Welcome to our 500th post on Multiplaying! The numerical symbolism is just amazing…this review…not so much…

Civilization V (or 5 if you hold a black place in your heart for Roman numerals) was released this week. If you read my previous piece on the subject matter, then you already know those things I wrote. If not, then you don’t. My hope for the past few weeks was that this safari into unfamiliar lands would prove bountiful. So elephant gun in hand, head pith-helmeted, I went to my local Gamestop and peered through the open spots in the glass between the Starcraft 2 standup of Jim Raynor and the Madden 11 posters. There I saw him, the elusive “Clerk” hiding in his den behind the counter, disemboweling a customer. Seems that the poor soul ate too many coins that day and was paying for his copy of Halo: Reach with change he scavenged from his couch.

Once the deed was done, and the mammal reduced to nothing but a beard, a trucker hat, and a plastic bag filled with what he bartered his life savings for, I sprang into action. The look on the Clerk’s face told me that there was still room in his gullet for more, so I acted quickly and dropped the gun. The rifle fired as hit the ground. Luckily, the only casualties were a collection of prepaid cards for Gansgta’ Zombies and a few issues of Game Informer, an acceptable loss as I was given enough time to pull the remainder of my debt for Civ V before he even had time to pounce.

Success!

Then I went and got Chinese food.

Then I went home and ate my Chinese food while Civilization was installed.

Yeah, not as exciting, I know. The food was great though.

But then I played the game. This game that I had not been so sure of even picking up given my history of apathy towards the series. In all honesty, for the first hour that I played, while I liked the updated look of the engine, and the intuitiveness of the new user interface, I still had a feeling of malaise for the game. I could feel that it was a great game, expertly made, but I wasn’t sure if it was really for me. I quit for a bit and fired up another game, then quickly decided to go back and have another go with building an empire. There was no addictive feeling that drew me back, but more a feeling of necessity. I bought the game, on its release day no less. I even took a half day from work to give myself plenty of time with it.

I started a new game, as the English this time rather than the Romans as my randomly selected country. Everything felt pretty much the same as the first run through, but I went a bit further this time. At around the 2 hour mark, something clicked. I still cannot figure out what it was. I think I just started to understand the game as I never did in the past. I was more careful with my expansion, keeping an eye on my citizens and their needs more than I had been. I began to see what balance I needed to keep in my production and research. I want to give my people what they want, but understand that I’ll be flattened if I don’t keep a strong military. I started to get why people always say, “just one more turn!” when speaking of the Civ games. I didn’t want to stop playing, but I had to go get the kids.

Now, I’d love to be able to do a more detailed review of how this game compares with the other iterations, and whether or not you’ll fall madly in love with it, but I can’t (Sorry @Longasc). I can only surmise that if you’ve enjoyed the previous games, then there’s a great chance you’ll dig this as well. If you were like me and never saw the games as “must play”, then I’d say there’s a chance this could change your perspective, but don’t count on it, and maybe wait for a sale.

I’ve only put about another 5 or 6 hours into the game, due to time limitations, but I almost fear even firing it up at this point. I get an hour to play when I get home, and about an hour and a half at night before I go to bed. If I push past that mark, I end up regretting it the next day at work.

Today, I regretted playing last night.

Right now my borders are pushing further and further into my enemies domain, and I desperately want to see how this works out.

I think I’ll be regretting something tomorrow.