Off-the-cuff review of Civ V

[migkillertwo]

I just got done with a 6 hour non-stop Civ V session (which should tell you something), and I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with Firaxis' work on this one.

First and foremost, I thought that the AI was very smart even on warlord difficulty. The AI clearly knew how to employ siege and ranged units, as I found several times that my units were getting hammered with said ranged units AFTER Wu Zetain flanked my longswordsmen (a unit which was technically superior than any unit Wu Zetain had, her most advanced unit was the Chu Ku Nu) with cavalry and melee units. Another thing is that between me and Wu was a chokepoint. I managed to use this chokepoint to keep Wu from seizing any of my cities long enough to build a sizeable army of musketmen. I haven't actually finished this game, but I think that as soon as my musketmen clear the chokepoint we will be able to seize one or two of Wu Zeitain's cities.

Another thing that the AI did which impressed me was that Wu knew not to throw all of her units into this chokepoint in trying to take my city of Frankfurt. She actually embarked some swordsmen, chu ku nu, and a trebuchet and flanked around my defenses (which, if constantly manned, would have been hell to break through. I'm talking fortified units in forts), but I managed pick off that force with some archers and some brand new musketmen.

Finally, when it comes to diplomacy, the AI is amazingly fickle. In Civ IV, a war breaking out between two civs should almost guarantee that they wouldn't be friends ever again. But after embarking on a successful campaign against washington, we became allies within a few turns. It probably had to do with me giving back all the cities that he gave to me after the war ended.

Second, even though units have to be placed on their own unique tiles, I did not find managing my units to be a chore. This was nainly because units could be set to automatically find a path to a certain tile, and because there were so few of them. Managing units in Civ V was at least as easy as managing units in Civ IV. So regarding 1UPT, I am thoroughly impressed.

So that's my off-the-cuff review of Civ V. I highly recommend it to any Civ veteran.

 

[popewiz]

Completely agree, I am very impressed with the changes. I have (ashamed to say) played about 10 hours today and I'm really liking the feel of the game much more so in the first day than I did civ IV.

 

[Unionfield]

I think I am going to learn to accept Civilization V as a counter-part to Civilization IV rather than a sequel or a new game. The franchise definitely took a step back in terms of game play depth, but in the same way that I don't see Civilization Revolution as a stand-alone entry in the series, I won't with this either.

 

[Warspite2]

I just got done with a 6 hour non-stop Civ V session (which should tell you something), and I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with Firaxis' work on this one.

First and foremost, I thought that the AI was very smart even on warlord difficulty. The AI clearly knew how to employ siege and ranged units, as I found several times that my units were getting hammered with said ranged units AFTER Wu Zetain flanked my longswordsmen (a unit which was technically superior than any unit Wu Zetain had, her most advanced unit was the Chu Ku Nu) with cavalry and melee units. Another thing is that between me and Wu was a chokepoint. I managed to use this chokepoint to keep Wu from seizing any of my cities long enough to build a sizeable army of musketmen. I haven't actually finished this game, but I think that as soon as my musketmen clear the chokepoint we will be able to seize one or two of Wu Zeitain's cities.

Another thing that the AI did which impressed me was that Wu knew not to throw all of her units into this chokepoint in trying to take my city of Frankfurt. She actually embarked some swordsmen, chu ku nu, and a trebuchet and flanked around my defenses (which, if constantly manned, would have been hell to break through. I'm talking fortified units in forts), but I managed pick off that force with some archers and some brand new musketmen.

Finally, when it comes to diplomacy, the AI is amazingly fickle. In Civ IV, a war breaking out between two civs should almost guarantee that they wouldn't be friends ever again. But after embarking on a successful campaign against washington, we became allies within a few turns. It probably had to do with me giving back all the cities that he gave to me after the war ended.

Second, even though units have to be placed on their own unique tiles, I did not find managing my units to be a chore. This was nainly because units could be set to automatically find a path to a certain tile, and because there were so few of them. Managing units in Civ V was at least as easy as managing units in Civ IV. So regarding 1UPT, I am thoroughly impressed.

So that's my off-the-cuff review of Civ V. I highly recommend it to any Civ veteran.

Just another person impressed by Civ V. Firaxis done a really good job on this one and as you say I highly recommend the game too. I think the more people play it, they will start seeing a lot of improvements and things that are actually useful now. Another thing to add, I have not encountered any problems at all such as crashes, bugs and other things that attack new releases. This baby runs for hours!