Two steps forward and one step back?
That said, my main complaint is the feeling I get when playing
Civ V. I understand that Firaxis is trying to appeal to more casual audiences but a "dumbed down" and simplified version is *not* what I look for in a sequel to my favorite strategy series. Sure, the Civilization Revolution formula works fine for console players, it's ideal even, but on the PC platform I expect *more* depth. Casual gamers *are not* your primary customers, Firaxis, and they're not the ones who will still be playing the game regularly a year from now!
One example I'll give is the disjointed interface. Remember in
Civ IV how pretty much everything you needed to see could be found either immediately or by simply mousing over a unit, city, or tile? I often find that I'm wasting time digging for information that should be readily accessible.
Another big complaint for me is the way combat is handled. Why is it that Firaxis has decided to move completely away from unit stacking? It's interesting to me that when moving to attack another continent I have to drop each of my units on the shoreline 1 at a time so that they can get neatly butchered by my opponent before I can even use them. Not to mention the way that often times ancient units can easily harm more modern ones. It's not only silly to see a stack of knights run over some infantry but it sorta defeats the purpose of rushing war techs if you plan to be aggressive or defensive. Lastly, it's a bit irritating to have to move each unit in my military 1 at a time and that if I have a Great General or Settler standing around workers won't step on that tile to improve it.
In any case, graphically the game is gorgeous and the sounds and animations are excellent as well. There are some bugs and the game lacks polish but I have a lot of faith in Firaxis to get all of that straightened out in short order. I know that this review ended up being a bit of a rant but Civilization V is definately a fun game that still holds much of the original formula intact. I'll likely still be playing it 6 months from now and would recommend that fans of the series give it a shot.