14 DAY TRIAL // 
Brave New World is the second expansion pack for Civilization V and it seems that the development team at Firaxis is determined to increase the complexity level of its turn-based strategy game and introduce new mechanics rather than simply streamline those already existing.
There are 10 new civilizations to play as, each with its own distinct style and focus (I find the Polish incredibly flexible and solid as a first time choice) and mighty France has been re-designed in order to be able to focus on culture-powered victories.
But the biggest changes in Brave New World are in the core mechanics of the game, which now place more of an emphasis on trade, tourism and culture while also adding ideologies on top of the normal social policies.
Tourism, culture and archeology are the biggest changes and they basically create a parallel strategy track based on great works, great artists and the buildings that can house them and their creations.
Gamers who want to achieve peaceful world domination will have to plan their development in new ways, decide how small an army they can get away with while flooding the world with explorers looking for ancient sites that they can dig up.
There’s a lot of fun but it often ends in tears when some enemy suddenly declares war and tramples all those beautiful works of art under jackboots.
It’s a lot to take in at first and I find that the best way to approach the expansion is simply play a normal game with your favorite civilization paying only marginal attention to the new features to see how they influence the core mechanics.
Trade is also more important than before and newly established routes will allow players to build less gold producing buildings.
Ideologies seem to be less important but they give history buffs the chance to create some pretty interesting situations and “what if” scenarios.
All the new mechanics are interesting and balanced and it’s cool to focus on each of them, discover their secrets and use them to reach world domination.
The problem is that all the new mechanics require extra clicking and exploration of new areas of the user interface and that tends to slow down a game experience that can already bog down towards the end.
The new interfaces for tourism and trade are also a bit too obscure for their own good, contrasting with the rest of Civilization V, a game that has delivered information very efficiently in its first incarnation.
Firaxis has introduced extra gameplay mechanics in order to drive attention away from simple warfare but there’s a tendency to fight at least one big war per game and that experience is still disappointing.
The Brave New World expansion for Civilization V also introduces changes to the multiplayer side, which is still the best way to experience the game, but as always, a player needs a solid group of friends in order to sustain a game that can take many hours to finish.
Civilization V – Brave New World is a solid game for those who have played the previous packs associated with the current installment of the series. The main reason is that there's a bigger expansion to the choices that players can make and to their freedom during the late game.
At the same time, the package will not revive the Civilization love for those who cannot deal with the rather stupid Artificial Intelligence or those who want a more streamlined experience and more meaningful big choices.
I will probably continue to spend tens of hours trying to make France the source of all global culture, but Civilization V is in danger of becoming so specialized that mainstream players might no longer enjoy it.
