It's time to get your god complex on
For close to two decades, Sid Meier has fed the monkey on many a strategy gamer’s back. His prolific Civilization series has set the bar for turn-based strategy games for a long, long time. The series puts you into the shoes of the leader of one of a number of civilizations—each with their own advantages and shortcomings—as you guide your people from the dawn of time to the space age. The latest iteration, Civilization V, is easily the most addictive and accessible so far. Since it was released last fall for Windows, Mac gamers have been champing at the bit to get their hands on an OS X version, and at last they can.
Make yourself at home.
Boasting a refined combat system, rich 3D graphics, and a streamlined micromanagement system, Civilization V is worthy of the franchise’s crown as the king of all strategy games. Aspyr, the developer that also ported the last Civilization game to the Mac, did a tremendous job maintaining Civ V’s look, feel, and playability. Civ V introduces a hex-based mapping grid that lets players formulate new strategies both for empire building and waging war. Long-time Civilization players will note that the game now only permits one military unit per space, making the “Stack of Doom” a thing of the past. You’ll also find a refined technology-development tree and an intriguing new civics system with substantial customization options to help your fledgling civilization grow into the all-consuming empire you always knew it could be. When played on a stock 2010 13-inch MacBook Pro, Civilization V preformed well and looked great while running with the game’s graphics set to medium, giving some much-needed love to gamers rocking a Mac with integrated graphics. On higher-powered machines, Civ’s new graphics really shine, with more detailed map textures, sparkling water effects, and the downright prettiest fog of war we’ve ever seen.
Despite the port’s addictive gameplay and support for a wide spectrum of Macs, we still found a few technical hiccups. We were disappointed to find Civ’s opening movie wouldn’t render correctly and the issue persisted through subsequent plays. We also found a few in-game graphical glitches as well. But make no mistake: these issues, while irritating, aren’t nearly enough to detract from the excellent Mac gaming experience Aspyr has put together.
The bottom line. Without a doubt, hardcore Civilization fanatics will love Civ 5’s complex gameplay and fresh new mechanics and the addictive multiplayer will hook even the most casual gamers.
CIVILIZATION V
2.4GHz or faster Intel Core 2 Duo processor; Mac OS 10.6.4 or later; 2GB RAM; ATI Radeon HD 2600, Nvidia GeForce 8600, or better graphics card with 256MB VRAM; 8GB free disk space
Same addictive gameplay we’ve come to expect from the Civilization series. A wide variety of civilizations, civics, and multiple paths to victory make it highly replayable. Enjoyable multiplayer.
Graphics glitches detract from the game’s experience.
Michael Shannon
January 11, 2011 at 9:04am
The reviewer obviously hasn't played Civilization V on a MacBook Pro. I've owned every version of Civilization in the past and I eagerly looked forward to playing this version. In fact, since my birthday was in November, it's what I asked my wife to give me.
Now, on January 11, 2001, I'm still looking forward to playing this game, because so far this steaming pile of mis-programming has refused to complete a single game. Every game, without exception, becomes unplayable when I reach the 1800s. Civilization, so to speak, stops.
I have the graphics set on "low" just like in VGA days, even though it's 2011. I have patch 1.0. I have followed the support emails. I don't have any other programs running (just like if Fat Mac days!) And it's all bupkis.
Aspyr's priority was to release the game for the Christmas season, it was not to release a finished product.
My MacBook Pro is less than one year old. It has all the system updates and the game won't run.
Aspyr's advice is to wait on the SECOND PATCH which will appear sometime in the future! I'm supposed to check 'Steam' a service I have no reason to visit if I'm not playing the game to see when the patch is out. (Don't get me started on 'Steam' the brilliant innovation that won't let owners simply play the game with the DVD in the drive.)
My suggestion to MacLife is to test a game on more than one hardware platform before publishing a review that will mislead readers who trust the magazine's opinion.
Seamus Bellamy
January 30, 2011 at 1:30am
Hi Michael, and thanks for your comment.
In the process of writing this review, I tested both a Pre-release of Civilization V as well as the final retail version downloaded from Steam. The review was conducted using an early 2010 13 inch 2.66 HHz MacBook Pro with 4 GB RAM, as well as on a late 2010 11 inch MacBook Air. In addition to this, I also took the time to play test the Mac version of the software versus the PC version of the same game. Surprisingly, I found the Mac version to be stable than its Windows counter part.
As an avid player of the Civilization series myself, I couldn't be more critical of Civilization V, as the franchise has set the bar very high. I'm sorry to hear about your compatibility issues and hope that a future patch makes the game more enjoyable for you.
Michael Shannon
February 04, 2011 at 9:52am
Thanks for the clarification. I assumed, wrongly, that my pretty standard MacBook Pro would perform like everyones. I have been waiting for weeks and am still waiting for patch 2.0. Then I may be able to join the lucky few (?) such as yourself who have actually finished a game.
I will say the new version, what I've played of it, delays combat until later in the game since you really need siege engines and the inability to stack helps the defense.
