Sid Meier's Civilization V

Ambition. On mobile, deciding how ambitious to be is arguably one of the trickiest choices a developer can face.

All too often on Pocket Gamer you'll encounter reviews slamming games for being too simplistic.

On the flip side, there's Sid Meier's Civilization V, which would give the PC version a run for its money in terms of features but over-extends itself in the process.

Playing out on a grid composed of hexagons, Sid Meier's Civilization V is primarily concerned with the establishment and long term defence of settlements.

You pick a clan to represent, and then set about building up their standing through a series of 14 predetermined chapters, guiding you through simple actions like taking down rivals to more complicated ones like sustaining an empire.

Setting things in motion – hiring units to work or, primarily, defend your city – means navigating around the map with a cursor, pointing at things and then pressing the '5' key to activate them.

The movement of your characters is restricted, however, with Sid Meier's Civilization V's turn-based format meaning that a lot of your success relies on you having the right units, in the right places, at the right times.

As varied as your goals might appear on paper, Sid Meier's Civilization V is a dull and dreary affair in practice. Gameloft has struggled to convey any character in its delivery, leaving play little more than a series of actions.

And it's not particularly easy to work out what actions you should be performing. Even for established Civilization fans, finding your way around a series of complex button presses and menu systems overloaded with texts is rarely a smooth process, and never an enjoyable one.

It all smacks of EA's SimCity Deluxe on iPhone: on a purely technical level, Gameloft's ability to deliver such an expansive title on mobile should be applauded. But just because it can be done that doesn't mean it should be.

Sid Meier's Civilization V is just too big for Java, constantly making even the simplest of tasks feel a chore. Grand ambitions are all very well, but sometimes they ought to be checked.