market and bank both just give 25% wealth increase coliseum and theatre are the same, university and observatory are practically the same as well.) -Only a handful of buildings are worth building at all once you factor in their huge production cost - The diplomacy system is next to useless, there is no useful information on other civs as in Civ4, and vassalage is not even an option in the game - There is no indicator telling you how another civ feels about you, so you can't tell whether they are 'friendly', 'pleased' etc. City states offer so little in terms of strategic advantages (you have to pay to maintain the relationship with gold) that you are better just invading them - Many buildings are simply copies of earlier buildings that you have to build first (eg. why have two tech trees? - Most culture policies are repeated verbatim in a wonder that does exactly the same thing - Most wonders cost way too much production to build and it's actually better to not bother building 3/4 of them at all - No civics, no religion, no health, no forest regrowth, less technologies, no espionage, and no tech/culture slider. Below is just a short list I've compiled of the problems experienced after 20 hours of play: - No micromanagement of happiness in individual cities - Many culture policies are absolutely useless, and you 'buy' them with culture 'points' just like technology. Time and time again we are seeing the profit motive take precedence over well-developed and ground-breaking games and this is the saddest instance I've ever experienced of that. After spending over $50 on Civ5 and playing for just over 20 hours, I can tell you that Civ5 is the death of all that was good about the Civilization series. Time I've been a fairly long-term fan of the series I played Civ2 when I was a kid and then a couple of years ago got into Civ4, and it really immersed me in a beautiful and epic world of unparalleled strategy and thoughtfulness. I've been a fairly long-term fan of the series I played Civ2 when I was a kid and then a couple of years ago got into Civ4, and it really immersed me in a beautiful and epic world of unparalleled strategy and thoughtfulness.