OK...so I've just completed my first playthrough in Civ 5. I've been a massive fan of the series ever since the original and dread to think of the hours I've ploughed into these games over the years. In my opinion, the series has usually always gone from strength to strength. Not always a clearly better product, but at least progressive. 4 and its expansions were nigh-on perfection of the series. And now we have 5 and I'm left thinking it's been ruined somewhat. 
OK, it's not all bad. The new social policy structure is a really cool addition. Stacks of doom disappearing is great. But my oh my, what have they done to the AI?!?!?!
Seriously, it is like playing against a retarded goldfish! Just waltzed through the game on Prince difficulty without ever feeling challenged. Even when I had neglected to build an army in the classical age, and got invaded. The AI just camped units around my base and let me pick them off with the city defences. This happened countless times throughout the game. They march around near your cities and ranged units letting you pick them off without retaliating.
Embarking your units onto the sea is a cool idea. It makes it much more favourable to expand across the oceans earlier in the game. But I thought it was silly how I could sail march them straight upto the walls of the enemies' cities without their defences firing on me. When the AI tried it on me I found out that actually you can defend against them, the AI had just neglected to! :facepalm:
In Civ 4, if I played on the normal diffculty (i.e. a level playing field for both you and the AI) then I would certainly expect to win but I would be challenged my intelligent foes who would act reasonably to most events. In Civ 5, it's like a Total War game; you have to disable yourself to make up for the stupidity of your virtual opponent. To go from such a strength to such a weakness is just do disappointing.
I played as the Egyptians so I had an advantage building wonders. But surely I shouldn't have been able to build 95% of them without even building a single production enhancing building?
Loads more I could add but my rant's running out of steam. Just wanted to post this up as probably like myself you won't bother to trawl through the massive main thread. This was an instant purchase for myself, and I felt my decision was supported by the reviews. How the critics have so unilaterally glorified this game is beyond me. Perhaps they just felt that criticising it would be too risky. But make no mistake, this game is in a beta stage at best. I really hope that what we currently have is a deeply flawed gem that can be remedied by patches and expansions. In its current state, I couldn't recommend you parting with your hard earned.
OK, it's not all bad. The new social policy structure is a really cool addition. Stacks of doom disappearing is great. But my oh my, what have they done to the AI?!?!?!
Seriously, it is like playing against a retarded goldfish!
Just waltzed through the game on Prince difficulty without ever feeling challenged. Even when I had neglected to build an army in the classical age, and got invaded. The AI just camped units around my base and let me pick them off with the city defences. This happened countless times throughout the game. They march around near your cities and ranged units letting you pick them off without retaliating.Embarking your units onto the sea is a cool idea. It makes it much more favourable to expand across the oceans earlier in the game. But I thought it was silly how I could sail march them straight upto the walls of the enemies' cities without their defences firing on me. When the AI tried it on me I found out that actually you can defend against them, the AI had just neglected to! :facepalm:
In Civ 4, if I played on the normal diffculty (i.e. a level playing field for both you and the AI) then I would certainly expect to win but I would be challenged my intelligent foes who would act reasonably to most events. In Civ 5, it's like a Total War game; you have to disable yourself to make up for the stupidity of your virtual opponent. To go from such a strength to such a weakness is just do disappointing.
I played as the Egyptians so I had an advantage building wonders. But surely I shouldn't have been able to build 95% of them without even building a single production enhancing building?
Loads more I could add but my rant's running out of steam. Just wanted to post this up as probably like myself you won't bother to trawl through the massive main thread. This was an instant purchase for myself, and I felt my decision was supported by the reviews. How the critics have so unilaterally glorified this game is beyond me. Perhaps they just felt that criticising it would be too risky. But make no mistake, this game is in a beta stage at best. I really hope that what we currently have is a deeply flawed gem that can be remedied by patches and expansions. In its current state, I couldn't recommend you parting with your hard earned.
