While the UI does need a little bit of optimization (in particular for desktop gameplay, such as potentially a way to scale down some of the elements), the overall gameplay is quite fun. I have never played a CIV game before, so this was my first one. Compared to other games of similar nature, this CIV game I think will play well for people who like strategic games, however it does lack a little bit in terms of diplomacy. It focuses more heavily on the management of cities and armies instead of the management of diplomatic relations. One example of this is not being able to simply give over a captured city-state to another faction in order to destabilize that particular faction's happiness/food/etc...or to offset the burden of having a city-state in a particular region. Besides that little bit of a gripe, I did find the tech tree and combat gameplay intuitive and fun. The natural disasters make for an interesting addition to the experience as well, causing there to be something to think about in terms of placement of a city. Knowing what I do now after putting in some time on my first playthough, I plan to play again, but with a different strategy.