Review: Civilization V: Gods and Kings

Photo Credit: Gamechurch.com

So the recent sale on Steam finally pushed me over the edge on purchasing the first expansion for Civilization V.

When something is 75 percent off, I find it difficult to say "no". That, and I had some PayPal credit that I was too lazy to move over to my "real" bank account.

I realize this is not exactly a passionate introduction to my reasons for purchasing it. And if I seem hesitant, it's because I am.

I really liked Civilization V's initial offerings, but like many people I thought that the series seemed to be slumping into the same pattern: an initial release with fewer features, and then expansions offering features that had been baseline in prior versions of the game.

Sure, the game had the same old feeling of "one more turn" and the revamped combat system in Civ V was, in my eyes, a welcome addition. But the initial offering felt somehow hollow, or less-featured, than other initial entries in the series.

If you think I'm being harsh on Civ V, don't worry: this expansion isn't getting off scot-free either, because it attempts to implement one of my favourite Civ IV features, religion.

Is Gods and Kings divinely inspired, or is regicide in order? Let's take a look.

Are you a bad enough dude to... build Christianity? (Photo Credit: Kotaku)

Faith

The main addition to the game is the Faith system. Faith is a sort of alternate currency, which allows you to found a religion, improve that religion, and buy some units and buildings.

Faith is generated by some buildings as well as some Natural Wonders, and when you found a religion you can choose other ways to generate it. For example, you can make desert squares generate it when you found your religion.

Faith never really feels like a mandatory part of the game, but a strong religion can have strong implications for your civilization. During my time with the game, I used my civ's religion and geographical position to generate faith and translated that directly into Great Person generation.

The bonuses that your faith confers only work in cities that are actively practicing it - and this is by no means a guarantee, especially if your neighbour is a spiritual powerhouse.

Your religion can be spread by missionaries, which are purchased with Faith. You can also purge all other religions in a city by building an inquisitor.

One thing to keep in mind is that your missionaries and inquisitors are not necessarily aligned to your civ’s religion, but rather to the majority religion of the city that they were purchased in.

I made this mistake after an enemy’s great prophet got their Tengriism in my Islam, and I wanted to make sure the enemy’s heretics were kicked out. Since the city had just converted to Tengriism, I ended up scaring away my own faithful instead. Whoops.

Faith integrates pretty well with other structures already in the game, like social policies. When you select social policies, they unlock the ability to purchase different Great People, depending on the policy.

In addition, the previously-confused Piety policy tree has been updated with some faith-enhancing selections.

New Units

Gods and Kings adds new units throughout, but I thought the best improvement was the addition of early 20th century units, preventing the awkward leap from Rifleman straight to modern Infantry.

The new units represent infantry, armor and air power during World War I. They are a useful stopgap. I particularly liked the landship (the early Tank unit), and thought that it was both a fun and flavourful addition to the game.

The landship will have you setting sail for World War I.

New Civilizations

The expansion adds Austria, Byzantines, Carthage, Celts, Ethiopia, Huns, Maya, Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.

I haven’t played all of them, but a lot of the civs had abilities that seemed pretty situational, if still very flavourful.

I would like to point out that Austria’s ability in particular has the potential to change the game dramatically.

Austria’s ability lets them “marry” city-states into their civ after they have been allies for at least six turns by spending some gold. This is not considered an invasion, and as such does not affect your image in the eyes of other city-states.

Running a heavily economy-based Austria is a unique way to play the game, and I’d encourage long-time fans of the series to try it.

Our civilization needs more coffee. Our workers aren't productive until after lunch.

Plus, they can build a coffee house. What other encouragement do you need?

City-State changes

The expansion adds two new city-state types and a variety of new quests offered by city-states during the course of the game.

I especially liked the addition of 30-turn “who can generate the most x” quests. Unsurprisingly, cultural states will want you to generate culture, etc.

In addition to rewarding civs that are trying to specialize in one or two areas, these quests give you a good idea of who else is competing with you in certain arenas because if you lose, you get to find out who won the competition.

Multiplayer

Here’s the downfall.

The multiplayer in this game is incredibly buggy. There are plenty of threads devoted to the strange issued encountered during multiplayer games, including random disconnects and inability to load saved multiplayer games.

Firaxis said almost nothing about these issues, and despite rumours of a much-awaited “multiplayer patch”, there has been no such thing. There hasn’t even been confirmation of one.

Basically, if you were going to buy this game for the multiplayer only, you may want to rethink it.

Now, you could get lucky and have completely smooth multiplayer sailing... I just wouldn’t count on it.

Conclusion

Gods and Kings adds a lot to the game, and I really enjoy what it does add. However, with multiplayer in its current state, I can’t recommend that you get this expansion if that were your only intention when playing it. 

Have you bought Gods and Kings? What did you think of it?