Alright, I'm not a particularly great reviewer, because I struggle to balance my addiction/fanaticism with objectivity, but here we go:
Overall 10/10 (Keep it coming, Firaxis, please)
This is the game it was meant to be. The world feels real, diplomacy matters much more, resources are now handled more logically, and the new civilizations bring variety to how the game is played. I actually find myself saying "... just one more turn ...", which was rare before this expansion in Civ VI.
Civilizations:
I honestly didn't know what to expect of the civ selections prior to the leak, because the last several announcements for Rise and Fall were truly underwhelming. This was not the case, for me, with Gathering Storm. The new ensemble brings several needed favorites, and they sre balanced by new and replacement civs that haven't left me disappointed (except maybe Canada, but then I may immigrate there some day, so I'll keep an open mind). More importantly, unlike most of the DLC and Rise & Fall civs, the civs of Gathering Storm feel like they bring unique approaches to how I play the game (even Canada, completely changing early game diplomacy without Surprise Wars). When I play as Mali, I'm working to maximize trade, building walls (because I have enough units and all my buildings and districts have been bought- thanks Reyna and Moksha), and generally feeling like an unparalleled economic powerhouse. As Phoenicia, my empire is built around my "colonies", as my new distant capital citizens refer to them, and I've got harbors out the wazoo. And so it goes.
Map:
Not only has there been a massive and appreciable aesthetic upgrade (my fiancee that doesn't even play commented on this), but the map generation is more interesting and better developed. Additionally, I play with climate settings maxed out, so I regularly get flooded and volcanoed (I've lost many citizens already, once a catastrophe that wiped a 10 pop mega-city of it's time down to a 3 pop rural outpost (remember, in civ games population has an exponential relationship to number of fictional people). Tornados have surprisingly damage my troops, dust storm have wreaked having, droughts have limited me when I really need to grow, and so on. While many of these were setbacks, I put myself in place for them by settling near where the later yields would see me flourish- so I only have myself to blame. And I can't say it was pretty or an interesting event for my people.
Resources:
Why oh why wasn't always like this? Of my two least favorite changes from V to VI, I'm so incredibly happy to see this one fixed. Resources matter, and it always should have been this way. I'm now engaged with the system, and consider how I'm using and acquiring them. (Now, if you would just readjust movement costs to align with V, we'd be all set)!
Power:
I play carefree enough that I can often make it to the late game, and I enjoy the add costs of environmental and resource challenges to developing my empire. It reminds me that a lot of the progress in the world post-Industrial era was centered in the few nation's that were able to terribly abuse resources for energy. The game now reflects this, and it's a fun and engaging system. Hopefully the real world continues to progressively move on from resource abusing means of energy production too.
Diplomacy:
The grievances system as a coat of fresh paint on an old vehicle, but that new paint job came with some work under the hood which has led to the vehicle running more smoothly. Beyond that, the added late game agendas have added an appreciated additional dynamic to the AI leader charachter, which is appreciated (even if I would just rather have the personality table from V back). Additionally, we have the featured new diplomacy system, with favor and the World Congress. For this, I say thank you. It feels right having a political system in the game, and I appreciate that it's notably different than what we had in the past. It's no longer simple to merely buy votes alone and dominate politically, now you must earn favor with positive relationships with major civs and earning the suzerainty of the minor powers (of course, the better your relations, the easier it is to actually do some of that bribing, in this case for favor rather than direct votes). While I don't always enjoy the lack of variety (getting three identical proposals in a row, IIRC), I enjoy that there are fairly powerful resolutions, contests, a revamped and improved emergency system, and an additional approach to diplomacy. Overall, I'm quite a fan!
New Era:
I appreciate the opportunity to stretch out the game, especially from a science and military game perspective (the two victory paths that have the most potential to benefit from the new aspects). The GDR is interesting, and the added time led to the developers really upgrading the science victory. With a slightly longer game, you also get more opportunity to appreciate later game buildings and events (like climate change).
What I Would Change:
The production queue should be toggleable, such that it stays on once you turn it onr (ratherthan needing to be reopened every time). Diplomacy in the World Congress needs more ways to determine what others are going to do (espionage, diplomatic visibility, and bribery), and more unique proposals wouldn't hurt either. Tech speed to productions costs are still too fast, meaning you often don't have time to build much before it's outdated, and the game subsequently can simply fly past, making much of the game out of access to those that play very well (as they're already done before things come into play). The AI is not very good, which is somewhat understandable, but should probably be accounted for with better boosts (preferably percentage yield and cost bonuses, rather than free thingse; even more preferably staggered bonuses to help the AI keep up, rather than just excel in the early game). Also, they should probably buff culture with regard to domestic tourism. It's far too easy (at least as a human) to win a cultural victory, and we have more tourism now then ever before.
