Sid Meier's Civilization V (2010)
Sid Meier's Civilization V is a 2010 simulator video game made by Firaxis Games and Aspyr Media.
One more turn. That is the promise, and the trap. Firaxis hands you a single settler on an empty map and asks you to grow a civilization across six thousand years, from stone huts to spaceflight. This entry moves the whole game onto hexagonal tiles, adds independent city-states to court or bully, and lets a single strong unit hold a chokepoint. You can win through science, culture, diplomacy, or conquest, and the map keeps rewarding you for reading terrain, neighbors, and the long arc of your own decisions.
Quick answers
What is Sid Meier's Civilization V about?
One more turn. That is the promise, and the trap. Firaxis hands you a single settler on an empty map and asks you to grow a civilization across six thousand years, from stone huts to spaceflight. This entry moves the whole game onto hexagonal tiles, adds independent city-states to court or bully, and lets a single strong unit hold a chokepoint. You can win through science, culture, diplomacy, or conquest, and the map keeps rewarding you for reading terrain, neighbors, and the long arc of your own decisions.
When was Sid Meier's Civilization V released?
Sid Meier's Civilization V was released on 21 September 2010.
Who made Sid Meier's Civilization V?
Sid Meier's Civilization V was made by Firaxis Games, Aspyr Media and Mastertronic.
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Sid Meier's Civilization V in our writing
- Companion guide: 4X and Grand Strategy Games: The Complete Guide to Ruling the World
A few thoughts on Sid Meier's Civilization V
If the appeal is the slow build and a reward loop that eats whole evenings, this is one of the friendlier entries in the series. Newcomers can lean on the tutorials and a gentle early game, while veterans chase tight victory beelines. Bring patience and a willingness to lose a few games before the systems click into place.
Build a civilization from a single settlement
Civilization V hands you one settler and six thousand years to fill, growing cities, science, and armies across a map you learn to read. These strategy games share that arc of small-to-vast, letting you raise a people from a first outpost to a dominant power. Terrain, neighbors, and patience decide how far you climb.
Real-time strategy with rival factions to out-think
Civ V lets you win by science, culture, diplomacy, or conquest, always weighing rivals against your own plan. These real-time strategy and arena games speed that decision-making up, rewarding fast reads, sharp resource calls, and out-thinking a live opponent. If the contest of wits is what hooks you, they scratch the itch at a quicker pulse.
Games with a moreish just-one-more loop
Civ V is famous for the trap of one more turn, the sense that the next decision is always worth staying up for. These games run on the same compulsion, whether you are shaping a city, a household, a deck, or a defended lawn. Easy to start, very hard to put down.
