A few questionable design choices exist here and there, like the social policies being completely flat bonuses, but overall, it's a very fun game that's easy to get into and hard to master.

This game is like freaking crack cocaine. Hell, worse than that. It's so god damn addicting it's ridiculous. It's multiplayer just makes matters worse. In less than a week I've clocked 25 hours, and that's only because I could control myself and take breaks every now and then. DO NOT play if you have something else to do.

The wonderful thing about this expansion is that even though it feels a bit light by "expansion" standards, the civs that are introduced with it make the game so much more colorful. The longer you play against these new civs, the more ingrained their personalities and tendencies become in your strategy. It's still not perfect, as diplomacy is still broken. Adding more civs to a broken diplomacy system just makes me more angry, but I can look past that...I usually get my way in the end. Religion feels unnecessary, but ultimately fun to use as a domineering dictator! Espionage (the use of spies) is a slow, drawn-out mechanic and can vary up diplomatic relationships, but ultimately doesn't impact the end-game. If you are a fan of Civ 5 and find yourself coming back to start new games over and over, buy this expansion. I can't imagine playing Civ 5 without it now that I've purchased it.… Expand

Although not a game-changer, "Gods and Kings" introduces some interesting new features to an already great game which will certainly make the player want some more hours leading his civilization.

It's still that same great Civ V, but improved. Expansion brings religion, spies, new units, wonders, civilizations scenarios. All new content make this game better

less than useless. Although my PC is clearly within the crosshairs of this game, it constantly hangs. It always says "Next Turn", but nothing happens. The little workers work, but the game does not progress. I have to get to the Task Manager to close the game and Steam. Really not worth the effort for 5 minutes of play. Throwing it out. Will never buy from Steam or Sid again.

The base game felt like it was missing something that I couldn't quite put my finger on. This expansion helped to fill this void. Overall it is one of the best expansions for any game I've ever played.

The game lacked soul on release and even now continues to lack soul with the upgrade to Gods and Kings. You will expend a great deal of time on this game. You will enjoy it. Its just not as good as Civ 4.

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.… Expand

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.… Expand

After the release of Gods and Kings, Civ V has become one of the best turned-based strategy games of all time. Don't listen to the Civ III and IV fans who complained about this game earlier. It's a fantastic game. The only cons of this game as of the latest update is that this game requires a high powered pc to play on higher settings, and the game is almost too addicting! ;) ***ALSO, IF YOU GAVE THIS GAME A 0, YOU ARE AN IDIOT, PERIOD. UNLESS THE GAME ABSOLUTELY DIDN'T WORK, A ZERO IS NOT WARRANTED. METACRITIC NEEDS TO REMOVE THE ABILITY TO GIVE ZEROS TO KEEP IMMATURE CHILDREN FROM RUINING THE INTEGRITY OF USER REVIEW SCORES.***… Expand

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.… Expand

I can't recommend this Civ game. In the franchise, great steps were made to separate this from previous games with new concepts from hex, unit stacking, graphics, social policies, and city states. These succeed in creating new challenges for the player and add to the military strategy game.

However, what the game does not deliver is an adaquate AI that fails at even the simplest of tasks. For example, an automated worker in an unhappy, fledgling empire at game start will not attempt build immediately on resource one tile from the capitol to connect it. Increasing difficulty beyond King (L6) doesn't incorporate new AI routines, it simply handicaps the player by huge bonuses for production, happiness, science, and gold output for all AI players. I have over 200 hours into this Civ with another 500+ for Civ4 and another 500+ hours for every Civ incarnation before it. Even if purchased on a Steam sale, it doesn't overcome the disappointment at the lack of re-playability compared to previous Civs. The game can be fun at times, but those moments of enjoyment are too rare. Like a tribal hut, you get the immediate sense of reward and that is about as good as it gets as the game goes back to tedium of micro-management to overcome a weak AI.… Expand

