I agree. And here's why:
My First Ci_V experience: Went over to a friends place who had purchased it.
Picked Greeks, Marathon - major mistake. In C_IV I didn't like the overly fast pace of technology relative to unit movement. Epic or Marathon beautifully fixed that and turned it into a truly epic feeling game.
Immediately started sweating out my city placement, almost despaired that the terrian seemed relatively barren except for a couple of key resources. Oh well, can't re-role my first game. Pursued technology to harvest what resources I had - wtf, I got 1 extra production? Hmmm. By the end of the game I got the message that it really didn't matter where you placed things. Very odd, this was one aspect that created immediate tension in most Civ games and especially in C_IV. Passion - 1.
Noticed that the city screen doesn't really give you the feel that you're looking at a city. Hard to get the feeling that "ITS ABOUT TO GROW!" or "MY CRITICAL BUILDING IMPROVEMENT IS ALMOST DONE, so I can move onto other vital production!" Passion -2.
Found out that I couldn't hurry production but I could outright buy it? Gone is the tension of finishing production so you can start the next desperate need. Passion -1.
Received a quest from a Military City state: take out my neighbour! The victim city state had resources that I presumed were valuable so I went for it. Made a Trieme and sailed it over to their island. Spent 10-20 or so turns bombarding a warrior before I realized that all I was doing was giving him 1/2 dozen promotions! Ok, that's a little strange that his warrior is now uber strong from sitting there getting arrows in the head and then recovering. Oh well, what ever doesn't kill you clearly makes you stronger. Passion -1.
Finally had an army sufficient to tackle this city. Sailed them across the lands. Had my super Greek Horseman (or whatever it is) take out the uber promoted warrior with Archer assist. Passion +1.
Fought my way through a choke point towards the city state. Difficult to say the least. Passion +1.
Finally, took the city state. Received an allied status for Military City state instigator. Started receiving military units. wtf again! He's gifting me units almost as fast as I could produce them if I was on a full war setting with my 4 cities? Kindof scratching my head as to why he needed help in the first place. Seems to be (more than) a little out of balance. Ok, fine. Actually not fine! What the heck, I'm not playing an RPG here - I don't really want to go on quests to find the sacred sword of a Thousand Truths! (Later I would find that the Military City states might be the least of problems). Passion -1 (and -3 when I learned of the degree of this exploit).
Through my attack on my first city (state) the city bombardment made me realize that a Settler might be my most powerful military unit in the early game. Run into barbarians? No problem, just plop down your settler (location doesn't seem to matter much) and start bombarding. He can't hurt you! Where's the tension of taking a risk of making a settler early run and daring to cross hostile lands to rush to that critical city location! And the Settler is relatively cheap too!
Passion -2 + an angry scowl!
Built my first building. WTF, am I interpreting this correctly, +1 food. Thanks alot! That took forever to build! What a pitiful rate of return if you can call it that. (Later, I would come to understand that these buildings had expensive maintenance! HA, am I to understand that this is a CIV game that wants you to NOT build?!?) Passion -1 (Upgrade that to Passion -3 when I realized the scope of the problem).
Found my first actual Civilization (Persia) strung across 2 smallish, very close islands. How fitting for a Greek conquest! Set up my Trieme between the two islands to cut off naval reinforcements as my major offensive sailed towards Island #1. Finally! A chance to turn that Trieme into a useful military unit after that debacle of ineffectively bombarding and inadvertently promoting my enemies' warrior. Blinked repeatedly in disbelief as I found that I couldn't take out their enbarking canoes sailing right under my nose! Great! I get to bombard them but not engage them! PFFFF! If
you can count rage as passion then +2; but really Passion -2!
Oh well, lets hope the land battle is more decisive. And it should be; I've made my first Chariot Archer with movement of 5! I get giddy as I visualize a series of hit-and-run tactics that wear down my enemies and prepare them for my Greek Horseman charge! Huh? If I shoot (range 2 spaces) then I can't further move...but, but, the standard movement of a melee unit is 2? So if I want to shoot I must end up dead? (Scratch head). Doesn't seem very useful to have all that movement. I guess I could rush very quickly to the front lines in order to fire and then die. Yes, very useful for dying fast - not much else. Of course, come to think of it I couldn't even rush to the front lines very quickly because some stupid worker is in my way. DOH. Major loss here, my giddy bubble of excitement was definately popped. Passion -3 due to the fact that it got my hopes up. To be fair, Passion -1 without my hope.
Spent couple hours bombarding their city and following up with my Greek Cavlary and Spearman (whatever they're called). Kinda going through the motions once their field army is taken out. Long, slow motions actually. Use my otherwise useless Chariot archers and Trieme to bombard their city, doing almost no damage each time (Settlers rock the military house!) but some until I'm sure that my shock troops can get off a win. Probably could have taken them earlier with more experience. Hmmm, that was pretty boring. I remember facing off in Civ3/Civ4 where you (pre-Catapult) have to worry alot about having enough troops to take their city. You know that you're going to lose some troops, maybe alot. This was like, I know that my troops are going to take damage but not die. So as long as I hit, then pull back, I'm not going to lose any troops. Really took any of the tension away. Passion -2.
But thinking about this further: why did they get rid of cottages? Especially for a game that was supposed to move combat outside of the city. Can you imagine the tension as an equal or greater enemy approaches your fertile commercial land? "HOLD THE LINE!" you scream with the realization that even if they don't take your cities they could chop you off at the knees by pillaging the source of the soldiers paychecks! Visions of Hannibal in Rome! This game, who cares? Just build back those "Trading posts" and you're back in business again. Really missed the mark here. Passion -2.
Overall, this is like some dude telling a lifetime Chess player how they've redesigned chess by removing all those complicated pieces and all their complicated moves and "look my red and black pieces can 'jump over' the other piece". So cool eh! You'd be like yeah its an 'ok' game, but it ain't Chess - Chess involves real strategy and tradeoffs.
So not a fan and I won't be spending money on this game. And, FYI Firaxis or who ever is responsible for this mess, I have been a hopeless CIV addict for the past 15+ years. I have bought-destroyed-bought again probably 6-8 copies of every game Civ2, Civ3, Civ4 spending at least $300 per version (Civ1 was pirated, sorry but I've made up for it) because I simply have no ability to control how much I play and cannot keep the darn game in my house without risking my
life/wife/career. So I figure playing like crazy and then destroying the game is way cheaper than losing my job! Rinse-and-repeat.
So I wish you well in finding 8+ console users who will replace an addicted player like me. I'm sure those console players will still be there 10-15 years from now.
