Civilization - Never played before

[Showlen]

Hello,

I have never played Civilization before and I now have an interest to go and pickup a copy and play. Looking at it, it seems pretty complicated and want to know if it would be recommended to start with Civilization 5. I would assume that you could start with 5 if you hadn't played any of the previous games in the franchise, but would not having that prior experience make it more complicated?

I've always heard that this is an addictive game. Is it one of those that takes quite a while to get started, or get into, before it becomes really interesting? I realize this is probably a pretty ignorant question. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on what I should start with, as far as which game, and what I should choose to get started as a beginner.

Thanks for help!

[ddesart]

I have played Civilization since Civ 2, and I don't think playing all of them helped in playing Civ 5. They are all different, you just have to play. Since you have never played before, start on the lowest difficulty with advice, you can always shut off the advice when you feel that you have the hang of it, it's a pretty easy game to play. Have fun!

[Martin_K]

I agree with ddesart - the earlier civ games just share the same overall concept of building a civilization through the ages, but the game mechanics changed between each version so tricks that worked in civ 1 won't work in civ 5 etc.
so you can easily start with civ 5 without knowing the earlier releases. civ 5 has a few tutorial lessons (somewhere in the menu at the start of the game) that will quickly teach you some of the most important concepts of the gameplay. and you can play a game on the lowest difficulty level to learn the basic gameplay. AI controlled rival civs will not attack you on the lowest difficulty so you can just play and settle peacefully without having to worry too much about rival civs.
the game gets more interesting when you start playing on higher difficulty settings and it can be quite addictive. you can easily spend a few hundred hours with the game. i think i logged some 300 hours of playtime with civ 5 alone (and probably a few thousand with all the previous civ games in the last 20 or so years)

[builder680]

want to know if it would be recommended to start with Civilization 5.

I'm sure that many disagree, but I'd strongly suggest starting this series with Civ IV and Beyond the Sword expansion pack. Again, many disagree, but to me this was the pinnacle of Civ (been playing since 1991 and the first Civ). It's not perfect, but it's my favorite (and since you're asking for opinions, there's mine )

That's not to say that Civ V is horrible (there are some things I like, and many I don't, is all), but my personal recommendation is to start with Civ IV:BTS

[VicRatlhead51]

There really aren't many huge differences between the Civs except for a few bells and whistles. It still consists of settling and improving cities to reach a certain victory condition. I think 5 has the most replay value so far because the Civs are a little more unique than they were in previous installments. 5 also has the best combat system yet requiring a little more tactical maneuvering and the various units have more interesting uses than they did in earlier civs. One thing I did notice is the tutorial in 5 isn't as good as it was in 4. 4's tutorial really laid everything out for you and made it really easy to learn, 5's is kind of lacking and basically tells you to do different tasks without much explaination as to how or why. If you're cool with figuring things out on your own a little I'd say go for 5 over 4. All the talk about how great 4 was came after 2 expansions and 5 is getting an expansion in a little over a month. Vanilla 4 vs Vanilla 5 I'd say 5 is better so I believe expanded 5 will be the better game in the end.

[Mega-Dolphin]

It's perfectly fine to start with Civ5. I started with the Civ5 demo and got hooked. If anything, Civ5 is simpler than Civ4 BTS, so new players should have an easier time starting with it.

[stethnorun]

I'm sure that many disagree, but I'd strongly suggest starting this series with Civ IV and Beyond the Sword expansion pack. Again, many disagree, but to me this was the pinnacle of Civ (been playing since 1991 and the first Civ). It's not perfect, but it's my favorite (and since you're asking for opinions, there's mine )

That's not to say that Civ V is horrible (there are some things I like, and many I don't, is all), but my personal recommendation is to start with Civ IV:BTS

I would say that Civ 5 is the easier game to get into. I still don't quite understand how inflation and health and trade routes worked in Civ 4, and I played a lot. Civ 5 is much more strait forward and easy to grasp. Some may say that's a bad thing, but clarity is never something I look down on.

[Black Gate of Mordor]

I'd only played the civ4 demo and CivRev for the DS before playing Civ5, and they're so different. Just start with the fifth one. Use one of the lower difficulty settings for at least your first time around. You'll understand most of it by the end of the game (as long as advisors are enabled, which I believe they are by default). Next game you can start getting in a bit deeper, refining your strategies, or trying a new civilisation. It only takes a few games to truly understand how everything works, and then you can start really having fun.