game for them. I have always felt that the game was like a morning flower, unfurling its petals before me at it's own pace. I often played until I had supped my fill of the bouquet, then started a new game knowing full well I would never see the worlds dramatic conclusion.
All in all I can not judge the longevity of this product without reference to the previous ones. I believe if steam had existed in my formative years it would have served but one purpose. That is to show that the sum total of all my other gaming experience with every other game from zork to Halo Reach would not add up in hours played to the time I have invested in Civ 1.
Long live the Civilisation!
