When I heard that 2K was having an event to show off Mafia II and Civilization V, I was pretty excited for the opportunity to see both of them. When I heard that I’d have to choose between the two games, I all but forgot about Mafia II. Civ is one of my biggest gaming weaknesses. It’s actually one of the only PC-gaming franchises that I have consistently come back to over the years. Unfortunately, we only got to watch a short demo of Civ V at the event, a mere bite of the feast a new Civ game has to offer, but even that was enough to make my mouth water (god, I’m hungry).
The guys from Firaxis started off the demo by discussing why they made a new Civilization game in the first place. While their answer of taking the fundamental Civ experience and applying new game mechanics seemed like a sort of canned marketing argument, it was evident through watching the demo that they are actually committed to this idea.
The first huge change that the devs made on this title was the shift from square tiles to hexagonal ones. I had wondered why they hadn’t made this shift in the past, as after playing D & D on both square and hexagonal tiles, I can tell you that the latter is always preferable for strategic combat games. Also, I’ve been playing a whole bunch of Settlers of Catan recently, so the hexagonal tiles were almost soothing to see on the screen. According to the presentation, this shift also helped the team make a richer, more organic feeling world, especially with regards to unit movement through various topographical features.
There are supposedly a slew of other changes in the game, although the Firaxis guys were not able to discuss too many of them at this point. Religion is no longer a factor in the game, which was a decision they made purely because of how binary the relationships with other civilizations became through that system. Apparently, it just didn’t mesh well with the new diplomacy systems in place. The AI has supposedly gotten a facelift, and this has added some more depth to the diplomacy system Computer controlled characters should now react realistically to your actions. If you amass troops along one of their borders, they may instigate war with you. Each ruler even has its own preferred style of playing that has been designed to match its civilization.
Another alteration to the core Civ gameplay is the addition of city-states. These are small NPC civilizations that can’t actually win the game themselves, but do help to grease the wheels of diplomacy. You reap benefits for helping the city-states around you and eventually earn friendship points that can be used to cash in on various favors in different situations. According to the presenter, there was a specific instance where a single city-state served as a catalyst for a continent-wide war. In order to stay in favor with the city-states, the different players had all been sucked into a war that none of them were ready for. It all sounded like a stellar new addition to the franchise.
By this time in the presentation, we'd already gone over several subtle inclusions in the game, but we hadn't yet gotten to the combat which seems to have gotten the biggest overhaul yet. As many of you who might be reading this article know, the "Stack of Doom" is completely absent from the game. That is to say, you are now only allowed one unit per tile. The Firaxis guys cited several reasons for this change, and I can see how every one of them might help make Civ V even better than the already perfect IV. Although they didn't want to make this a "hardcore" military combat strategy game, they did want to place more emphasis on the individual units that you use. Units cost more this time around, take longer to build, and are more expensive to maintain. However, they do not die as quickly, and have significantly more options for upgrades and promotions. They promised that this promotion and upgrade system would be "very cool," but wouldn't provide any specific details.
Combat does seem to be more dynamic in Civ V than in the previous games. Terrain has a much greater influence on how you can attack with different tiles conveying different bonuses to attack or defense. Taking refuge inside a mountain pass to repel would-be attackers seemed like a nice touch. There was always something like this in Civ, but it seems like it's much more involved and strategic. Units also have more visible HP with negative numbers popping up after each attack to clearly show the life lost. Without stackable units, it would seem like protecting cities would be much harder than before. The Firaxis presenters assured us that this wouldn't be the case, as cities can defend themselves, have their own HP, and can have units garrisoned in them to provide defensive bonuses. The devs wanted to shift the focus onto defending your cities by placing military units outside of them and warding off invaders that way.
The demo ended as abruptly as it began. The game was still very early, and there wasn't much they were yet ready to show off. They didn't go into much detail about culture and science besides assuring us that there were surprises in both areas. The game is set to ship this Fall, although I could easily see it slipping into early next year. Regardless, I'm not complaining. Civilization V is already looking fantastic. I can't wait to see what Firaxis has in store for us with the final product.
