This game is like someone took Civilization, cut its limbs off, stomped on it, vomited, and then lit it aflame.
Before looking at why I think this game is an abomination upon the name of Civilization, let's take a look at what was done right.
The graphics are significantly better. If you're one to love eye-candy, this is a strategy game you'd enjoy.
Hexagonal move-tiles add in a lot more depth to the game involving strategic positioning. The game is more combat-oriented than it was in previous installments. This is a nice breath of fresh air into the series.
The lack of unit stacking forces one to actually think when forming and moving an army across the map. More emphasis on combat.
The soundtrack, while some may believe is inferior to Civilization IV (the title screen music was awesome, what can I say?), is still excellent as always.
The game does receive fairly active patching to address the (numerous) bugs it shipped out with.
Despite that, I have significant qualms with the game. The first of which is the seemingly schizophrenic AI. As big of a shocker as it may seem to those playing the game now, it did ship with worse AI. The AI was programmed to play to win, and only to win, regardless of strategy. Naturally, this turns the (previously significant) country leaders into a mere avatar with a unique benefit. I am NOT saying the computer shouldn't win, I am NOT saying that the computer should be dumb and predictable, quite the opposite. The emphasis on playing to win ingrained in the psyche of our computerized opponents has turned all of them into bloodthirsty, backstabbing warmongers, or silent morons who ask you to betray everyone and then hop on the bandwagon to kill you in your sleep.
Gone are the days when one would see variety in AI behavior, now are the days of the shallow, uninspiring competition. It is solely because of this AI that war is the most common (and sometimes necessary) path to victory. If you don't take them out, they will ALL go for you, and only you. The AI will attack other AI players, but only if it puts them in a better position to take out YOU.
The interesting "fix" that seems to have been employed to keep leaders such as Gandhi from becoming fascist dictator of the world is to cripple their AI into hardly ever building defensive forces, and declaring war on the player under the guise of seeing them as "warmongers" (which is ironic considering 75% of the time it is the computer who originally declared war upon you, yet you become the warmonger for responding with defense).
The AI is really underwhelming. The numerous bugs in their "intelligence" lead me to believe I'm actually playing a toddler's brain digitized and sent to me in data packets via the Steam client.
My second big qualm with this game is the "streamlining" that has taken place. While a greater emphasis has been placed on warfare in this installment of Civilization, many of the in-depth features previously found within Civilization IV and III have been scrapped or rehashed to shallow levels. One cannot set taxes within their empire, nor can they have a state religion.
Different specifics have been replaced with the equivalent of talent trees from World of Warcraft. I don't know if Firaxis just thinks we're all ADHD 12 year olds or if we really are progressing toward stupidity, but the lack of depth and as great of customizability that there was in the past is a letdown. I'm not comparing this game at release to a totally updated (expansion packs included) version of Civilization IV, I'm merely disagreeing with the decision to "streamline" previously player-controlled processes.
The one benefit to come from that is the game is more accessible for newcomers, but then again, it always was if one had the will to sit down and learn the basics before diving in, but video games are moving more towards the norm of not needing a tutorial because they're so mind-numbingly simple.
The emphasis on smaller empires is also a buzzkill. The penalties for massive expansion are so severe that the game is played with many empires consisting of no more than 3 to 5 cities. It doesn't feel as "epic" as previous installments within the series, and suffers perceptually because of it. Yes, this is 100% a result of nostalgia, and a preference for complexity on my part, but then again, that's what the Civilization series was about, managing a Civilization... If that doesn't imply complexity I'm not sure what does.
Third, and probably the most egregious is the addition of DLC. Not only is it ridiculously priced, but within the first two months of the game's release there are over FIVE DLC PACKS. What is included in one of them? Either a map or series of maps, or a civilization. Spain, one of the most significant empires in history, and a staple in every previous installment of the series, was (obviously - keep in mind this is a month after release when that happened folks) withheld to be released at a later time to pawn more money off of consumers. My flamboyant rage at this fact is facilitated by my hatred for the DLC trend in gaming in general, but even if you are a "fan" of DLC (are there such things?) this instance specifically is insane. The maps are not significant, they are models of actual regions of the world. If you enjoy unpredictability, stick to the randomly generated maps, that's the only way you'll be able to milk any sort of heavy replay value out of this game anyway.
The civilizations themselves don't contribute much, especially not one individually. A unique unit, an excessively average trait, and a new character and backdrop to watch declare war on you because of how terrible the erratic AI is.
When I first installed it on my computer, I had expected to spend countless more hours on Civilization V. After 45 hours, I'm bored to tears, and the only way to solve that boredom is to shell out cash the equivalent to that of an expansion pack, for nowhere near the amount of content ever released in a Civilization game.
In short, this game feels more like it had content deliberately withheld from it so it could be sold at a later time, rather than a complete one, and I'm not willing to shell out the dough to complete it.