Recent reviews by Cory • 科里 • كوري • コーリー • Кори

"Next Gen Update" has tanked performance and introduced new bugs. Wait until it's fixed to buy.

I've tried to play this game. I had fun with what little of the singleplayer I could play. But then I started getting infinite loading screens when I tried to load the mission "Fog of War." I could not find any solution to this.
Then I tried playing the Friends in High Places storyline. The airplanes had no roll. There are only three axes of plane movement, and BF1 only decided to give us two. I looked online and apparently this has been a bug since release: no roll for planes in singleplayer. It's been like 5 years. How is this still not fixed?

As with all Civ expansions, the content included in this expansion should have released with the base game.
I've gone through one playthrough with one of the new Civs, and this is what I observed.

Turn 1: New music, that's nice.
Turn 5: Oh neat, a new natural wonder.
Turn ~30: Oh no, I fell into a dark age! *no noticeable consequences*
Turn ~60: Cool, I entered a heroic age! *no noticeable consequences*
Turn ~70: Why can't I have a spy try to influence a free state? Why am I perpetually at war with free states? Why can't I send a governor to influence a free state? Why aren't trade routes impacting loyalty?
Turn ~300: I've entered the information age and my civilization is in a golden age and all other civilizations are in their respective dark ages. Wait, why is the countdown stopped? You mean, once you hit the information age, you cannot transition from dark to regular or golden ages? That's some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. But the age system has no real consequences anyway, so eh.
Turn 500: *Game crashes on final turn repeatedly, so it cannot be ended*

Not worth full price, buy on sale for like $5.

TL;DR: Not worth full-price if you want a good story.

I loved this game before I finished it. The story is just balls-out insane and it's great. If Wolfenstein: TNO jumped the shark, Wolfenstein II jumped over the shark on rocketboots while shredding electric guitar, then nuked the shark from orbit.
I bought this game for the story and worldbuilding. And what little I got, I loved.

[Spoilers]
But then the game just abruptly ends. It's been building up this revolution and all that comes of it is a confrontation on a television show and a pitch for the American people to revolt. That's it. You don't get to see it happen, you don't get to watch the American people fight the Nazis or win anything. You capture a airship and nothing is done with it. It just goes straight to credits and tells you to go kill more Nazi commanders to help the revolution.
Very disappointed. HUGE anticlimax.
Definitely get this on sale.

Abandonware.

While I love this game, it is a very shallow experience. Below all of its dressing, this is still very much just a board game. A fun board game, don't get me wrong, but it is not one with an excess of depth. This is a game to leave on in the background and occasionally make a move when you notice that you can.
If you want to get it, you should also get mods, like Revolutions and Cultural Diffusion (these mods really should have been in the main game) and such. These mods add real depth to the gameplay.
Unfortunately, Mods with Civ V are really finicky and you could end up going through half a game before you realise that one of the mods isn't working properly with another and broke the game.
It's still missing very basic UI components, like seeing city boundries when choosing where to place a settler. Manually counting the city radius for efficiency isn't very fun.
It's flawed, but fun. Get it on sale.