This expansion was a step forward after the franchise took 20 back with the release of Civilization 5. While arguably still the same Civ 5, you can tell the difference in the point of view/direction the game is heading with this expansion. For the ones that don't know, Jon Shaffer, the 20 year old kid developer responsible for the disaster of Civ 5, was fired 2 months after launch (no surprise there), and since then Firaxis has been slowly trying to fix the mess. This expansion shows the dedication of the team and great efforts to restore Civ 5 to the franchise standards. Unfortunately, it's still Civ 5 at the very core, which depending on your opinion of Civ 5 it could be very bad or good. If you are new to the franchise or somehow managed to find Civ 5 appealing, then this expansion will only make it better in every aspect. If you are part of the horde of disappointed decades long hard-core fans like myself, then this expansion gives you hope in the future of the franchise, nonetheless still a mediocre mess compared to Civ 4-BTS. Religion, the improved AI, improved combat and several other small changes are really good, and made me play the game again, still with sour taste of Civ 5 vanilla in my mouth though. Conclusion: It's a good step to get Civilization back on track and restore the fan's confidence in the future of the franchise. Despite the efforts, the horrendous mess left by Civilization 5 vanilla it's still too big to be cleaned up by a single expansion and subsequent patches. If you hated what they did with Civilization 5 (like I did), give this expansion a try, it might bring you back to the game. However it still is Civ 5 at the core and therefore you will still have a sour taste in your mouth every time you play it. Hopefully with patches and maybe one more expansion like this we can get back to Civ 4-BTS standards?… Expand

Game is outstanding like all games from Sid Meier. Innovations brings new solutions and also brings something new in this serie. The only minus is no religion and espionage.

Until last week, I'd never played a Civ game. What was I thinking??? To be quite blunt, the poor user scores confuse the life out of me. I've played some seriously poor games in recent years, yet this ranks right at the top of the good (if not great) games. It offers so much entertainment and scale that only a PC game could offer. I've seen screen shots of Civ games in the past and thought 'Jesus that looks intimidating'. But the reality is quite different (from my point of view at least). The game gives you as much hand holding as you need to find your wings, then it's up to you to experiment with tactics. I love the TW (Total War) games and this kinda resembles the overview map mode game play, which ticks so many boxes for me. It builds upon the all the features I enjoy from TW and adds so much more to the mix. I've had sleepless nights and waking hours considering the best plan of action and this is with just one starting faction! This game has legs and I can see why so many people praise the Civ series. People have passion for Civ 4 and criticize Civ 5 for missing/failing to extend the experience. Having no frame of reference, I can't comment. All I can say is if you haven't played a games from this series and fancy giving it a go, Civ 5 has the ability to change your gaming outlook on turn based strategy. It's a shining example of why gaming is so special. A perfect score from me.… Expand

If you liked Civ5 you'll probably like this expansion too. It adds religion, spying and some minor tweaks to the game but doesn't change the core game mechanics too much. The biggest flaw of Civ5, horrible AI unit movement in war, is still there.
If you can get it cheap it's worth buying but you can easily cope without it. If you are a civfanatic you've already bought it.

This is a great expansion for Civ 5. It makes the game a lot better. It adds new technologies, balances the social policy tree and adds religion to the game. If you liked Civ 5 this expansion is a mus have. If you did not like Civ 5 you will not like this expansion either.

The new expansion turns Civilization 5 into a modern, improved version of Civilization 4.

That is, overall, a good thing.

It is a real shame that we have to pay for what should have been in the first place.

Civilization 5 is an absolute blast to play, I must admit.

This expansion is good in many ways, but for $50 a little overpriced. Gods and Kings adds religion and espionage, as well as a few userface changes. The religion addition was very enjoyable, allowing you to create your own religion and send it into other countries to spread it worldwide. Of course, this could effect diplomatic relations with other countries, which made religion have a lot of potential to play. Espionage, however, was a little dull. Aside from selecting which cities your spies were located, you don't have much choice in what they do. This made espionage rather boring and hardly worth using. There were some civilizations added which also help to increase the enjoyment of the game.

Overall, it's a great expansion, just a little pricey.… Expand

A solid expansion, well worth the cash. Should it have come with the game at release? Probably, but it's probably better they waited and sorted out the bugs so we'd have it to play in the meantime. Religion was very well integrated, better than in IV. The espionage is a nice touch, doesn't take up too much time per turn but your decisions are very important (much like a lot of Civ V's aspects). Nice additions to the tech tree, definitely more balanced. To all the people whining about long turn times and glitchy multiplayer, I have yet to experience any of these issues. Get a better internet service provider, or just get a better plan cause I have yet to drop a game with this expansion. As for the game chugging, upgrade your computer or try overclocking a bit, mine runs smooth as a whistle on max settings AND online. Noobs are still just angry cause they can't stack anymore lol. It's pure strategic bliss. Get it and your weekend will go by wayy too quickly.… Expand

One of the best strategy games of all times !
Highly addictive, great quality, the only problem I can find in this game is that once you start playing it, you just can't leave it alone

