The new "Civilization" was released on several platforms almost nine years after the sixth part. It was brought to Russia just a few days after the world release. The version for PS5 can be considered a flagship - it eliminated all the problems that gamers of other platforms complain about. There are Russian sound and subtitles, the game is fully translated, and from the world leaders you can choose Catherine II, but she will not always be able to rule Russia. "Izvestia" got acquainted with the game and realized that the main innovation is a radically different philosophy.
Why "Civilization" is more than a cult game
When we were boys, the very first "Civilization" was considered a dangerous trap. Because if you sat down to play, you could forget not only about lessons, but also about school, friends, books and everything else until at least the next morning. If not worse - it depended on when the parents noticed this outrage. We didn't know then that, as it turns out, "Civilization" all over the world gave rise to the phenomenon of "one more go", which exactly described this state: here's one last time - and sleep/to school/home from guests. But it was after "Civilization" that another amazing sensation arose - that is, when you go out into the street, take a step and freeze, because passers-by also have to take a step, and then you can take it again.
Screenshot from the game Sid Meier's Civilization VII
This lyrical preface is necessary to explain how personal, intimate experiences are associated with the majority of gamers around the world with the "Civilization" series. The count here is not in tens and not in hundreds - it's in tens of thousands of hours and endless games in endless variations. There are people who don't play any other games at all, only switching from the last "Civilization" to the next one - or staying in the old one if they don't like the changes in the new version.
And certainly, with great trepidation, everyone was waiting for the seventh "Civilization", because the last part came out in 2016 - a huge period of time, almost a decade. During this time, everyone had time to form some kind of their own, fantastic version of the new "Civilization", where all the flaws were to be taken into account, and the innovations would have to both preserve the best of the old, and make it so that this particular gamer finally liked everything. In such cases, any release would be doomed to a barrage of criticism, and "Civilization" will not escape this fate for sure.
On PS5, the game is bug-free
Early access to the game gamers could get almost a month ago for about a hundred dollars. Many bought the PC version - and the Internet was filled with outraged reviews, disastrously low scores and statements that the game simply should not have been released. There was also talk of a large number of technical errors, which, in addition to the new concept of the game, caused persistent rejection.
"Izvestia" did not hurry and waited until the PlayStation 5 version was brought to Russia - it can be considered a flagship, so it is better to immediately analyze it. A copy of the game was provided by Achivka, the largest video game distributor in Russia - the company's CEO Yasha Haddaji confirmed to us that "the demand for Sid Meier's Civilization VII is high in terms of physical sales". And, as it turned out, the expectation was justified, because we did not find a single "bug" in this version of the game. In addition, on PlayStation 5 "Civilization" is perfectly translated into Russian - both sound and text, while the computer version is scolded for the fact that somewhere there is no translation at all, and somewhere it is with errors. Everything works quickly, smoothly, you can see that the version was debugged before release.
In order not to bore the reader with details, we will tell only briefly about what awaits him in the new "Civilization". Those who played in the past parts, will quickly understand the essence of the changes. So, the entire history of mankind authors have laid in three eras: "antiquity", "research" and "modernity". You can start with any of them at the beginning, but the classic choice is from scratch. We choose a leader from significant historical figures, such as Machiavelli, and he can choose a nation to rule. And each nation is tied to an era. For example, Russia is tied to "modernity", which means that Catherine II, available for selection, can rule anyone but her own country at the start. This non-obvious decision is highly disconcerting, but even more surprising is that the game's dramaturgy forces a change of nation (but not leader) when transitioning to a new era. That is, the Greeks or Romans have no chance of surviving to the present day, they are bound to turn into someone else - perhaps the Russians.
