Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings

by 2K Games

• Expanded Epic Game: The core game experience has been greatly expanded with the addition of new technologies, 27 new units, 13 new buildings, and 9 new Wonders.
• Religion: A righteous people will seek out Faith to found a Pantheon of the Gods. As your Faith becomes stronger, you can cultivate Great Prophets who build on these simple beliefs to create a religion that you can customize and enhance as desired
• Enhanced Diplomacy and Espionage: Establish embassies at foreign courts for closer ties (or clandestine operations).
• Naval Combat: Your navy is now split into two different ship types, melee and ranged. This means that no coastal city should be considered safe, and can now fall to a surprise naval attack.
• World Domination: The fight for world domination is now more dynamic than ever before. The Gods and Kings expansion features a reworked combat system and AI that puts more emphasis on a balanced army composition.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B007C72F2U
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches ; 4.8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 19, 2012
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,411 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #40 in Video Games > PC Games > Games > Strategy

Product Description

Amazon.com

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings is the first official expansion pack for the Turn-Based Strategy game, Sid Meier's Civilization V.* It features the introduction of religion as a major gameplay component to the game, through a faith-based mechanism. It also adds additional diplomatic abilities to those found in the base game. Additional features include, a variety of benefit types for the establishment and adoption of religion, spies that both level with mission completion and that can be a liability if captured, several new playable civilizations, improved battle abilities, and new units, buildings and wonders.

Expanded Power with Religion and Enhanced Diplomacy

The Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings expansion pack* introduces the power of religion and improved diplomatic abilities to Civilization V. Religion, used as a major tool, was left out of the 2010 base game release, but now joins culture, technology, diplomacy, and warfare as the fifth pillar of the game's turn-based statecraft and empire building game mechanic. Use of religion begins during a civilization's infantcy, with the player interweaving select core beliefs with particular realities of their civilization. This in turn unifies people and generates faith, setting the stage for the emergence of unit's like The Great Prophet, Missionaries and The Inquisitor, along with the founding of a religion. Religions available initially correlate to actual world religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Shinto, etc., but they are designed to be renamed and customized with player chosen tenets. Civilizations that found religions enjoy certain exclusive benefits, while a later series of benefits connected to a religion can be enjoyed by any civilization that is converted to it. This includes rival civilizations. As the timeline of the game progresses to the renaissance and beyond, religion becomes less important, but remains a surprisingly powerful tool.

Introduces religion to Civ V statecraft gameplay tactics.
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Improved use of spies allows for even more in-depth strategy.
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The Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings expansion pack also improves on the base game's use of diplomacy, especially in the area of espionage. With spies players can do a wide range of things, including steal technologies, provide intelligence, rig elections, and even counter the actions of foreign spies planted domestically in their own cities.

New Unit Battle Abilities and New Civilzations

Although religion and diplomacy are potent tools of state craft, war is inevitable. This is why Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings includes expanded abilities to units in battle. Improvements include: expanded general health of units to ensure more time for strategy and changes to forces during exchanges, the inclusion of early multi-winged aircraft, expanded offensive abilities of naval units pitted against other ships and against land tagets, and improved defensive abilities of ground units during transport by sea.

Gods and Kings also includes additional civilization not included in the initial release of the base game. In many cases, following the theme of the expansion pack these new peoples possess an extreme potential for influence by/and manipulation of religion. A sampling of the new civilizations available include, the Celts lead by Boudicca, the warrior queen of the proto-British Iceni tribe, and the Maya featuring Pacal the Great the long-time ruler of the powerful city-state of Palenque.

System Requirements

Minimum OS - Windows XP (SP2) / Vista (SP1) / Windows 7 CPU Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz RAM - 2 GB RAM Disc Drive - Required for disc-based installation Hard Disk Space - 8 GB or more Video Card: 256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card Peripherals - Mouse and keyboard

Recommended OS - Windows Vista (SP2) / Windows 7 CPU Processor - 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU RAM - 4 GB or more Disc Drive - Required for disc-based installation Hard Disk Space - 8 GB or more Video Card - 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better Sound Card - DirectX version 11 Peripherals - Mouse and keyboard

Key Game Features

• Introduces religion, wielded through faith, as a crucial tool of the state into the Civilization V game franchise
• A multi-layered belief system that allows for civilization-specific benefits, as well as benefits to any game civilization holding that belief
• Changing benefits to religion depending on the time period of the game
• An improved diplomacy and espionage component that allows for technology theft, foreign intelligence and election rigging, and domestic counter espionage
• Improved capabilities of battle units including, improved general health, the inclusion of early aircraft, and expanded abilities of naval and ground units
• Several new civilizations available for play, including Celtic - featuring the warrior queen of the proto-British Iceni tribe Boudicca, and Mayan, featuring Pacal the Great the longtime ruler of Palenque
• Many new units, buildings and wonders

Additional Screenshots

Improved unit capabilities. View larger

New playable civilizations. View larger

New units, buildings & wonders. View larger

Addictive turn-based gameplay. View larger

* Sid Meier's Civilization V -- sold separately -- is required for play.

