It's mostly automatic but becomes aggravating when playing as a city-state like Venice and have dozens upon dozens of trade routes that need to be renewed. Your civilization does not require treaties with a neighbor to trade with them and instead, trade caravans or ships can be sent to another city. International trade is another new feature that greatly boosts the economy in the early years, and is a source of mutual beneficial resources for trade partners. This subtle yet drastic change forces players to re-think strategies on how best to deal with neighbors. Diplomacy is very important as players can find themselves without friends when the AI suddenly decides to ban your luxuries, sending your empire into a foul swoon which spawns barbarian units that wreck havoc on your infrastructure. Player influence on the congress is controlled by delegates, which increase in number based on the size of your empire and how many city-state allies you have. The World Congress is where all the leaders of the world come together and propose global issues, such as banning certain luxuries, enacting trade embargoes on warmongering nations, or even constructing the International Space Station. Although a neat idea, this feature is lacking in variety and depth.Īlso new is the World Congress, which morphs into the United Nations later in the game (there is no longer a United Nations wonder). After reaching that level, the terrain becomes littered with antiquity sites, primed for digging up valuable artifacts the archaeologist can recover. Upon researching archaeology, a completely new feature of the game opens up, with players gaining access to an Indiana Jones-like unit aptly called an archaeologist. Great works and tourism don't stop with Great People in the game, however. There are eight new wonders, and most of them (like the Globe Theater, Broadway, and Uffizi) directly help tourism and culture. Think of tourism as an "offense" against other civilizations, with culture serving as a "defense" against their tourism. A great artist, for example, can still start a golden age, but he/she can also create a Great Work that can be displayed in an appropriate building or wonder, which creates tourism and culture points for the empire. As your empire expands and reaches new eras, you'll encounter great people (as in the other versions of the games), but this time with a few twists.
Unlike Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword (which boasted cultural and diplomacy improvements but didn't deliver on them entirely), this time Firaxis has got it right with the amount of changes and the way the player has to do rethink their strategy.Ĭulture has been greatly changed from Civilization V: Gods and Kings, adding a new "resource" called tourism. Culture and diplomacy take center stage, and are the main focuses for players. What makes Brave New World stand out is the level of detail that Firaxis carefully crafted into the game. Civilization V: Brave New World is the second expansion for Civilization V, and despite a few minor hiccups, it is one of the best entries in the franchise's long and storied history.
When a game can survive year after year, after waves upon waves of competition across numerous genres bid for gamers' time and money, it is a testament to its impeccable design and function to remain relevant.