Fan of Civilization says: Good game, but needs improvement.
Unfortunately, I've played Civilization too much, so I disagree with the menu and layout changes AC makes. I find the way the menus are layered within eachother very frustrating. Clicking into 2 or 3 menus just to find a simple task like 'Farm' seems annoying and tedious. The horizontal menu was better.
Pros: -This has got to be the only direct sequel to a world dominance game.
-I like the quotes and how they're read outloud.
-Finally, there are Settler units and Farmer units! This is very good.
-Thought-control police-dominated power state. Yea!
-Convene World council. Awesome!
Neutral: -City governors. I micro-manage so this means nothing to me, but it's an interesting feature.
-The barbarians have been replaced with mushrooms, worms, and locusts.
Cons: -The planet is covered with pink fungus. As a result, you'll be staring at pink A LOT.
-Erratic terraformers wandering into the middle of the ocean to plant seaweed.
-Planet Buster/Nuclear Bomb costs too much, takes too long to build, and blows a small chunk out of the planet. (I like the old 'Hiroshima effect' more, because it allows you to swoop in and conquer a decimated city.)
-Glitches.
-Some messages flash by before you can read them. The white font-over-images doesn't help.
-Change for changes' sake is no good. (See menu comments.)
-Some hot keys seem to cross-wires.