Product Description

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings is the first expansion pack for Civilization V - the critically acclaimed 2010 PC Game of the Year. This robust expansion covers the entire scope of time from founding your first Pantheon of the Gods and spreading religion across the world, to deploying your spies in enemy cities in order to steal information and technology. As you move through the ages, you’ll interact with new types of city-states, engage in new city-state quests and global competitions, and master exciting new systems for land and naval combat. Civilization V: Gods and Kings will also include nine new civilizations, nine new wonders, three original scenarios, and dozens of new units, buildings, and techs that will offer even more ways for players to expand their empire and dominate the world.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 77 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars And just that easily, the game becomes playable! June 19, 2012

By Chris Swanson TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I wasn't overly impressed with Civ 5 when it first came out. I was so unimpressed, in fact, that for the last year or so I've ignored it and been playing Civ IV. There were a lot of things I didn't like about 5, like the lack of religion and espionage, the no-unit-stacking policy, the limited number of civs, the strangeness of the naval units and, frankly, I didn't get why everyone went so mad over the idea of the hex grid. I always found it rather annoying.

Thankfully while the hex grids and no stacking remain, this expansion adds in more civilizations, more city-states (for them as likes those), more naval units, espionage and religion! And boy, let me tell you about the religion options. They are astounding. First off, you get to adopt a pantheon fairly early in the game, which adds some minor bonuses. But then, once you have a great prophet, you can found an actual religion. There's all the ones from IV, plus ones like Zoroastrianism and Sikhism, as well as Tengriism, which sent me to Wikipedia, since I'd never heard of it before (though my guess on what it might have been was correct. Hooray!).

The diplomacy options have also expanded significantly. Now you can establish embassies in other countries, which gives you the location of their capitol and allows for other diplomatic niceties. You can also, if you are playing the Austrians, buy city-states, which is remarkably useful. There's also a large number of scenarios, including a steampunk one that I look forward to playing.

Now like I said, not all the "problems" I have with the game are fixed. But that said, I find that I enjoy the game much, much more with these features added and it might, finally, be time for me to retire from Civ IV.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional Expansion Giving Us the Best Civ Yet June 24, 2012

By T. RHEAULT

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

As of the date of this review, the base Civilization V game has an overall rating of 2.5 on Amazon. This, perhaps more than everything else, goes to show the wide divergence of opinions directed towards the latest Civilization installment.

While the complaints directed towards Civ V by its critics are diverse, the one heard the most often is that the game has been simplified too much. "Dumbed down" is the colloquial expression heard most often about the game by its detractors. I myself am very fond of Civ V, but in my review of the base game on Amazon, I pointed out several items detracting from the game, including the lack of espionage and unintuitive diplomacy options.

With the release of the Civilization V: Gods & Kings expansion, those concerns have been addressed splendidly.

First, religion has been restored to Civilization V. Many have criticized the lack of religion from Civ 5, after having it be a major part of Civ IV. Not only is religion back in Civ V with the Gods & Kings expansion, but it is now better than ever. Specifically, when you start a religion early in the game, you are not only given the choice of which religion to begin but also allowed to choose the enhancements/perks your religion provides to the cities following that religion. In addition, you are periodically given the Great Prophet unit, which can do a number of interesting functions: spreading your religion to other cities, giving your religion further enhancements, etc.

Religion was fun in Civ IV, but could also be ignored fairly easily. Civ V makes religion more important, more intuitive, and more fun. You will not want to ignore it because of how enjoyable it is to manage.

Second, the other major addition (or restoration, depending on your point of view) is espionage. Espionage has been addressed in previous Civilization games (notably, the Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond the Sword expansion), but I feel it is implemented in a more enjoyable way in the Civ V: Gods & Kings expansion. Instead of bogging you down in micromanagement, the espionage feature in Gods & Kings allows you to pick where to spend your spies, and then after a few turns you begin to get some feedback from your spies and options on how to proceed. Options range from stealing technology from another nation (for which your spy may get caught, resulting in negative diplomatic repercussions), trying to stage a coup in a City State, instituting counter-intelligence measures in your own cities, etc.

However, perhaps the coolest part of espionage is when your spy informs you that a nation is planning a sneak attack on another nation. You can then inform the third-party nation to warn them of the impending attack (improving your diplomatic standing with that nation) or do nothing and take advantage of the situation.

