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Rhasto's Civ 5: Gods and Kings Review

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  • Rhasto's Civ 5: Gods and Kings Review

    Rhasto signed up at Apolyton to post his Civilization V: Gods & Kings review! His review is the 3rd submission to our Civilization 5: Gods & Kings review contest. If you like his review, please give him a 'thanks' in the forums. The reviewer that gets most 'thanks' will get his or her Gods & Kings purchase paid back by Apolyton (read the terms & conditions for specific information)

    Civ 5 Gods and Kings Review.
    Many people compare Civ 5 to previous installments of the Civilization game. I am going to try and give a simple, unbiased review of the new features in G&KS, the first expansion for Civ 5.
    The expansion does add several new gameplay features, such as espionage, religion, 9 new Civilizations as well as Several new technologies. The big question is, is it worth it? If you enjoyed Civ 5's gameplay then I would say definetely get the expansion, as it improves the game immensely. If you are a CIV Vet, and you hated Civ 5s gameplay then I would say try the demo available on Steam. Worst case scenario : You don't like it and can get on with your live. Now, on to the new features introduced in the game.


    Espionage - Espionage is a brand new system which allows players to obtain spies which can perform a wide variety of activities such as: Stealing Technology, Rigging City-State Elections for improved relations, Counter-Espionage and knowledge of certain CIVs intentions, intrigue. Intrigue tells you if someone is planning a sneak attack on you or various other Civilizations. Note that it only works versus A.I. (Computer) Civs. I like the espionage system. It is fair and fundementally balanced, because everyone essentialy obtains the same amount of spies. Also, unlike Civ 4 or SMAC you don't pay espionage or energy for spy actions. Granted, they have a more limited array of actions but overall I feel this is a better balance change. Unlike other Civ games, Spies are relocated via a HUD allowing them to move to Various Cities.
    All in All, I think espionage is pretty balanced. It helps to counteract those builder empires. Spies have 3 ranks and can be killed if an enemy spy is defending the city they infiltrate. On Certain occasions you will be informed of the owner of an enemy spy should they be intercepted at your city. Thier are various buildings, and a Wonder that can counter Spies, Such as the Constabulary, Police Station and Great Firewall. Thier is also this new statistic, called Potential. The
    higher a cities potential, the faster enemy spies can steal technologies. So when choosing which cities to defend with your own spies, you should usually choose the ones with highest potential.

    Religion - Religion is the other main feature of Civ 5, and really adds alot of potential strategies. Unlike CIV 4, you must first found a Pantheon, followed by later enhancing your religion. In total you can have 4 beliefs, (5) as Byzantine.
    Follower Beliefs apply to all Citys with a majority religion ,while Pantheon Founder and Enhancer beliefs only apply to the Founder of the religion. Thier are many beliefs to choose from, So I am not going to go into depth with them. I will state however that thier are a great deal of combinations which can cater to every single gameplay style in the game.
    (Builders, Warmongers, Researchers, Expansionists) All benefit from these traits. All in all, my single favorite feature of the expansion pack is Religion. A new resource is also added (Faith), as well as Inquisitors, Missionaries and Great Prophets. All in all , if you want to get the XPAC, this is enough reason alone, but thier are more features to go into.

    New Civs: The Netherlands, Celtica, The Maya, Carthage, Byzantium, the Huns, Austria, Ethiopia and Sweden.
    Spain and Mongolia are also included and are now playable in multiplayer.
    New Units: 27 New Units are included, of which 13 are UU for the sides, leaving 14 new units.
    New Wonders: Thier are 9 new Wonders which allow for additional new strategies.
    New Buildings: Thier are 13 new buildings, the majority of them UU.
    New Tech: The tech tree has been heavily revised with many changes, thier are also 8 New Technologies.
    New City States: Thier are now Several New City states, as well as 2 new types, Mercantile and Religious.
    Mercantile Providing Gold and Religious providing Faith. (DUUH!)

    Note that several Civs Unique Powers have been buffed/rebalanced (Barbary Corsairs is actually decent now)

    Combat Changes: The Combat system actually feels like a different game. Combat has been completely revised, using a 100 point scale and deviating away from the previous 10 point system. OVerall it is more balanced and less reliant on luck/dice rolling. Combat Strength of many units have been revised. Melee Naval units have been added, which can pillage gold and board enemy ships at close range. Embarked units can defend themselves in melee and can stack with naval units for protection. Several New Combat Promotions are available.

