Alright, so my first impressions were so-so, the game felt stripped to the bones and over-simplified but the more I play, the more I realize the complexity of the game is much more than meets the eye and I like it!
Take diplomacy for example... You don't get a meter to tell you what's going on, but then again you can get a pretty good idea of who feels like what just from their communications, behavior, etc. I really like it, feels a lot more realistic than it did in Civ4 and if you pay attention, you can learn all there is to know just by being attentive. The Civs close to you are the ones you need to keep an eye on, the others usually won't be a problem unless they get way big.
Same goes for the AI... Everybody is saying it's fail, but man, I get surprised every game. Of course, it's still an AI and it will do dumb things, but for me it's proving to be quite a challenge at times and it's a lot of fun. The AI will protect it's border, stack units near it when relations deteriorate or when you are preparing something fishy, etc, it feels more realistic than it did in Civ4.
I also like how resources are now MUCH more valuable than they used to be. Back in Civ4 loosing one luxury didn't mean much but now, it can be catastrophic. You'll find yourself waging war to get one across the map just to keep your people happy if you can't get it otherwise and the city states add some spice to it as well since they sometimes hold resources that can't be found elsewhere on the map.
Overall, I'm amazed at the hidden complexity I'm slowly discovering, Firaxis did a damn fine job with this game!!!
Take diplomacy for example... You don't get a meter to tell you what's going on, but then again you can get a pretty good idea of who feels like what just from their communications, behavior, etc. I really like it, feels a lot more realistic than it did in Civ4 and if you pay attention, you can learn all there is to know just by being attentive. The Civs close to you are the ones you need to keep an eye on, the others usually won't be a problem unless they get way big.
Same goes for the AI... Everybody is saying it's fail, but man, I get surprised every game. Of course, it's still an AI and it will do dumb things, but for me it's proving to be quite a challenge at times and it's a lot of fun. The AI will protect it's border, stack units near it when relations deteriorate or when you are preparing something fishy, etc, it feels more realistic than it did in Civ4.
I also like how resources are now MUCH more valuable than they used to be. Back in Civ4 loosing one luxury didn't mean much but now, it can be catastrophic. You'll find yourself waging war to get one across the map just to keep your people happy if you can't get it otherwise and the city states add some spice to it as well since they sometimes hold resources that can't be found elsewhere on the map.
Overall, I'm amazed at the hidden complexity I'm slowly discovering, Firaxis did a damn fine job with this game!!!
