Civ 5 sucks so bad it's kept me from sleeping I was so pissed off.
Like most Civ fans I bought it on day 1 without thinking.
When I say without thinking, I mean without recalling what Civ 3 and Civ 4 were like when they were first released. I have introduced and met many Civ lovers and most of them at least didn't like Civ 3 or Civ 4 and while I still managed to enjoy each and every Civ release, I could see their points.
I bought and played Civ 4 but didn't get into it in the same way until the end of the line, when BTS was released and the last patches and been put out. When BTS was first released I'd given up on Civ4, it just wasn't the game it was supposed to be. When I finally did try BTS, I was like 'oh, they fixed most of the crap'. It was much like the good old civ days. I've been playing it since and have gotten some Civ3/4 haters to try it out and they're back on board as well.
Unfortunately it looks like this will be the same route Civ5 will take.
I was even a little surprised to find posters here already had a similar opinion. My first glace at the Civ5 forums showed me posts like 'disappointed with firaxis'. I agreed.
I should say that I see some good potential in Civ5. That's why I look forward to a year or two from now when they've released 2 or 3 expansions (so the game now costs it's loyal followers $50 x 3 instead of just $50 for a working, good game).
I find the hex map interesting and the single unit per square intriguing. The new city and border management is interesting. The change in combat looks interesting. There seems to be lots of good stuff.
But when simple things like road building need work, that's just wrong. When you click 'road to' it doesn't map the road out for you, it just gives you a cursor? This has been a basic Civ feature since I don't know when!
When I first read reviews of (prior to it's release) Civ5 and when I checked out the minimum system requirements I'd already begun to worry.
I have a decent system. Not bleeding edge but pretty decent. 8800 GTS, AMD 5800 X2 (2.9 ghz * 2), SSD drive, etc.
Civ 4 turns at the end of the game on this system can still take too long.
When I play Civ5, game turns take too long 10 turns in! 10. Turns. In!!!
And you can't turn off animations?! Do I need to see a horses tail whipping around and wales swimming about for 300 turns and how many games? This is the most maddening thing of all! The options to speed things up aren't even there, you can't turn any of the crap off.
I don't want battle chess! I don't want every time I attack someone to see 'pretty graphics' of them fighting each other. Yes, I appreciate it for the first game or two but I figured on playing a lot of games. After probably the 3rd time I'd be turning those off as well but there's no option!
In Civ4, I play with no animations, no enemy moves, no combat simulation. My turns go quickly and efficiently.
And I hear multiplayer is world of crap as well.
What's funny is in anticipation of Civ5 I'd been checking out the Firaxis website, read up on some of the 'what it takes to be a game designer' posts. They went on about all their schooling and all the things you should do and I was impressed. I was like, I couldn't do all that. But in the end, it almost seems like they had too much schooling, somewhere along the line they lost what it meant to make a good game.
It's all just such a frustrating let down. I am very pissed off that there's no way for me to get my money back.
. It's like playing a whole new game, one that hasn't had the opportunity to be improved with any patches or expansions: a stripped down civilization game essentially. I think stacks were just lazy, and that's why I find this new combat system to be so much more work, because I was just use to throwing everything into one square and marching to the other civ's nearest city. Even if you don't care about positioning, you can't avoid it because of the 1UPT limit. I can't wait to check out the mod browser over the next few weeks: viewable empire-wide resources in the city screen is the first mod I'm gonna snatch up :-D
