A few days (read: week and a half) ago I started a new run of Sid Meyer’s Civilization V. It was mostly because I wanted to get my hold back on the basic ways of the game so I could talk a little bit of Beyond Earth before lucky number seven comes out. At the start it was a bit of a pain; my last playtime was the summer of 2023, but that was to try 5’s “weird” civ of Venice after I played the weird of 6’s Maori. Once I got the hang of it though, man does it have some awesomeness to it.

One of the big things I very quickly got back into was movement. You’ve probably heard this a lot if you’ve ever heard anything, but the movement in Civilization 6 is pretty awful. In it, if a unit has less movement than how required to move one tile, it can’t. Before it, any movement can be made, as long some movement points exist, even a fraction. While Civ 6‘s is probably closer to real life, it’s also worth remembering that it’s a video game. Being like real life doesn’t necessarily benefit the game, and all it really achieved is making a long game even longer.

Another big thing–a really big thing– is how great AI characters are. I’ve rambled about this before, but this time I’m not going on about how they behave, at least not how they play. Rather, I love how unique each is. It’s biggest knowing what they’re actually saying to you, I’m sure you’ve heard about trade agreements with England, but even when they’re talking other languages, they’re memorable. Seeing Darius surrounded by his shining room is something to behold, and while I don’t have Boudicca in my current game, her angry but accepting stab of a cart when you defeat her is one of the things in the game I most remember. Their gameplay behavior is obviously what matters most, but who they are to you is something that always makes me smile.

There are some bad things, of course. The city-states are little more than either targets. or pay-for-allies. And while they’re almost too powerful or too useful in Civ 6 to actually annex, I definitely feel like that’s a lot better. As for your own cities, the fact that higher difficulties create such a low soft cap makes playing wide almost impossible. And Civilization is kind of wide-focused, especially if you have a large map. You can set stuff you annex as puppet cities–you almost have to–and while the AI is fairly smart in getting you the right stuff, you still can’t build what you want where you want it. I’d kind of forgotten that, since my last game was a Venice, and with them you can do basically anything you want with puppet cities. And lastly for my complaints, man trading is a chore, especially across land. Civ 6′s trade-based road system doesn’t always stick roads where you want them, but at least you can send your traders wherever will make you the most of what you need.

Long story short, I love Civilization 5. Is it my favourite Civ? Probably, but it was also the first one I played, and that tends to be a big help to getting number one. Civ 6 has a lot of stuff in it that’s better, and a lot of stuff in it that’s worse. But whether my love for it is legitimate or just nostalgia…man, Civilization 5 is great.

How about you? What was your first version of Civ? Is it your favourite? How about other series of games? Tell us in the comments below, or over on Facebook!