Civilization V

You need to stack. If you're playing with a human or humans, the new combat works (save the navy) but if you are playing with just the AI, war isn't a threat, the AI can't think enough to be a threat with the new combat mechanics.

The AI was more of a military threat when it could stack...

... but then this game heavily punishes you for empire building and that kills most of the fun. Cultural victories and the Space Race always used to feel like a participant trophy that you won because you couldn't get in other victories in time.

Part of the fun was watching your empire spread across the map... and they took that away to focus on more mundane strategies.

The lack of religion and civics hurt too.

But it is lack of stacking and the AIs inability to be formidable with the new mechanics that really killed it

This was the Civ that made me stop buying new Civs... and from what I understand the AI still can't fight a decent war.

So I still play IV, just so being invaded was a threat, because managing culture and tech has always been last resorts to beat the clock or so easy you're ashamed to win that way (and often deactivated to avoid accidental victories).

It just killed the franchise for me.

This is a great game, much better than civ 4 but also much, much better than civ 6. if you only buy one civ game make it this one. it can get better and isn't perfect, but this is the closest they have come so far and civ 6 does not give us much hope for the future, like they are going the anime-looking super cheap and easy a.i. route to be a tablet/phone game. too bad as this was the best series ever in my opinion. we love civ 5!

Positives : The overall concept of the game is an amazing feat already, choosing a world leader, which all have other bonuses, and then winning in one of the four ways. Each leader has a preferred victory, be it domination, culture, science or diplomacy, all are a fun way to win and all work differently. The game starts super simple, and gradually gets more advanced the longer the game has been going on. You have to make lots and lots of choices, and if you aren't smart about them, chances are you'll lose. The difficulty settings in this game are amazing too, there's a setting for everyone, the easiest difficulty is so easy a 4 year old could beat it, and the hardest difficulty is as it says, only for the best. Games are super customisable, you can choose the speed, the other players, the map, the amount of players and much more, you can create a game exactly how you want it. It's amazing how a game from 2010 could still be this amazing.

Negatives : The game still has some issues i feel the need to address, i don't feel like different leaders play very different, the bonuses you get are quite minor and don't actually change the gameplay most of the time, and some leaders are just better then others by a long shot, so if you only play to win, you'll stick to few super good ones. Also sometimes the npc's are straight up stupid, they can decide to start a war and then they attack you with like 3 troops, this is expected in such an advanced game, but still it can ruin the fun sometimes.

Verdict :

At first I wasn't planning on giving this high a rating, but after rethinking everything about Civilization V, it genuinely is the best game of it's kind, and only has some minor issues.

9/10.

I became obsessed, probably border-lining on OCD, spending hours and hours just waging war on the AI's, then when I became more confident in my abilities skills, I went into Multiplayer. Now multi-player for Civ: IV is the same for Civ: V, making the adjustment to the new hexagonal system easier.

If you've played this game from Civilization I to Civilization V, you'll notice how slightly more complicated your war will be when your cities and units are surrounded by a team of 6 units. When I first tried this game I was quickly beaten, but because I was familiar with the previous games I adapted to its new battle-system.

Everything about this game has been improved, especially my favorite one, the music. Get the OST.