    Scenarios: Three new scenarios are included, Fall of Rome, Into the Renaissance and Empires of The Smoky Sky.

    Social Policy Changes: Gods and Kings includes many changes to Social Trees and various balance fixes. I have only sampled the latter, It provides for a change of pace in gameplay and a new experience.

    New Resources: 7 New Luxury Resources are available, allowing for more Smiley Face Gameplay, and a wider variety of trading options.

    Tile Improvements: There are 3 new improvements, the Polder (UU), Holy Site and Citadel.
    There are 4 new Natural Wonders, which mainly provide Faith.

    I would like to add, that Civilization 5 Has gotten alot of negative reviews from Civ Veterans, mainly about how the AI is so easy to beat. Civilization AI has ALWAYS been easy to beat. It is simply impossible to create an AI that is as good as a player in a game like this, without the AI cheating.
    Saying Civ 5 AI sucks isnt really an argument, the AI has had to cheat since CIV 1 and still is extremely easy. For those of you who have had the good fortune of playing Sid Miers Alpha Centauri,
    which is my favorite title in the Civ Series, even the AI in that game was flawed. Im going to go on a limb here and suggest something. Games are usually funner when played together, as over
    time AI actions become repetitve and predictable. People on the other hand, never fail to amaze me. For all those people critisizing Civ 5 mainly on the basis of bad ai, just hush.
    It is a fairly trivial argument, seeing as how every game in the series has had cheating ai, that sucks. AI is extremely hard to develop for certain games, mainly the 4x RTS Genre.
    My definition of a good AI is one that does not need to cheat in order to beat the player. Unfortunately it is extremely rare to see that in the game.
    I will admit the AI is fairly easy to beat, even on Prince (and probably up to diety, with practice) My reccomendation to you is play online, hotseat with a freind, or LAN. That is the way you
    will truly have fun with this game, by testing your mettle against intelligent human beings, not AI.

    Overall I give Civ 5 Gods And Kings an 87/100. It would be much higher, because this really is not an expansion PERSE. I Prefer to call it a complete overhall that is immensely more fun then the
    base game. So is it worth 25 bucks? If you have the money, most definitely. I highly reccomend you try out the demo , regardless of your bias towards other title in the series. (Cough Cough
    Civ 4 BTS) I am immensely sorry that thier are no pretty screens, unfortunately do to time constraits I was not able to fit this in. This review was not intended to "win the contest" per se. It was intended
    to silence the harsh critiscm of a game that is truly great, regardless of what people think. Gods and Kings feels like a different game, and I would not want to go back to Vanilla Civ 5 after
    playing it. IF you managed to get through this immense wall of text, I salute you.

    Good Luck Friend, and Happy Gaming! Feel free to leave your comments, all critiscms and thoughts are greatly appreciated

    For a more detailed look at CIV 5 G&KS changes, here is a link which I found extremely informative when considering my purchase. For a more detailed look at CIV 5 G&KS changes, here is a link which I found extremely Informative when considering my purchase.
    For a more detailed look at CIV 5 G&KS changes, here is a link which I found extremely Informative when considering my purchase.
    EDIT: Could not link, for indepth expansion info , google Well of Souls Civ 5 Gods and Kings. Discusses every
    single new addition to the game, I Found it very helpful.
    Attached Files

    • Wiglaf
      #1
      Wiglaf commented
      Editing a comment
      Atrocious review. Did a bot write this? It contains numerous typos and grammatical errors, and even insults the reader. Hopefully you can attend a remedial English course in the near future. I recommend editing the review significantly once you complete that course.
      Last edited by Wiglaf; July 14, 2012, 08:04. Reason: Good try spamming your links though -- nothing a quick edit won't take care of.

