Long time lurker, been over at CivFan for a while..

[larsenex]

I have always kept a profile both at CivFanatics and here at Apolyton. From the reaction to Civ 5 over there I kinda held off on getting it. I never thought to ask the great and wise peeps over here at Apolyton what they thought of Civ 5. I assumed that if most of the posters over at CivFan are angry as hell, that pretty much everyone is uphappy.

So what are some of your thoughts on Civ 5?

If you were a fan of the genre and wanted to get advice on buying it what would you tell me about the game?

Thanks!

[Zoetstofzoetje]

In my opinion, (and I've been playing this game since Civ1, and the boardgame that inspired it), this is a better game.

The improvements in military strategy are phenomenal. The potential for interesting strategy has increased on that level.

However, there are some permanent simplifications in play that reduce the amount of intelligence required to play the game. Such as, townships have been replaced with one-off trading posts (??), so that the short-term, mid-term, and long-term no longer interact as much in strategic planning. This is one example; there are others.

And then there are the bugs. The many, many bugs.

Long story short, this is *going* to be the best Civ so far. But it will take a while to materialize. Part of this is that we are not just players: we are part of Firaxis' business model. There's shareholders to be appeased, and whichever route leads to player happiness is balanced out with low-risk business strategy, attuned investements, and maximization of profits. Especially the latter.

[Ming]

Here, you will find people that:
Won't buy the game ever...
Will buy the game after a few more patches or expansion packs...
Think the game is "OK" now, but hopes it gets better like Civ IV did...
Think the game is great but also look forward to patches and expansion packs...

I personally think the game is different and fun, but still needs some work. But I would recommend buying it so you can make up your own mind

[Supr49er]

Have you played the Demo yet larsenex ??
I am also enjoying the game, and look forward to patches and mods

[jnh140]

CiV is great. The end of the stack of doom eliminates so much cheese.

I'll admit it though, AI War: Fleet Command is really occupying more of my gaming time at the moment. I'll be back into CiV sometime next month.

[fed1943]

IMHO the game right now is weak, not so good as previous civ games (1 until 4,Colonize,SMAC).
But I feel (and hope) it has potential to be done a good game from it (if the makers so know, can and want).

[wodan11]

Part of the problem is that some people have an expectation that Civ5 must include as many functional features as Civ4 BtS. Which is frankly kind of ludicrous. Every iteration of Civ had some loss of functionality versus the previous game with multiple expansion sets in place. Simple common sense: A game with expansions will have more features than a game without expansions.

The more telling argument are complaints about Civ5 multiplayer and bugs unrelated to the user's system. While I can understand if the game isn't perfectly functional on release, if it's not then complaints are certainly warranted.

[Standup]

There's some interesting ideas in it and the (planned) latest patch seems to address a lot of the play balance issues. It seems to be a significant patch and if the demo appeals I think it should improve the game significantly.

For me though I just find there isn't enough to do to keep me interested. It also feels that too much has been held back for the inevitable expansion pack. At the moment I'm just too bored by the game so really don't noticed the bugs and balance issues.

[Iola of Shinola]

I also started with Civ (1) and have played them all up to an including V.

My initial reaction was to tell you to skip V, because it has been pretty much of a bust for me. Upon further consideration, I think the reason it seemed such a disappointment was because I was greatly looking forward to the release, and had read waaaay too many of the totally unwarranted "hype-reviews" that were out there pre-release. The reviews had me expecting "Champagne and Caviar," and what was delivered (pre-patch) was a "Tunafish Sandwich and a warm can of Milwaukee's Best Light." So partly the problem was the game, partly the reviews, and mainly my expectations. The initial patch greatly improved the game, but lets face it... we still have a long way to go to reach Caviar status.

I don't know how the next patch is going to play out, but I am ever so slightly optimistic. So my advice to you is to buy the game -- warts and all. As 25 year veteran of the Civ franchise, I can't imagine skipping one. Can you?

[Zoetstofzoetje]

the reason it seemed such a disappointment was because I was greatly looking forward to the release, and had read waaaay too many of the totally unwarranted "hype-reviews" that were out there pre-release.

Marketing departments seem to assume that better reviews equal more sales. While that might be the case for one-off titles such as 'doom-clone 4' or 'theme-graveyard', I very much doubt that 2Kgames made the right choice by 'greasing' the reviews. (More broadly, the relationship between reviewers and publishers is 'unhealthy' if you look at what it produces across-the-board, but that's another discussion).

What you get now is disappointment: look at the hysterical, bad-blood reactions on the forums. This dissuades some people to buy the game. Specifically, this is the type of person that wasn't a fan in the first place. Which is the kind of person that Firaxis is targeting with its simplified Civ5. Lose-lose-lose: Players lose, Firaxis lose, Publishers lose. It's the same old short-term greedy thinking that gets us into trouble more often than not

[Iola of Shinola]

I am not much of a computer game player. I have played Civilization, Europa Universalis, Galactic Civilizations, (see the trend line?) and the very rare FPS. I am not a lurker, and don't waste much time reading reviews of software I am not going to buy.

I don't own a gaming consule nor do i intend to buy one.

I play alot of yahoo cards when I have nothing better to do.

In other words, I don't fit in to this site very well, and I consider that to be a good thing. I find myself here, less and less frequently, but maybe after the patch my intrest in the game (and by extension, Poly) will pick up again. Maybe I'll just return to the days when I played CIV all by myself, and never talked about it.

BUT despite everything else being said, batted around, and beaten to death, I would still tell the base note writer to buy the game and play it. If you don't like it, put it aside for a couple months, then check the status of the patches and maybe try it again. I did that with both III and IV, and ended up enjoying both. Which is saying something, because I pretty much III was the biggest POS I had ever seen when I bought it.

[rah]

I played the game and enjoyed it. I like 1upt. Once the AI has been further tuned the game will be fine. What I am missing is the WOW factor. Everything is quite boring. The wonders are boring and not really powerful. The tiles even with improvements are boring. The units are fun, but it's hard to maintain a large army. The buildings are fun but you can't afford them. City states were fun but they keep making them weaker (more boring) In general, the game feels like work. No dazzle.

[Zoetstofzoetje]

so what's interpretation of all this, larsenex?

[MxM]

If you are long time Civ fan, there is no way you can avoid Civ 5. Even if (and it is IF) it is not as good as other civ series games at the moment, it is still a civ game and quite a good one with some fresh concepts. And there is no doubt in my mind, that upon release, Civ II and Civ IV where significantly worse thant Civ V (Somehow I simply do not remember Civ III release). Significantly! I mean, Civ II did not have worker automation!

For a fan of the series, this game is a must.

[Steve Clark]

I assumed that if most of the posters over at CivFan are angry as hell, that pretty much everyone is uphappy.

I would disagree with that assumption. I think a majority of the people there like the game. One does tend to see only what they want to see, whether good or bad. But compared to Civ4, Civ5 did get off to a bad start but I think it's going to recover.