A nice comprehensive package. New civs are great and they are heading in the proper direction with relig. and esp. I wish esp was fleshed out a bit more. Some other options for spies would have been nice. In this case a step backward (toward civ4) is the step forward. AI is still as dumb as a bag of hammers and AI diplomacy is still as fickle as ever. Overall a good expansion worth having though.… Collapse

I'm still a big fan of Civilization IV, so I consider myself "one of those" that was disappointed with the mainstream-approach (aka dumbing-down) the developers took with Civ 5. Although this expansion addresses some of the complaints die-hard Civ players have had with the newest addition - specifically religion and covert operations - it seems too little, too late to rescue the base game. If you prefer Civ 5 over its predecessors, however, you may find this expansion breathes new game play styles and strategies into sessions.… Expand

It expands the Civ V at new levels, it adds the things were missing on original release. And not only has things as were on Civ4, it has that things in a better way. This expansion is a must have if you like Civ V.

Religion and city states tweaked. This should have been a patch. Civilization 4 is a complete game. Seems the developers want to milk this cash cow by charging for a few new tweaks that should have been included in the original game. Civilization 5 is like a bicycle you bought and found out it has no wheels, pedals, handlebars, seat, etc. Those will cost extra. I like the game, but find the greed of gaming companies like this hard to stomach. With the decline in the economy I can only see PC games getting worse and worse. Buy this if you can find it for $5.… Expand

My love for the Civilization series started as a kid playing the first Civilization on my Amiga. I've seen features appear and disappear trough the various installments, but never did so many features go missing as it did between the forth and fifth game. Therefore I was excited when this expansion was announced, as it was bringing back espionage and religion, two things that had in fact been introduced in an expansion to Civilization 4. The question; Is it worth buying something that maybe should have been included from the start? In short, YES! This expansion adds another layer of strategy to the game, and also fixes some of the imbalances in the tech tree and dominant strategies. Also worth mentioning is the 9 interesting new nations that are focused on either city states or the new religion mechanic "faith". There are also a bunch of new units that "plugs" the gap between the late 19th century and the start of the 20th century. All in all, a great expansion to an already great game!… Expand

This DLC was not worth the 30 dollars, it had a nice tech tree overhaul but religion has no impact on the game whatsoever, its by far one of the most useless systems added to civ 5, and its an extreme let down considering i love the civ series.

I had heard great things about this expansion, but sadly it didn't live up to the hype. The addition of religion is nothing like Civilization IV and leaves much to be desired. I was hoping for a little more variety in the new civilizations added as well, but they're either over-powered or just plain, blah. Nothing to see here folks, just another great franchise in decline.

Unfortunately, by "dumbing down" the overall game to appeal to a wider audience of gamer, Civ 5 has actually alienated itself from everyone - it's too easy for it's traditional fans, and it remains too boring for the casual gamer.

For those looking for a "proper" Civilization game, you're best served with either Civ 3 or Civ 4 which is available on Steam. A warning for the franchise in the future - you're not gonna rope in Call of Duty players, no matter how hard you try. Stick to what brought you to the race for Civ 6.… Expand

Really good expansion. A little bit expansive but if you have the money, buy it ! I give an 8 because of the price but if the expansion drop at 15$, it's a 9/10 easily. If you like the main game, you must buy it. The religion's gameplay is really good. Also, a lot of small changes give the experience more enjoyable.

Civ5 was a disappointment, but since then with the patches and DLC's, and now with this expansion, the game is finally standing up as an alternative to Civ4 BtS. Religion and espionage is revamped for the better. Religion now give you options to help you toward your victory goals and not as boring as it was in Civ4. On the other hand, espionage is now done in 1 screen but the simplicity make spying more streamlined. Many bugs was fixed, and exploits was taken care of in the policy trees and tech tree. AI's diplomacy has improved a lot, and the new combat system is getting better. They also changed the little things to make the gaming experience easier. For example, units gifted by city states are put right at your city so you don't have to walk them around anymore. Also AI's come up to you to renew open border and trade deals. Overall, all the devs efforts on Civ5 up until now deserve a 10 from me.… Expand

Being a loyal Civ fan since the beginning, I played five games of the original Civ V. The warfare system was vastly improved, but the economy was well-out of balance, there were some bugs, and--for me at least--it lacked intricacy that needed to be there to flesh things out. Civilization: Gods & Kings improves a lot with the original. The economy is vastly improved and better balanced (mainly due to the addition of "belief benefits"), with the religion aspect adding a great deal of detail to what was previously a little too basic.

