Solid gameplay. Gives a well-rounded approach to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate. Even on a fast setting games will take a very long time to complete unless your goal is specifically to end them in an early game era or you know how to exploit science in the most up to date version.

Thousands of hours of gameplay between achievements and trying out every civilisation, though some civs balance is quite poor in solo/multiplayer.

Fantastic mods are available to improve gamefeel, introduce new civs or improve a wealth of surprising things, such as submarine stealth through unfriendly territory.

Good recommend if you want something with a historic feel and have time to burn on it.
Strong recommend with dlcs on sale.



The following was my review prior to the removal of the 2K launcher in November 2024:

You shouldn't tolerate the new launcher.
This is setting a standard that flies in the face of a full release pay-to-play game, keep your adverts for f2play freemium titles or not at all.
I'll remove this review if they make any meaningful change to this situation.
To get rid of the new launcher see below:

*FIX*
For people who the new launcher doesn't work for, or who just don't want to have to load adverts every time they launch their game, you can revert the the old CIV 5 launcher using the following steps:

Open up Steam and navigate to your LIBRARY.

Right click on the game in your library and choose "Properties."

Selected the "BETAS" tab.

In the text box to "Enter beta access for to unlock private beta:" enter the password "ineedlegacyaccess".

Click on the "CHECK CODE" button.

You should see a confirmation message that access has been granted.

If not already selected in the drop down, select "legacy" and click close.

Steam may require you to download and update for the game. Wait for this to happen or force it using "LIBRARY -> DOWNLOADS".

Once the game has been updated, click "PLAY" as usual and you will be running the legacy branch.

Credit: u/pedal_pusher