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The graphics and audio are distracting. Very different from Civ III. Personally, I prefer and still play Civ III.
Some of the changes to the base game like Great Generals and the changes to the Spying in the game I have had plenty of fun with in game as well as messing around with unrestricted leaders and the unique units and buildings. I have been playing this a few times since I picked it and Beyond the Sword up. I installed both on my vanilla civ4 install and haven't yet tried corporations or some of the very interesting looking custom content. There is a lot of new content almost making this an entirely new game.
But the increase in the AI cheating is just too much. While CIV IV is an excellent game the expansions are not so great. Sure the added content is always nice and the new game play really makes for an interesting and fresh take. What a shame because I would recommend CIV IV to anyone, it is just that good of a game, these expansions take it down a notch.
For the strategy turn/based game enthusiast, the Sid Meiers Civilization games are addicting and interesting. Once again, the Civ IV products are not a disappointment to the totally addicted CIVILIZATION individual. Though we waited a full year to purchase this particular expansion pack, as it did not have a great deal of new items, it was a decidedly good addition to the CIV gaming collection. This one fuels the addiction even further.
Tsk, Tsk. Unlike the very well received second update to Civilization IV, 'Beyond the Sword', this add-on adds very little to the basic game design. The primary functional addition is the Warlord unit, which can convert into either an acadamy, super specialist, or, uniquely, an in the field commander. Unfortunately, this functionality is simply not as useful as the leaders in Civilization III, where a leader could be used to build an army, which, in ancient scenarios, became virtually unstoppable in battle, since their units never become obsolete. Most apprecieated is the correction of the egregious lapse in the functionality of the cities list. It's primary value is in the added scenarios, especially my favorite from Civilization III, the rise of the Roman Empire. In the original game, one could not drill down to cities from the list. Of course, if you are a Civilization fanatic like me, the simple addition of the new civilizations, scenaries, and bug fixes is more than enough to make this worth while, even if you get the next new thing.
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