Added to this, new units are inserted, AND they are inserted with some measure so that they improve the balance of warfare rather than overwhelming it. The addition of an Admiral was also a nice tack-on.

The spy system is the one thing I am disappointed with in this game. It feels clunky and isolated from the rest of the game--perhaps because it is. Admittedly, it does add just a little bit more complexity alongside the rest of the expansion, and this all goes towards improving Civ V significantly.… Expand

It's still Civ 5. Depending on what you think of Civ 5, that'll either be a good thing or a bad thing. For me it was a bad thing. The new systems don't feel well integrated. Religion in particular is built around yet another pool of points that you gather up from buildings, then spend on stuff. You know, like every other system in the game. You pick some buffs, then you can pretty much ignore it. Since diplomacy is so schitzophrenic you can ignore it for that purpose, and it spreads on its own (eventually), or you can use a missionary or great prophet to speed it up. Great prophets have no other real use then spreading religion, unlike other great people (who you can buy with faith later, likely added because the points would be virtually worthless once the religion is buffed up otherwise). Spies are really limited in what they can do, and since tech stealing is so prevalent you'll want to use a couple to defend against it pretty much all the time. That makes the whole system really limited and passive. If you thought Civ 5 was a great game already then you'll enjoy this, but IMO Civ 4 did both of these systems better.… Expand

This expansion adds two very interesting features which made Civ 5 much less entertaining than its predecessor. However, as far as I've gone into this game, it feels like the Social Policies when announced: interesting but actually severely lacking. It doesn't bring back the challenge from Civ 4, it's just another bunch of dumbed down features, fitting for a dumbed down game.

In a few words: don't even bother if you were disappointed with Civ 5.… Expand

This dlc has good enhancements and gives many options to customize some religion features. An option to rename pantheon and other religious features to something even more general (or suited to one's comfort, sensitivities and enjoyment) would have been nicer for some more sensitive people. Not everyone would like to build a "polytheistic pantheon" or "pantheon to the gods" before founding a monotheistic religion (some religions teach that polytheism came after monotheism). But hats off and thanks to devs for already taking it this far with religious sensitivities (by allowing renaming and making many aspects more general or customizable). I just hope modders can do something about that and take it even further. There is already a thread about this on civfanatics site.… Expand

My history with Civ: I have played all Civ series and Alpha centauri.

After first playing Civ V I thought it wasn't good enough of a series for the masterpiece Civ IV was. There were a lot of bugs, balance issues and a wierd diplomacy system. But after spending some time to understand it I begun to think that it has more tactical value than IV because of the combat system. It reminds me of Panzer general in some way. The expansion addresses a whole lot of issues that the Vanilla had: - great improvement in the AI (it will no longer just walk into the range of my units, also combines his units in a good manner) - Diplomacy far more intelligible - RA spam is no more - Open border selling span is gone because now you need an embassy and it comes later into the tech tree - Religion is far less passive than in IV and has a lot more diversity - City states are no more easily bought with money but you really need to do quests now.

Over all i think the developers really tried to balance it and listened to the community. I hope more people will try it out… Expand

This expansion wasn't intended to "fix" these features of the game you didn't enjoy, but rather add and implement new features into the game and they did it quite well. Every review I saw below was from people that disliked the original Civilization V, so how could they even like the expansion? If you enjoyed Civ V, then you'll love Gods & Kings. It adds some variety to the formula you've been tiring yourself on for hundreds of hours over the course of two years. It breathes new life into the game, and i foresee myself staying up until 3 AM once again, playing this game. Now, the espionage feature is a bit lacking, very limited, but its intended to make it possible to redeem yourself from a slow start. This feature is more of a sympathy thing with a few perks in between. Now, Religion is where it gets interesting. With faith you can produce any of the other resources like gold or culture, to add a new twist on how to receive these items. this is ultimately effective and plays off well. So, like I said above, if you loved Civ V, then you'll love the expansion. If you didn't like Civ V, you won't like the expansion... It's as easy as that.… Expand

