Whats the Best Civilization Game?

Hi was wondering what the best Civ game is, and is it easy for someone new them to get the hang of things...

TrueIt

Personally speaking mine is IV but I have a feeling for most it will me V.
To be honest I'm not too sure how 'easy' it would be for someone new but if you enjoy these sort of games you will pick it up and really enjoy it after a while.
I've been playing them since III was out and always enjoy going back and playing beyond the sword every now and again.

Thanks TrueIt I am new to it but thinking of giving them a go..I hear good things about them

The_Valeyard

I miss the live action advisers from civ2. Especially the Elvis dude.

Dard23

I never played civilisations before 5 but i have to say i love it! Seemingly it wasn't as good before the Brave New World Dlc, but i bought the compete edition recently and it's so addicting. From looking on forums 4 seems to be a fan favourite but 5 is more streamlined for newbies.

Thanks think 5 it is then

Just ordered Civ5 from g2a...Cheers

The_Valeyard

Dard23 wrote: »

I never played civilisations before 5 but i have to say i love it! Seemingly it wasn't as good before the Brave New World Dlc, but i bought the compete edition recently and it's so addicting. From looking on forums 4 seems to be a fan favourite but 5 is more streamlined for newbies.

The civ5 expansions really do add to the game

Shiminay

Yea, I was a very late arrival to the Civ games, but the difference between Gods & Kings and Brave New World was significant, so make sure you get all that good stuff too. There's also a metric frak ton of brilliant mods to tweak and smooth out the experience, most important of which I'd say were Enhanced User Interface and InfoAddict.

MarkAnthony

The first one, on the Amiga :pac:

Dard23

I read recently about the Donald Trump Mod, which sounds hilarious. You're special unit is border patrol and your first golden age lasts the entire game but you have 100% more unhappiness from your citizens!

sirboby

i only ever got Civ 5 as i just really got into pc gaming. I went straight for the complete edition, i love it spent something like 600 hours in Civ 5 now

Kiith

Civ5 with the DLC's is by far the best Civ experience you'll find. So many hours spent playing that, and so many late night spent saying this is my last turn.

Shame they managed to **** up Beyond Earth so spectacularly.

Zillah

Beyond Earth!

You've got, like, pan-national groups with no personality beyond vaguely racist stereotypes, and cool aliens that are easy to understand because they're the most derivative and generic aliens you could imagine, and gosh, the tech web! How many hours I whittled away navigating that tech web trying to make any sense of it. Let's not forget the diplomacy, where people will randomly love or hate you as they unlock new technologies that change their affinity - really carries across that "insane leader with no grasp on reality" thing all strategy developers aspire to. The planet really managed to convey the sense of being lost on an alien world by using muddy textures and a cluttered interface so that you never really knew where you were going or why! Really gets that "pioneer" spirit.

Civ 5 with expansions by a long shot.

So many different ways to choose to develop your civ. I have three complaints: the AI behaves like a spoiled child rather than ever engage in realpolitik (as in, I know we don't like each other, but you need luxuries and I need oil so let's do this trade); the end game units and weapons aren't balanced well (the AI doesn't prioritise or understand nukes in the slightest - I could have a nuclear missile in range of their capital and they'll start a war); and there's no real mechanism by which to exert influence (as in, I can't say "Hey you, I have an army ten times your size, don't invade X or I'll crush you. You can invade them if they do attack X, but there's no way to make the threat, and it will be just the same as if you invaded them like you were Hitler invading Poland - everyone thinks you're a war-monger).

Other than those relatively minor points, amazing game. I've some insane number of hours in it.

Balmed Out

Played them all to death. Got most out of Civ 2 but its a bit jaded now. Civ V for me is poor definitely prefer three and four to it. A lot of people complained about civ 3 but I really liked it.

Zillah

Balmed Out wrote: »

Civ V for me is poor definitely

Did you play it with the expansions?

Lemming

Balmed Out wrote: »

Played them all to death. Got most out of Civ 2 but its a bit jaded now. Civ V for me is poor definitely prefer three and four to it. A lot of people complained about civ 3 but I really liked it.

I like Civ V, but I most defintely have a soft spot for Civ III.

Gbear

Civ 5 got slaughtered on release. So will Civ 6.

There's just no way to launch these games in a way that compares favourably to a previous version that's had 2 expansions.

It wasn't a problem until Civ 5 because 4 was (I believe) the first to have any DLC, but it's going to be a problem for all the rest.

There are things that 4 still does better than 5 and some features lost that would've been better to refine (power generation, health) but on balance Civ5 is the best by a long ways.

Thankfully there's still an awful lot to work on.
It doesn't seem like AI has advanced all that much in real terms (it must be more sophisticated but so is the game, so you don't really notice and the AI still has to cheat).

The combat, even ignoring the AI, is a long way off where most would want it to be.
Dismantling the stacks of doom was a great move, but 1upt feels too restrictive. It makes for interesting strategy but it feels a bit artificial and constricting.
A fixed number of units per tile, completely revamping ranged combat (arrows shouldn't outrange guns), siege warfare, how upgrading is handled, promotions; there's a lot they could do.

There's huge scope to change trade, religion, City States... And that's ignoring any refinement to the more core elements of the game like the tech tree, economy, etc.

The game is massive. Maybe not as sophisticated as one of those dysnasty simulator things like Crusader Kings, but it manages, probably the best of any game of this complexity, to be fairly noob-friendly.
And that will always have to be accounted for in expanding any future title.

1600 hours in and I'm back playing it again, for reasons I can't fully explain. There's just something comforting about how you potter away at it.

Beefy78

I was a late comer to the series - started with IV about four or five years ago maybe. Moved onto V a while back. I play it infrequently enough - I lose a weekend or two to it then move on for a few months. I sat down on Sunday early morning to start a game. About an hour later I decided I needed to get some breakfast, checked my watch and it was 3.30pm

It's easy enough for a newb I think.

Personally I prefer IV to V but I think I only have Gods & Kings. I'll finish this game and then look into later DLC.

TrueIt

Beefy78 wrote: »

About an hour later I decided I needed to get some breakfast, checked my watch and it was 3.30pm
.

I think everybody has fallen victim to this

Balmed Out

Zillah wrote: »

Did you play it with the expansions?

Yeah I have all the add ons but still not mad on it. I still play though!

Dave_The_Sheep

Civilization 5, with the addons is probably the most balanced, strategic and best of the lot.

That said, Civ 2 will always be my personal favourite. It's the one I spent the most hours on. I didn't think I'd ever spent as many hours on a game as Civ 1, until 2 came out.

mahoganygas

Civ II will always have a special place in my heart.

No other civ game evokes the same nostalgia.

I'll never go back and play it again as it's probably pants in comparison to modern games.
Best to just leave it as a memory.