The first expansion pack for Civilization V delivers a charming new style of gameplay and a new level of complexity to a game that had been criticized for it's simplistic and straightforward gameplay. Not only does Gods and Kings bringing back religion, last seen in Civilization IV, but it also introduces a system of espionage, radically different from the spies and security agencies that older Civilization players are used to. This new system sees players take one step ahead of the opposition; being able to both monitor the movements of competing players, including potential sneak attacks on the player or another civilization, and to steal a technology from an opposing player. The defensive aspects of the game also draw significantly more importance this time around, knowing that competitors will also be spying on the player in return, granting a genuine sense of both distrust and paranoia to the player as the game progresses. In addition to this, the gameplay gets even more exciting with the addition of quests for City States, which sharply raise the importance of City States to the player, who may be aiming for a Diplomatic or Cultural victory. These missions act as short-term objectives for the player to complete during the game's typically long length, and inject new blood into gameplay sessions that otherwise may run stale after quite a while. Overall, the introduction of these new layers of gameplay amp up Civilization V's micromanagement element, reducing the likelihood of one's gameplay session devolving into a countless string of "next turn" clicks by a significant percentage. It is a terrific expansion pack for those looking for a more productive and complex Civilization V.

All this could have been added in the game in the first place, and we all now it has been released separately to make more money. This is why I can't give more points to this expansion, we all knew it was coming. And it was not that good. Of course the religion was an important update, even if I find that it hasn't had enough influence on the game until the Brave New World expansion came out. It is however much better than in Civ IV. Let's not talk about the "Kings" which is actually a bunch of civilization you could have had with the Steam Workshop In mutliplayer with friends, you can however have a lot of fun trying to spread your religion it it might be a reason for war ! Conclusion : Buy it in a pack with the other expansion, and at a low price if you can

Brings Civ V a bit closer to what it should be, but this should have been inherent in the original game. Also, they removed culture bombing. They had one and only one way of shifting culture borders (illogical and seems to cater to the whiny crowd) and they got rid of it. Just opening borders and letting someone else seed religion for you lowers your cost and gives you nearly the same benefits as if you'd discovered the religion yourself. Kind of lame.