GDC 2010: Civilization V Demo Impressions

One of the biggest games that we got a first peak at was the latest installment of Sid Meier's turn based strategy series, Civilization V. Sitting down with for a short demo of the game, it was pretty clear that a lot of careful thought and detail has gone into making this into the biggest, most flexible entries into the series. Looking at a screenshot of the game, it should be pretty obvious to fans of the series that a lot of things have changed. Instead of just adding new features to an existing series, Firaxis Games took a step back and looked at what players wanted to do with the game and built an experience reworked from the ground up.

Speaking of ground, the biggest change you'll notice is that the grid system is gone and replaced with a much appreciated hex system. This made unit movement a whole lot smoother and gave the world map a much more pleasing aesthetic with more realistic shapes. The grounds itself looked stunning with a new graphics engine that takes advantage multi-core systems with DX11 (don't worry, I was assured that the casual-friendly game would support low end systems as well).

In a nod to the breakout success of Civilization Revolution, advisors make a return to the Civ V. The player isn't required to take advantage of their services, but the developers found that players enjoyed their presence in Revolution and placed them in here as a gameplay element that players can take advantage of them if they want. Experienced, or more stubborn, players can ignore them all together and do whatever they want.

Firaxis also applied a lot of the lessons they learned creating Revolution's UI here as well. The overall presentation felt like a lot of the UI was pushed back, only appearing when the player requests it or if an event calls for it. Part of this includes a new notification system that updates plays between turns of the actions that they may have missed. With a quick click, you can automatically move the point of interest and adjust units as needed. Even though Civ has been and still is a turn based game, it's good to see how these changes make the game much quicker.

Another big change in gameplay seen here was how the combat system has been almost entirely overhauled. Gone is the "stack" system that let players totally over power their opponents by over producing. Now, each unit takes up one hex, giving the game a much more traditional tactical feel. With no stacks, cities defend themselves and players form lines of defense.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see all that the title has to offer at GDC. There's still a bit of time between now and the game's fall release to go over the changes in store for culture, science, and multiplayer. Expect to see more at E3 in a few weeks.