    • alicefinch
      #2
      alicefinch commented
      Editing a comment
      Civilzation 5 is the love child

      Civilzation 5 is the love child of a clandestine tryst between Civilization 4 and Civilization Revolution. It is a game that shares genetic markers of both the PC and console iterations of the franchise, luckily receiving the best elements of both -- with a couple good mutations. Civ 5 has the grand, epic feel we expect from the series on PC, but so much of it has been streamlined for the better that Revolution's influence is undeniable.
    Posting comments is disabled.

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  • OzzyKP wins Apolyton's Civ5:Gods & Kings review Contest!
    by Robert
    And the winner is.... OzzyKP!



    Apolyton Civilization Site congratulates OzzyKP for winning the Civilization 5: Gods & Kings review contest.
    OzzyKP wrote a lengthy review of the latest civ expansion and dressed it up with pictures and screenshots. It's clear that a lot of work has been put into this piece of work. OzzyKP tries to give a nuanced write up about the latest civ incarnation and is able to stay away from both mindless hate and fanboy love. His conclusion shows this off quite well: "Overall the expansion is decidedly an improvement. But not enough of one to ultimately fix a flawed game. That said, I did enjoy the few games I played."

    OzzyKP will receive a free copy of the game by having Apolyton pay for his Gods & Kings purchase.
    Congrats again, OzzyKP! And Keep on civin...!
    ...
    July 12, 2012, 01:14
  • Rhasto's Civ 5: Gods and Kings Review
    by Rhasto
    Rhasto signed up at Apolyton to post his Civilization V: Gods & Kings review! His review is the 3rd submission to our Civilization 5: Gods & Kings review contest. If you like his review, please give him a 'thanks' in the forums. The reviewer that gets most 'thanks' will get his or her Gods & Kings purchase paid back by Apolyton (read the terms & conditions for specific information)

    Civ 5 Gods and Kings Review.
    Many people compare Civ 5 to previous installments of the Civilization game. I am going to try and give a simple, unbiased review of the new features in G&KS, the first expansion for Civ 5.
    The expansion does add several new gameplay features, such as espionage, religion, 9 new Civilizations as well as Several new technologies. The big question is, is it worth it? If you enjoyed Civ 5's gameplay then I would say definetely get the expansion, as it improves the game immensely. If you are a CIV Vet, and you hated Civ 5s gameplay then I would say try the demo available on Steam. Worst case scenario : You don't like it and can get on with your live. Now, on to the new features introduced in the game.
    ...
    July 10, 2012, 00:33
  • Civilization V: Patch 1.0.1.705 has been released
    by Martin Gühmann

    Civilization V: Patch 1.0.1.705 has been released. It addressed problems that have been found since the Civ5 addon Gods and Kings like the leader shift save game bug, and miscellaneous crashes and bugs. Here is the complete list:

    [PREVIOUS SAVES]

    • Older saves with DLC leaders (including Genghis) will no longer "shift" when loaded into the patched game.

    [CRASH FIXES]

    • If a user does not have a religion, and receives a religion from another Civ, setting the "automated faith purchase" option could previously cause a crash when the purchase tries to fire for either the player, or the AI. This has been corrected.
    • Fixed an issue where a user could click on a city banner during the AI turn, and the game could crash depending what AI process is happening at the time of the "click."
    • Into the Renaissance - If an AI player has open borders and a friendly relationship with another Civ, they would sometimes send a Great Admiral to park in their city. If the city tries to purchase a civilian unit while the Great Admiral is parked there, the game could crash. This is corrected.
    • Scenario hang - There was a chance that when you won a scenario, the game could hang. This has been corrected.
    • Fixed an issue where any user with special characters in their Windows name will be unable to load saves.
    • If a player has Steam in "offline mode", and clicks on Mods, into the modding area and then backs out, the game could crash. This is now corrected.
    • Game Hang on turn 0 - After patching, many have reported being unable to interact with units or end the first turn. This is now corrected.
    • Game could previously hang on "Unit Needs Orders" after the player clicks next turn. This has been corrected, and the camera snap has been fixed.
    • A crash that could occur in Hot Seat if the game core threading had been disabled is fixed.