Overall a great edition to the series, but about ten dollars overpriced. Even with all it's overhauls and additions, I don't think that the publisher has much legitimacy to charge anything more than $25 or $20 (not sure what the dev costs where but I doubt they were enormous). Unless you're a big MP fan, wait till this goes on sale. Now content... Religion and Espionage have been integrated quite well but don't feel very satisfying as they probably should (still better than magically founding religions in Civ4 though). I like the faith system, it's simple yet varied, as well as the complex spy actions. One of the nicer changes I think is the naval combat, now with Great Admirals, more ship types and greater bombardment power. Taking a City-State by pummeling it with frigates and then sweeping in with privateers to storm it's docks is a very satisfying feeling. New Civs and music are awesome and fresh, adding a great deal of variety to the game-play and audio pleasure. As far as AI goes, I don't see much of a difference, although, it does seem more organized and a bit more buffed so good enough I suppose. The new tech tree is fantastic, it feels much more realistic and intuitive than the previous one and allows for a much more interesting modern and ancient ages as far as wars go (composite bowman, Gatling/machine guns, WWI Units etc.) Don't worry too much about re-balancing, there's not too much and not too little if you know what I mean. Bottom-line, if you're a hardcore fan or a big MP player, buy it! If you're a causal player or unsure, wait till it goes on sale. Don't miss it though, for me it pretty much completes the game, though the edition of corporations and space exploration would satisfy my last wishes for content. This is definitely a great step forward from clunky and easily-cheapened Civ4 (although, it will always be a classic, and a good one at that). Happy Ruling.… Expand

Managed to breathe life into a nearly dead game. The religion and Spy system made the game a lot more fun to play. The religion was entertaining to observe as multiple countries would send ministers to others and spread their religion like a plague. It was like a silent war. It has diplomatic repercussions of course, as many don't like me going into their town and preaching. The spy system was exciting and fun at first, but quickly died out. It's still a very useful tool, and you really need it to prevent attacks and such, but it wasn't very fun after a while. It got rather annoying that other countries would always steal your city state with their spy and there is nothing you can really do about it, as there is no way to fight another spy in a city-state. The new civs were interesting to learn, and I enjoy most of them over the original provided ones. The new scenarios were shockingly fun, where as the old ones always seemed very dull. The new units made the game a lot more competitive, making that small lead in technology really pay off rather than everyone having the same units 4-5 branches behind you. The water battles were far more fun and required a lot more work and strategy than before. I used to never use naval units unless it's required, but now I can't live without them. It's really fun. I love the new wonders, and technologies as well. All these additions certainly drag on the game on a lot longer, but it's more worthwhile and less dull.… Expand

This game includes the spies and religion they cut out of the first release to sell later. It's full of bugs just like before. Everything is jacked up. You can't even play this in multiplayer unless everyone else joining has it too. They all have to have your identical DLC. Games a train wreck.

After 6 hours of gameplay, I can say that I am satisfied with Gods and Kings. It may not be perfect, but it takes an "ok" game and make it a good one. I even find the religion thing as a whole better than it was in Civ 4. The level of customization for your civilization is great. Its not just more gold and happiness anymore. They also made slight changes to the tech tree, making it harder to get Civil Service with the Great Library. Diplomacy is enhanced and the AI is better at waging wars. Maybe my mind is playing me but it seems that the espionage stuff is more like Civ 3 than Civ 4, which I find a little bit disappointing. I prefer the spy as a unit on the map, discovering blurred tiles and acting on the field, not only in cities. But nevertheless, I am looking forward to test it at a lan party with my friends this weekend.… Expand

I was really looking forward to this expansion. I took of a couple of days just to play it 24x7. I think the the expansion is okay but not up toward their standard. It seems like the AI has changed dramatically. The AI army seems stronger like 10 times then before. I needed like way more units just to kill one. I just dont think it is realistic. I wish they had a option to play against the old AI engine at the start of the game. Right now I feel like this is CIV 4 with all the expansion packs. I feel like there a lack in innovation with this release. There are a lot more civs and tech but still feel like there missing so much more then there could of been. I really hope another expansion comes out soon to make this live up to the sid standard.… Expand

