Complete crap. Unworthy of the franchise!
- Interceptors just plain old don't work. Ever.
- Older weaker units lose to modern units with rage inducing frequency. This is especially apparent when in the modern age the computer spams older cheaper wooden frigates to sink your beautifull modern (EXPENSIVE!) battleships.
- You can bombard units for 1000 years and never reduce them to zero hitpoints. Retarded.
But by far the highest crime of this release is that the new game concepts (strategic resources and borders) simply weren't fun. The fact that strategic resources are generated based of a land control algorithm defies logic. The bigger you get the more likely one of your strategic resources will disappear and re-appear in an opponents back yard. Its a cheap and wholly unsatisfying way to force a player to diplomacy.
And speaking of diplomacy, nothing sucks worse than borders that don't work. Watch in frustration as the AI drives settlers across your land to inhabit that one tile you don't have covered and steal a strategic resource away.