    [BUG FIXES]

    • Fall of Rome Scenario - Golden Ages were switched to providing bonus culture earlier in project. We've removed the culture bonus from Golden Ages for the scenario.
    • Open Borders that do not exist - If the AI is trying to renew an open borders agreement, but has something more important to talk about in the queue, the system would still record the Open Borders agreement as being active (even though it is not actually in place). This has been corrected.
    • Military Caste (+2 culture from garrison) was not working correctly. Whenever a civilian unit embarks, bulbs, or is deleted, it subtracted 2 culture, and kept adding up each time this happened, leaving the city at permanent negative culture. This has been corrected.
    • The "Peace Loving" belief was not functioning. This has been corrected.
    • When cities bombard attacking units, death animations would now play correctly.
    ...
    July 9, 2012, 16:14
  • Wiglaf's Review of Gods and Kings
    by Wiglaf
    Long time Apolyton member Wiglaf is the 2nd person to submit his review of Civilization V: Gods & Kings to Apolyton's Civilization 5: Gods & Kings review contest and is clearly not happy with this expansion pack, read his review to understand why. If you like his review, please give him a 'thanks' in the forums. The reviewer that gets most 'thanks' will get his or her Gods & Kings purchase paid back by Apolyton (read the terms & conditions for specific information)

    Review:

    Gods and Kings, hitherto 'GK,' is the first expansion to Jon Shafer's last act as a respected member of the PC videogame industry, known as Civilization 5. GK is a continuation of the trend of cashing in on a successful but highly flawed game by tacking on poorly integrated, barely thought-out game features that really should have been included originally, in working format.

    I will break down my thoughts on the additions.

    The name: 'Gods' makes sense, but 'Kings' does not. This is a bad start, and things will only get worse.

    Boring, uneventful, nukeless espionage: The first thing I noticed is that all my spies have only first names, like Albert, or Alexa, or Fred. While I appreciate the need for secrecy, I do not appreciate feeling like I am sending my god damned pet goldfish off to spy on the enemy. These are professionals and they should be named as such....
    June 25, 2012, 01:02
  • Ozzy's Review of Gods & Kings
    by OzzyKP
    First contender in Apolyton's Civilization 5: Gods & Kings review contest is OzzyKP. OzzyKP is a long time Civilization fan and known as a dedicated Civ4 diplogamer (multiplayer). If you like his review, please give him a 'thanks' in the forums. The reviewer that gets most 'thanks' will get his or her Gods & Kings purchase paid back by Apolyton (read the terms & conditions for specific information)

    Review:

    Introduction
    No doubt like most people reading this review, I don't play Civ5 all that much. So it will be difficult to review Gods & Kings since beyond the big ticket items I can't quite tell you what has changed in the game. So consider this review to be from the perspective of a casual gamer, not one who has explored and mastered all the intricacies of the game. Just a regular Joe who doesn't have strong feelings about Civ5, but decided to give the expansion a shot.

    When Civ5 first came out I was pretty excited. I've been playing the Civ franchise since the beginning and love Civ4 dearly. So I followed news of Civ5's development closely. I don't buy many games, but my loyalty to the franchise was strong enough that I went out and bought a copy of the game the first day it was available. In fact, after driving 9 hours from Indiana to Maryland, I went straight to my local Best Buy. Unfortunately Civ5 was sold out, so after my long drive I got back in the car and spent another hour driving to the only other Best Buy in the area with a copy.
    ...
    June 24, 2012, 14:13
  • Write the best review of Civilization V: Gods & Kings and get your game reimbrused!
    by Robert


    Write the best review of Civilization V: Gods & Kings here on Apolyton and we'll pay your copy of Gods and Kings!

    To participate in this contest just post your review of Gods & Kings in the contest forum.
    The review that receives the highest number of 'thanks' responses from the Apolyton memberbase wins the contest.

    All entries will be reviewed by the Apolyton Staff first. Serious entries will be displayed in this forum.
    Everybody is free to comment to the competitors, ask questions and discuss the reviews.

    Only 'thanks' responses awarded to the actual review post will be counted.
    Every Apolyton member can award 1 'thanks' per day. This 'thanks' option can be awarded by clicking the 'thanks' link under the post/review.

    The contest ends July 11th 22:00 GMT.
    Apolyton Staff will not discuss the results of the contest.

    The prize will be awarded in the form $25.19, the price of Gods & Kings on dlgamer.com...
    June 19, 2012, 09:47
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