Best Civ game in the series
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“Even years after its release, Civilization V remains the absolute gold standard of the 4X genre.”
Steam review · 497.7 h played ↗
Sid Meier's Civilization® V
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Overwhelmingly PositiveOverwhelmingly Positive · 95%Firaxis Games, Aspyr (Mac), Aspyr (Linux)2010Turn-Based Strategy · 4X · Strategy
The verdict
A timeless, deeply replayable 4X with tactical hex combat and a huge modding scene, but on modern PCs it can fail to launch or crash. Skip it if you dislike slow turns or AI that cheats.
Great for
Strategy fans who want a deep, replayable "one more turn" 4X, solo or with friends, ideally with expansions and mods
Main risk
The game may crash or fail to launch on modern Windows, Mac or Linux setups.
What players love
Addictive "one more turn" loop
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“The "just one more turn" loop is so real it should come with a government warning label.”
Steam review · 13423.3 h played ↗
Timeless visuals and soundtrack
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“The gorgeous soundtrack, clean graphics, wonder cinematics and narrated quotes all pull in the same direction”
Steam review · 195.2 h played ↗
Huge replayability
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“You can play Sid Meier's Civilization V for a very long time without getting bored.”
Steam review · 500.6 h played ↗
Great modding community and Workshop
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 positive reviews
“Civ 5 with the Vox Populi mod is the best Civ experience.”
Steam review · 1702.2 h played ↗
Tactical hex combat, one unit per tile
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews
“The move to a hexagonal grid and the "one unit per tile" rule turned combat into a brilliant, tactical game of chess where terrain actually matters.”
Steam review · 497.7 h played ↗
What players complain about
Won't launch on modern systems
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“I want to recommend this game. Unfortunately it doesn't start any more.”
Steam review · 5687.8 h played ↗
Frequent crashes
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“Save every 2 minutes or risk losing your progress. Buggiest game for crashing I have on Steam.”
Steam review · 4.5 h played ↗
AI cheats and barbarians spawn constantly
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“most of the time the AI are just cheating.”
Steam review · 134.9 h played ↗
Multiplayer problems: DLC and cross-platform
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“multiplayer? Everyone kicks you because you don't have THEIR dlc pack.”
Steam review · 87.1 h played ↗
Resolution, 4K and fullscreen problems
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 negative reviews
“it is impossible to change the resolution of the game or launch it in fullscreen making it unplayable”
Steam review · 103.2 h played ↗
2K privacy policy and data collection
Mentioned in ~1 in 25 negative reviews
“I never expected 2K to update its user terms, forcing me to allow programs to steal my personal information while I'm playing.”
Steam review · 374.8 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable8 GB
Minimum
OSWindows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
Memory2GB RAM
Graphics256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
Storage8 GB Free
Recommended
OSWindows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
Processor1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
Memory4 GB RAM
Graphics512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better
Storage8 GB Free
OSWindows® Vista SP2/ Windows® 7
ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
Memory2GB RAM
Graphics256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
Storage8 GB Free
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