The best thing about this expansion is the civilizations that are added. All of them are interesting to me and I have enjoying trying some really short games with each of them so far. As far as improving the AI as the developers said they would, it is definitely questionable. Did they make the AI more difficult? Yes. Do I agree with the methods they chose to do that? No. First of all, the developers decided to add hit points to the units of AI controlled units. While this has not been confirmed, I have also found that the AI produces units much faster than they should be able to. While playing with Byzantium (which is a fun new civ to play) Rome declared war on me early in the game. Rome had only one city with minimal improvements around it. Also, there was only one hill in their area. Their production should have been extremely low. Somehow, Rome had 12 military units less than 100 turns into the game. These were not just your low-level warriors, but also two ballistas, two spearmen, and a few bowmen. It would have been impossible for me, to create this many units if I had my city surrounded by hills with mine improvements. I was able to hold off the Romans in a war of attrition, but cheating AI's have a way of making me really angry. The religion feature is WAY TOO SLOW. It takes forever to earn faith points unless you put all of your civs resources into it. Spreading your religion is also to slow. For over 30 turns I waited for the city that was closest to the holy city to adopt the religion. It didn't happen. I had to send a missionary which took forever to purchase because I had to use faith points to get him. I haven't even got to espionage yet because I've been trying to figure out the religion aspect. It's a good idea. they just need to speed it up 2 or 3 times what it currently is. There was one problem I had with one of the new civilizations. Sweden's special ability is pretty stupid in my opinion. They are a civ I would like to play, but their special ability is useless to me.… Expand

Gods & Kings does a lot right, but stumbles a bit when it comes to the ostensible focus of the expansion - religion and espionage. Let's start with the good. You get a lot more bang for your buck with this expansion rather than the previous model of 'sell a civ for $5'. There are several decent civilizations added, expanding your options for play, new luxury resources to take advantage of, and 2 new city state types along with more in-depth interaction. Various other gameplay changes such as a slightly retooled combat system, new buildings/units/wonders, and an overhaul of certain key aspects will probably require you to change your strategies a bit. The scenarios included are interesting and detailed, particularly the steampunk themed one. Now for the bad. Religion is a bit more hands off than I'd like - most of the game is spent waiting around for your 'faith resource' to accrue, then choosing perks from a list. If religion sounds suspiciously like another culture bar, that's because it essentially is. After you have enough 'faith resource', you wait for a great prophet to be generated. Once he is, you found your religion (naming it 'Pastafarianism' or 'Atheism' is only funny once, trust me) and choose some unique traits. The 'build-a-religion' thing is a pretty cool idea, but when certain traits give +10% wonder building, and others give +1 food from camps, you can be pretty sure where everyone playing to win is going to head. From there you can go on and spread it to neighboring cities, but unfortunately, religion starts to die off in importance in later eras of the game and slowly becomes replaced with Espionage. I understand the Real World reasoning behind it, but instead of two full gameplay functions, it feels like I'm only getting 2 halves. Espionage is done completely within the menu interface. I found it to be sort of interesting, but again, very hands off, as once you move your spy to a city, they do things automatically with no further input. All in all, Gods & Kings is a decent expansion, but it's mainly due to the other stuff that's bundled with with it rather than the key features. Hopefully future dev tweaking and balancing will make religion and espionage more interesting than they are currently, as well as fix the numerous bugs that shipped with the last couple of patches. If you enjoyed Civ 5 as-is, you will probably like this expansion quite a bit. On the other hand, if you were disappointed in Civ 5 due to gameplay , strategic depth or another similar reason, Gods & Kings unfortunately doesn't really do anything to resolve the underlying issues.… Expand

1) It doesn't fix the tactical AI, (it's still bad), just gives them more HP.
2) It doesn't fix the diplomatic AI, (it's still schizophrenic).
3) ICS is still the dominant strategy, as global happiness just doesn't work, especially with all the new happiness resources.
4) Turn times are still atrocious. Unless you're from the future, this game will chug on your machine.

To start this off: I am a HUGE Civ fan. I listen to Civ podcasts all the time, i watch let's plays and I have over 500 hours in Civ 4 and 700 in Civ 5. I am a civ nut. If you don't like Civ 5 this probably won't change anything for you and I highly doubt anything ever will, honestly. But if you do like Civ 5 this expansions is great. So far I've played it almost 10 hours playing 3 games with 3 different Civ's. The new religion is really cool and offers a lot of diversity to how you play the game. It really opens up a ton of strategies that weren't possible before. The espionage system, sadly, is not as cool. It's still alright because it allows you to do some unorthodox strategies that you simply wouldn't have been able to do before espionage, but ultimately it is very shallow. The new units and combat revamp add a lot of life and depth back into war and the city state changes were all around a huge upgrade. Definitely get this if you like Civ 5, it will make you fall in love again because of all the new strategies you are able to do.… Expand

The idea is great, and to finally get religions made me exited. Then I installed it. Woah, bugs galore. Putting the bugs aside (such as animation problems), it still does not address the shallow gameplay and quirky AI. Is the expansion worth it? Only if you really, really like Civ V.