Screenshot from the game Sid Meier's Civilization VII
Previously, the territory around cities was cultivated by builders, for many buildings it was necessary to first build specialized districts, now it is not necessary: the city is built according to such vague rules that it is not very easy to understand them. It's hard to see the buildings and the whole map even up close to the screen with maximum zoom, you have to trust the game. Resources without any roads can be manually distributed between cities, and new cities are now not cities, but "towns", although it would be more correct to translate "working villages". Because up to a certain point they have a purely utilitarian function of closing space and replenishing some resources.
Previously, in addition to rival countries, there were city-states and barbarian settlements on the map, now they are united. The player has a resource "influence" - you can use it on these settlements, and the bandits will stop bothering. Influence can be "paid" when communicating with rivals, for example, for each trade deal or for "visa-free regime". Warlords now gather up to six units into squads to "unload" them on the battlefield. In theory, it should have become easier to manage your state, not to deal manually with each unit and not to memorize what and where is in the suburbs.
What is the difference between "Civilization 7" and all the others?
It's hard to summarize the impression I got from the game in such a short period of time, but perhaps the main idea is the change of philosophy to a more relevant, modern one than the one laid down by the creator of "Civilization" Sid Meier in the 80s. We used to be not just a ruler - we were almost a god, we had so much control in our hands that at some point we simply became too crowded on Earth and we went to Alpha Centauri. And it was clear that it would be more or less easy there.
In the new "Civilization" we realize that we don't really have much control. Moreover, whereas before we realized that we were moving towards prosperity and victory, now we see everywhere from the very beginning signs of decline, entropy leading to one tragedy after another. And there is nothing we can do about it, we can only pull ourselves together every time and not let impotent rage rob us of our sanity.
Here, we have built one city, two, three - but we can't build more. Why, if we have settlers, if we have energy? Because our capacity is not unlimited. We rebuild cities, but we are regularly hit by natural disasters, collapsing buildings, forcing us to spend time rebuilding what we've lost. We feel that things are getting worse and worse, we try to do something, but in vain... And we discover that the game has a scale of increasing crisis. When it fills up, we will forcibly move to the next era. In this case not only ethnos will disappear, absolutely according to Lev Gumilev, but many buildings and units will disappear, we can generally fall into the dark ages, from which we will have to get out with great difficulty. A bit like the apocalyptic "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov, there was also a "crisis", there was the collapse of the empire, the subsequent chaos and recipes for how to overcome this chaos quickly. The authors of the new "Civilization" have obviously read Asimov and packaged his concept into a game.
Screenshot from the game Sid Meier's Civilization VII
So, we move to a new era - and learn nothing. Cities must be rebuilt from ruins, rebuilt anew. Moreover, the map suddenly expands, and we have to do the pioneering before the colonies are claimed by our rivals. Everything happens so fast that you don't have time to realize it. In the standard game mode, discoveries and socio-political cataclysms occur at the speed of a fast-forward movie. Just now we were building the first libraries - and knights are already rushing around, where did they come from, who can say?
Neighboring states for no reason one after another declare war on us, for which we were not ready, although relations with all of them were fine, neighborly. In life, perhaps, it happens so, but we are in the game? "Civilization" was appreciated for this feeling of comfort, when you accumulate resources - and eat, drink, have fun, found cities, build armies, amaze the world with wonders of the world. The new "Civilization" forces to leave the comfort zone, it is a world of evil accidents and secret regularities, in which you feel the underlying logic, but it is not given in any way, does not allow you to master it.
And here is a ruler without the people, because the people are fickle, and the proud Mayans of "antiquity" are absolutely impossible to recognize in the Prussian troops of "modernity". There is almost nothing left of the first cities, the scale of the map has changed, and with it the general idea of the planet. Another crisis is building up, and what will happen when the scale fills up, the heavens themselves do not know. How not to despair, not to be overwhelmed in this maelstrom of events? We do not have an answer to this question yet, we have to keep playing. One more move - and sleep, as we remember, because in the sense of narcotic fascination this "Civilization" is not inferior to the past. Just this sleep will be heavy and not cheerful, because Monomakh's hat was unusually heavy.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
