This was a game I had been looking forward to for some time, the demo only made it look better, plus the reviews have all been glowing.
The problem with this, as with many PC games is that it seems what would have previously been a beta testing phase has now become a job for those consumers who foolishly buy such a game on or close to release date.
The single player side of things looks pretty good, many improvements in game mechanics and unit design over Civ IV. Where the game really lacks polish is the multiplayer side of things. Now I should add that I love Civ IV multiplayer, it is by far the more tactical way to play the Civilization series. Regrettably 2k and Firaxis seem to have missed the reasons why people play the franchise as all unit animations have been turned off in the multiplayer mode and cannot be turned back on. What this effectively means is that rather than your units marching into battle they teleport from one tile to the next. Combat is even worse as it is resolved as a numbers game. Thus, the animations that featured in Civ III multiplayer have been removed. This seems like a huge step backwards and I find it ruins the multiplayer experience, who wants to be able to use ranged units if you don't see the arrows flying and the individual units falling to your blows? Sure some people may like to speed up the game by turning these off but the fact that this is not an option is a major shortfall.
The second problem with multiplayer is that not only is it not engaging it is extremely unstable with game crashes frequent and often requiring a full reboot.
Another key problem appears to be the developers understanding of the issues and willingness to resolve them. For example every time you open the game the intro movie attempts to play in its entirety (about 5 minutes long). Then if you try and close it by pressing enter it waits 30 seconds and the screen flickers before opening the game (how this escaped testers only adds credence to the theory that the poor mugs who buy the first copies of the game are in fact the testers). The solution 2K proposes, rewrite the opening sequence by actually going into the games files and changing the code. In my mind this is in no way good enough for a new product.
This covers only a portion of my disappointment for this game. Sure if you only want single player I'm sure you will enjoy it a great deal, however if like me you love to sneak in and attack your friends you want to see your units moving and be able to play for more than five minutes without the game crashing.
Either way wait for a few weeks to see if the problems are resolved.
Overall rating
Single Player 4/5 Multiplayer 1/5