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[IMG News]

Inside Mac Games has posted a new review of Aspyr Media's recently released Mac version of Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings. The expansion "takes players from founding the first Pantheon of the Gods and spreading religion across the world, to deploying spies in enemy cities to steal information and technology, and much more."

Here's an excerpt:

When I began my new civilization I immediately started down the path of the religious victory. Like any other way of winning in the game you have to balance your choice with other aspects of your civilization, otherwise you’ll be trampled by your competition. Religion is no different. If you divide your focus in the wrong fashion your surrounding foes might beat you to the post. As soon as the game starts you begin with a new form of currency called 'Faith' to spend on your empire. At the start you have none, with an income of +1 per turn. This limitation is also combined with the restriction to only spend the currency on religious goods such as Cathedral buildings and Missionary units. However, if you choose to establish and develop a religion, you can eventually spend this faith on military units and other items as well.

Click over to the link below for the full article.

Return to Full Article - InsideMacGames News

[Janichsan]

Yup, I pretty much agree with this review. Religion and espionage really add a lot to the game, although espionage is somewhat underdeveloped in what you can do with it (especially since you can't get a lot of spies). I still think that Civ IV BtS offers more options and complexity, though.

One other thing: I admittedly have only played one G&K game so far, but I have the impression that the game has become somewhat easier. Pretty much early on (on Warlord), I was so ridiculously overpowered that my military force was about ten times stronger than that of the next ranked civilization and I was always at least one technology era ahead everyone else (sometimes even two or three compared to the smaller civs).

[andrewlennox]

Janichsan, on 03 July 2012 - 06:03 AM, said:

Yup, I pretty much agree with this review. Religion and espionage really add a lot to the game, although espionage is somewhat underdeveloped in what you can do with it (especially since you can't get a lot of spies). I still think that Civ IV BtS offers more options and complexity, though.

One other thing: I admittedly have only played one G&K game so far, but I have the impression that the game has become somewhat easier. Pretty much early on (on Warlord), I was so ridiculously overpowered that my military force was about ten times stronger than that of the next ranked civilization and I was always at least one technology era ahead everyone else (sometimes even two or three compared to the smaller civs).

Come to think of it, I thought it was a little easier for me as well. But that being said, I'm not that good at Civ anyway

For me at least, the other civ's in this expansion pack seemed a little more two faced. They were trying to create a facade of being friendly and weak and then BAM, war starts and there is thirty ships heading towards your continent. Well that's what happend to me I think from my experience the AI has been tampered with slightly, perhaps giving more unique gameplay.

But this is just one man's opinion, did you guys feel the same?

[Janichsan]

andrewlennox, on 03 July 2012 - 05:37 PM, said:

Come to think of it, I thought it was a little easier for me as well. But that being said, I'm not that good at Civ anyway

For me at least, the other civ's in this expansion pack seemed a little more two faced. They were trying to create a facade of being friendly and weak and then BAM, war starts and there is thirty ships heading towards your continent. Well that's what happend to me I think from my experience the AI has been tampered with slightly, perhaps giving more unique gameplay.

But this is just one man's opinion, did you guys feel the same?

That friendly or sometimes even allied AIs attack you apparently out of the blue also happened in the vanilla Civ V (a couple of people complained about this). They can get very aggressive and easily get pissed off for sometimes not too obvious reasons.

However, I do agree they seem to have become even more treacherous in G&K –that's were espionage comes into play. When I first met America and China in the game I mentioned, both were friendly towards me right from the beginning (and at war with each other). Shortly after, America informed me about Chinese plots against me, two or three turns later, China told me about America plotting against me (meaning they both had spies in the respective other's capital who uncovered their attack plans). Still, both kept their friendly face. A couple of turns in, I first caught an American spy in my capital, another two or three turns later a Chinese spy. And that's when our relationships really started to go downhill. Both quickly were "guarded" and kept denouncing me, but never dared to attack me directly. When it finally came to war, it was in both cases because they were stupid enough to mess with Sweden, my ally on the same continent as them with whom I had a Defense Pact...

[andrewlennox]

Janichsan, on 04 July 2012 - 01:18 AM, said:

That friendly or sometimes even allied AIs attack you apparently out of the blue also happened in the vanilla Civ V (a couple of people complained about this). They can get very aggressive and easily get pissed off for sometimes not too obvious reasons.

However, I do agree they seem to have become even more treacherous in G&K –that's were espionage comes into play. When I first met America and China in the game I mentioned, both were friendly towards me right from the beginning (and at war with each other). Shortly after, America informed me about Chinese plots against me, two or three turns later, China told me about America plotting against me (meaning they both had spies in the respective other's capital who uncovered their attack plans). Still, both kept their friendly face. A couple of turns in, I first caught an American spy in my capital, another two or three turns later a Chinese spy. And that's when our relationships really started to go downhill. Both quickly were "guarded" and kept denouncing me, but never dared to attack me directly. When it finally came to war, it was in both cases because they were stupid enough to mess with Sweden, my ally on the same continent as them with whom I had a Defense Pact...

Nice, it seems we have a future diplomat in the making here I wish I had that much luck in my games.

[Hansi]

My thinking when playing pre-expansion was basically that the religion and espionage stuff should have been there from the start. It really just felt like the game accommodated them but they just didn't have time.