Jarcin said:
...I was hoping some escapists could answer some questions:
-Is there multiplayer, and if so, how is it?
-Hows the replay value? Will I gladly devote some hours to this?
-Are the expansions just addition of races? Or does it add a new element to gameplay?
-Should I be concerned about the next one coming out soon and making this to where I just wasted 50 dollars?
-Should I just wait til it goes on sale on steam?
Multiplayer
While Civilizations have worked well as a multiplayer game, it's more of a single-player type of game. Millions of players have probably never played multiplayer with it, myself included. The AI opponents and your relations to them work so well, there isn't a huge need for multiplayer action. Even then, you'll definitely want to play it with a friend, once you've got the hand of it, and play it with someone who has similar experience with it as skill plays a huge part in it.
It's also a turn-based game, where you'll often face situations where you need to contemplate different things (like what buildings to do, how are my relations with other civs, is my military yet a force to be reckoned with, should I attack that civ, should I expand there, when I should expand... The list is endless and these things are fun and intriguing to think about). So you'll have plenty of decisions and actions to do, so a turn might take some extra time now and then, so it adds that aspect to the multiplayer.
A standard game might take somewhere along 4-8 hours (given that you've learned the basics and the principals of it. You can also define how long a game will be, but the standard length is the best place to begin and in some point perhaps to proceed to the longer ones.). So I'd say you'll probably enjoy the single-player a lot more, and if you feel like multiplayer, then play it with a friend, later on. If I recall right, you can play it either online, or LAN. Hotseat has long been disappearing anyways and it's not really the best suited for this game. Oh, and even though the games can be rather long, I'm sure there are options to save the game and continue it with your friend later.
Replay Value
I don't know where to begin with this. Civ IV was even critically mostly defined as "addictive" and "infinitely replayable". Much has been improved to Civilization V and the change from tiles to hexagons adds another dimension of strategies and tactics in regards to area and specifically moving troops. You can't stack your troops anymore either as in the previous titles, so that's also something that adds to the strategy forming and to the sense of having vaster armies. The one-more-turn -phenomenon is also something that will become familiar. In short: This game has great amounts, practically even infinite amounts of replay value and you can sink as many hours into it as you want.
Expansion & The Rest
To my knowledge, only some DLC's have come out. Civilization's usually don't put out many expansions, and if they do release an expansion some year from now, it'll definitely have the content to make up for it. What I've read about the DLC's that have come out, they'll add some maps and civilizations for the most part. The newest Polynesian DLC also adds a new scenario. Even though those cost just a couple Euros, I'm not getting them myself until I want something new in to the mix. So I don't think they include anything groundbreaking, at least they don't alter the gameplay in other ways that add some content. If you really want to see what each DLC includes, check what they say about themselves, from Steam for example.
Civilization IV came out 2005 and Civilization V came out 2010. At least I'm not concerned about another Civ suddenly popping up. It will be a good while, so you get to have your fun with this one. I pre-ordered the game a week or two before it was released some months ago, and I haven't regretted it. Well worth it and I haven't even yet began to really play it because of limited time, earlier games I'm finishing and partly because I might notice I'm thinking one-more-turn and planning to attack Persia, trading goods with Dutch and building the statue of liberty, when I should be waking up. Realistically speaking I don't think it will come to sale, even anytime soon. It's such a huge title with a solid fanbase that I don't see why they would drop the price of it. I'm not certain, but still fairly sure.