Third, Civ V, when originally released, featured some bizarre actions by the AI. Nations that were friendly towards you on one turn could very well denounce you three turns later- for no apparent reason- and then refuse to trade with you. Compounding these unusual actions was the fact that Civ V provided no feedback or rationale as to why a given leader liked or disliked you.

With Civ V: Gods & Kings, you will notice significantly improved AI; it is not perfect, but it is a lot better than it was in the base game. For one thing, the interface now tells you exactly the reasons for why a leader is friendly or hostile towards you (a la Civ IV). In general, the AI is more consistent now; I have not seen any instances of schizophrenic behavior that sometimes plagued the original Civ V.

What this means is that you will see much more realistic and more predictable behavior by AI nations. Now, as you get in the middle and later parts of the game, you will see natural alliances begin to develop between you and the nations you are friendly with, and you will even see nations that are hostile towards you begin to form alliances among themselves.

There are some other enhancements in the Gods & Kings expansion worth mentioning. Beyond giving us new units, new buildings, and new wonders, the City State mechanic has also been improved. You can still give City States gold to influence them, but now they frequently give diverse "quests" to improve your standing.

Finally, it is interesting to note that beyond adding religion and espionage and the new units/buildings/wonders, the designers also tinkered a bit with the basic rules of Civ V. A few brief examples- units now have more "hit points"; this means that units are rarely defeated in a single round of combat, meaning that they can be rotated in and out of a battle, adding to tactical complexity. Civ V veterans who are used to bringing 2 swordsman and 2 catapults to capture a city are going to have to throw away their old strategies; cities now require a significant number of units to defeat (adding to the game's realism, in my opinion). In general, the designers closed a lot of "loopholes" that existed in the original game, and I think the game is better for it.

In summary, Civ V: Gods & Kings turns Civ V from a very good Civilization game into a great Civilization game. With the expansion, I would rate Civ V as the best Civ game yet. I wholeheartedly recommend it to those who enjoyed the original Civ V, and I hope it leads to at least some of the Civ V critics to give the game a fresh look.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, they get it (almost) right July 1, 2012

By Rich H.

Amazon Verified Purchase

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

This is as much a reinvention of Civilization V as it is an expansion pack. And that is a very, very good thing.

Let's face it: what is now the base Civ 5 is a mediocre shadow of its predecessors. It's prettier, but on just about every other level it falls short, to the point where I found myself dropping out of games from sheer boredom. As a rabid Civ fan from day one (and I'm talking the 1991 original, on a Commodore Amiga no less) this was downright heartbreaking. Judging from the hundreds of scathing Amazon reviews and who-knows-how-many thousands of fan forum posts, I was not alone in this sentiment.

I am therefore delighted to report that it appears the people at Firaxis and 2K have been listening. In a single stroke, the Gods and Kings expansion pack has made this game interesting and - dare I say it? - FUN once again.

Good: Gameplay has received a badly-needed overhaul. Without going into excruciating detail (which can be had with a google or two,) many of the features that were dropped from V are back, more sophisticated and useful than ever. In particular, religion and espionage are back, much more an integral part of the game than they were in IV. We have new units, buildings, wonders, technologies, and leaders, and the characteristics and interactions of both old and new items make a LOT more sense than they did before - the game now has a gestalt that was completely lacking in the base, making play smoother and more intuitive. The city-states are now worthwhile allies instead of minor annoyances. Naval operations are a whole lot more interesting; island maps are actually fun now. There appear to be some improvements under the hood as well: response seems a little crisper, they've cleaned up the startup somewhat, and the graphics have been tidied up a little. Also, GIANT DEATH ROBOTS!!

Bad: It's still slow. I haven't played on my favored large or huge maps yet, but I don't expect much beyond the marginal playability of the base game with these sizes. If you're not running a high-end gaming PC, expect some serious lag in the late stages of a game. It's still hidebound by the Steam client - why oh why did they inflict that on this game!? - but the two do seem to be better integrated this time around. I still have to fight the playfield during a turn to scroll to where I want to look instead of where the game thinks I should be looking. There are a few gameplay aspects I don't care for - the espionage mechanism is weird, and Great People generally can't fire off Golden Ages anymore - but these are near-nitpicks in light of the tremendous gains elsewhere. Plus, the long-promised pitboss server is still missing. It's a pity, because I suspect that multiplayer performance would see a huge boost with Steam out of the way.

Ugly: Having to lay out another $30 to get the game Civ V should have been in the first place.

On the whole, however, it's worth it to have a fun, challenging Civilization game once again. Five stars, barely - the ongoing performance shortfall and missing Pitboss almost cost it that 5th.

* UPDATE (7/4/12) * Be sure you have ALL available Windows and Java updates in place before installing G&K. A friend of mine ran into severe multiplayer performance problems on a pre-service pack 1 Windows 7 machine.