There are times when great games are be ruined by a sloppily put together expansion. All the fun you used to have with the original title goes out the window when poor balancing and unnecessary changes come in. If you looked such an expansion up in the thesaurus Civilization V: Brave New World would be its antonym.
When Gods and Kings came out, I thought Civilization V had reached its peak. There were places that could be improved upon still, but ultimately, I felt like the game was almost perfect.
Ch-ch-changes
The changes made in BNW go beyond what I was hoping for. Thanks to the overhaul to culture, the game stays fresh and interesting throughout all eras. Not only that, but it no longer boils down to who has the biggest military.
Back in vanilla Civilization, it really felt like the best ways to win always revolved around at least having the best army in the game. Gods and Kings changed that by making it a bit harder to conquer other civs and making navies a bit more powerful, but ultimately, it felt like you always needed to keep up with your military.
If you wanted to go for a cultural victory, you needed a military. However, if you wanted to go for a military victory, you did not need to focus on much else besides maybe science. In Brave New World, it seems like you’re better off having a mix of everything. I love this change.
I also really love what they did to the policy system. Piety no longer gives you culture benefits, there’s now a separate branch for it. In addition, the exploration benefits that came with the commerce branch are now separate as well. This makes for much more focused game plans.
Surprisingly, even the AI has improved. There are still hiccups here and there, but their decisions seem to be a bit more rational and they are also a lot less likely to go to war with you for no reason. I think this ties in with trade routes which I will get into later.
Putting the New in Brave New World
Archeology is a pretty rad addition. It’s not the most groundbreaking feature of the game by any means, but it does do a good job of getting you a nice tile improvement or increasing your tourism when you’re starving for Great Artists, Musicians, and Writers.
The new Civs and leaders that were added are great, too. My favorite so far is Poland. If you are looking for a strong contender for a cultural victory besides France, then Poland is your country.
Another great new addition is the international trade route. Gold seems to be much easier to come by thanks to it. Not only that, but having mutual economic dependence with another Civ seems to make them less likely to want to go to war with you and burn down everything you have ever loved.
Conclusion
It is not often that I give out ten stars. However, Gods and Kings was already everything I wanted out of a video game and Brave New World somehow improved upon it. The developers went to a whole new level and brought in features I never even knew I wanted.
Civilization V started off on shaky ground. I liked that they removed stacking, but ultimately, I felt like IV was the better game. Then Gods and Kings came and made it slightly harder to pick IV over V. With Brave New World, however, I now have a definite favorite.
Bravo, Firaxis. Civilization V: Brave New World is a gaming masterpiece.
