An excellent collection of new content and concepts for one of the world's favorite strategy games, once you play Gods & Kings you won't want to go back.
The first expansion pack for Civilization V delivers a charming new style of gameplay and a new level of complexity to a game that had been criticized for it's simplistic and straightforward gameplay. Not only does Gods and Kings bringing back religion, last seen in Civilization IV, but it also introduces a system of espionage, radically different from the spies and security agencies that older Civilization players are used to. This new system sees players take one step ahead of the opposition; being able to both monitor the movements of competing players, including potential sneak attacks on the player or another civilization, and to steal a technology from an opposing player. The defensive aspects of the game also draw significantly more importance this time around, knowing that competitors will also be spying on the player in return, granting a genuine sense of both distrust and paranoia to the player as the game progresses.
In addition to this, the gameplay gets even more exciting with the addition of quests for City States, which sharply raise the importance of City States to the player, who may be aiming for a Diplomatic or Cultural victory. These missions act as short-term objectives for the player to complete during the game's typically long length, and inject new blood into gameplay sessions that otherwise may run stale after quite a while.
Overall, the introduction of these new layers of gameplay amp up Civilization V's micromanagement element, reducing the likelihood of one's gameplay session devolving into a countless string of "next turn" clicks by a significant percentage. It is a terrific expansion pack for those looking for a more productive and complex Civilization V.
Playing on a huge map with friends (if you want a long game you can disable all other victory types but domination and enable complete kills), the lush terrain which makes the game pleasing to look at, the hexagon grid forcing everyone to move naturally and making combat more tactical - it actually feels like you're playing a board game on a massive scale (The Campaign for North Africa anyone?), city population slowly increasing, cultural borders slowly filling out the land, religions slowly spreading and their effects being noticed in the later game, the tech tree slowly being explored, everyone beginning to diverge into their victory path and unique gaming style, the endless combinations possible with 30+ civilizations and the tons of terrain options available... God I love this game. It's nothing but number crunching/ bit mining (I don't know what to call it), it's like nurturing a plant that you've sowed. I think turn-based strategy games should be this intuitive and easy to grasp - like chess (just learn how each of the six pieces move and the concept of check and checkmate, and you're set for ~10^120 unique games of chess). I never seriously played Civ IV because it was hideous to look at (although I do miss the narration by Spock and the classical music... but I could do without the things I thought were stupid from my limited play of the game: how your city would riot if you took a different tech path or something like that) or any of the other previous Civs. Before anyone calls me a casual I'll have you know that I also enjoy games like Crusader Kings II and Dwarf Fortress which I do think are more complicated and deeper than any Civ game.
Civilization V: Gods and Kings has a serious price tag, but it does
bring the Civilization veterans some great features. The addition of
religion, espionage and new nations, gives Gods and Kings the
well-known 'just one more turn'-feeling.
You'll still find AI that makes terrible decisions, or find yourself waiting forever while the game ponders through the turns for the other civilizations. But the addition of several new scenarios and tons of new units can help you overlook that fact until Civilization VI inevitably comes out.
This is the same disappointing strategy game it was a year and a half ago, except that it now has two finicky and mostly unimpressive systems shoehorned in.
Gods and Kings is a true expansion pack, not a minor DLC as we keep having from other games.
The expansion really adds to the game, giving you a bunch of new features to play with, and it makes the strategy-setting more complex and, in result, better. The features include not only the religion, but also new civilizations, units, wonders, the expanded diplomacy... It really improves the game!
In regard to the price, I think that 24 dollars may be a little too much for an expansion, as you can buy a lot of full games for that price, so I'd wait for some sale (like Black Friday) to get it with a good discount.
But it is definitely worth it.
Feels like the trend of "lets have you pay for what should have been in the original" has really taken flight and it's very shameful. Half of what you pay for in this "expansion" should have been patched in and the other half should have been packaged into a lower priced DLC. Still, this added another 50 hours to my play time so I guess I can only be so angry...I did, after all pay for it knowing full well what to expect!
They've done a solid job of patching up this game. The game runs fairly smooth now and with this add on it's what they should have released day one. You must increase the difficulty to the extreme or it's like playing against children that have never played a pc game before.
Civ 5 is a great game, but I will be frank with my issue: Gods and Kings is NO WHERE EVEN CLOSE to 30 bucks worth of new content. Firaxis or 2k, whoever is responsible for the pricetag of these expansions, NEEDS TO STOP THIS RIDICULOUSNESS!
Considering the base game's price tag, and the fact that this is pathetically considered a "rich man's game," these expansions should be priced no more than 15 bucks.
I would prefer to give this expansion a 0/10 for the absurd pricing vs. content, but cannot deny the intuitive, but SIMPLE changes in this expansion that make the base game even **** I will toss it a couple.
Firaxis seems to be a company in dire straights milking this cash cow for all its worth with minimal investment. Still poorly made, pretty but poorly made. The new systems feel tacked on and poorly integrated. Spying more than religion. Religion being kind of interesting if somewhat pointless.
Multiplayer is still buggy as hell after so many years to patch it. it crahses (though thankfully recovers OK). Pauses for no good reason then wakes up after a minute or two. If you have an AI in the game it cant initiate diplomacy with you! Who has 8 friends to play? I imagine many multiplayer players still need 1 or 2 AI's!
Civ4 is still a better game. Sad but true.
SummarySid Meier's Civilization V: God & Kings takes players through time as they engage in new quests and global competitions, interact with new types of city-states, and master exciting new systems for land and naval combat. Nine new civilizations; nine new wonders; three original scenarios; and dozens of new units, buildings, technologie...