Huge Civilization V Preview

Last week we had the good fortune to visit Firaxis and get a firsthand look at Civilization V from several of the game's creators. Not counting the Colonization mod, this is the series first return to the PC after making the leap to the console and handheld platforms with Civilization Revolution. Some fans feared that the leaner (and loonier) style that Civ displayed on the consoles might bleed over into subsequent PC sequels. Based on the pre-alpha version we saw, that doesn't seem to be the case. There's a fine line between making a game easier and making it easier to play, of course, but Firaxis is committed to maintaining the depth the fans have come to expect.

The first suspicions of a market-driven compromise are usually generated by the dreaded "A" word, accessibility. While it's true that some game systems, like religion and espionage, have been removed, fears that Civilization Revolution on the console has dumbed down the gameplay of the PC sequel are unfounded. In the case of Civilization V, accessibility just means the developers want to make it easier to understand and manipulate the complexity within the game. Most of these are merely matters of convenience rather than cutting back and, with that in mind, it's clear that the interface for Civ Rev has definitely impacted the presentation in Civ V.

Basic commands and notifications have been simplified and pushed into the corners of the art deco interface. The few unit actions that players use all the time will be aligned on the lower left edge of the screen, but you can expand the list to include the whole range of possible actions. Small icons will pop up each turn to notify players of new events that might require attention and clicking on those icons will take players to the location in question. The idea is to give the player as much information they need without ever taking them out of the game itself.

New Graphics: