Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World - PC

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Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World (PC)
Requires: Mouse, Keyboard
Viewed: 3D Third-person, floating camera Genre:
Strategy: God game
Add-on pack
Media: DVD Arcade origin:No
Developer: Firaxis Soft. Co.: Take 2
Publishers: 2K Games (GB)
Released: 12 Jul 2013 (GB)
Ratings: PEGI 12+

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Summary

Civilisation V: Brave New World is the second expansion to come our way for Civilisation V.

There are two main prongs of the expansion - one is the introduction of international trade routes and the other is a focus on culture, diplomacy and ideology.

With the new culture victory your focus is to spread your culture and ideology around the globe, occupying a dominant role in world affairs that way. You can build key buildings such as opera houses, museums and libraries, then place great artists, writers and musicians in them to boost your prominence.

Players can also now choose an ideology for their people as they enter the industrial age, choosing from freedom, order or autocracy. Each choice comes with its own abilities and will affect your interactions with other civs, including your dealings with them through the UN-like World Congress.

Feeding into this is the introduction of international trade routes. You can decide whether to create shorter trade routes with lower risk and lower rewards, or go big with longer routes that really expand your influence. With the new cultural focus, however, trade routes also open up entry points for religion and make each side more susceptible to the influence of tourism. You might gain gold through an interaction, but find that you've opened the door to other influences that have enabled a less advanced nation to get a bonus to their research and catch up with you.

There are also nine new civilisations in play, as well as eight new wonders, two new scenarios and dozens of new units, buildings and improvements.

Where this all really comes into play is the last third of the game. Often all the big decisions in Civ games, and as such much of the excitement, comes at the start. As civs become more advanced, the game becomes about keeping things on track. With the new features, however, the last few hours of a game become far less predictable and more interesting as a result.