Sid Meier’s Civilization Review

Strategy games can be really fun to play for those who invest the time into learning how to play them. Unfortunately,  they can also be notoriously complicated and difficult to learn how to play, and a lot of players can’t get past all the complex mechanics to start enjoying these games. Luckily, there is one franchise of games that’s fairly easy to get into, and well suited for anyone who wants to start playing strategy games: Sid Meier’s Civilization.

Sid Meier’s Civilization is a franchise of turn-based strategy games and has been around for a good long while, with the first Civilization game released in 1991, and has since released six main titles as well as a few spinoffs. The easiest one to learn how to play is Civilization V, released in 2010. In this game, you choose a historic civilization and leader to play as. Some examples include Augustus Caesar of Rome, Oda Nobunaga of Japan, George Washington of America, Alexander of Greece, and many more. Additionally, every civilization has unique bonuses to give it an edge. For instance, America can expand its territory faster than other civilizations.

Once you pick your civilization, you start a new game in 4000 BC. Over time, you grow your civilization into an empire by exploring the world and expanding your territory with new cities. In each city, you manage their output of food, production, science, culture, and faith, if you have the God & Kings expansion pack. Food determines how fast your population grows, while production governs how fast you can build things. Science lets you discover and take advantage of new technologies, while culture determines what social policies you adopt, which shapes your empire’s inner workings. Lastly, faith provides benefits depending on which religious beliefs you adopt for your empire. While you manage your own cities, you engage in diplomacy with other nations you find over time. You can engage in peaceful trade, ignore them, or raise and army and go to war.

As you play the game, you eventually have to consider what kind of victory you would like to achieve. Civilization V has multiple ways to win the game. You can become the most scientifically advanced empire in the world and send a spaceship into a new star system. You can develop a large amount of culture and tourism to become influential all over the world. You can use the United Nations to become elected to leader of the world, or you can use your military to conquer all other empires in the game. Regardless of which victory you aim, it will take a long time, so a single game of Civilization V will keep you busy; you probably won’t finish a game in one sitting. It will take time to get used to, like any new game, but Civilization is a good stepping stone for anyone interested in getting into strategy games.