Obsidian at their best. An excellent dialogue system that encourages natural back-and-forth dialogue and making decisions thta you work through. Make your allies your enemeis or enemies your allies if you wish. Gadgets, gear, and special abilities abound to let you control the fight with balance and precision. Combat is a bit weak until you get a good selection of toys, but once you're well equipped and your decisions start to really scuplt the story around you it's hard to pull away.

Liked Civ4 but hated the poor implementation of religion, the boring stacks of death, the uselessness of cities in combat, the inability to defend within your own territory, and the unavailability of any interesting decisions regarding civics until over halfway through the game? CiV fixes all that, and it is good.

Patches coming hot and fast with plenty more on the way, with some excellent balance updates in the latest patch. With DLC purchasers bankrolling the patches for everyone, expect more mega patches up ahead.