Beyond the Sword includes an extremely high amount of content for an expansion. And this time, the quality is definitely not lagging behind quantity. BtS manages to address some shortcomings of the base game (such as lackluster espionage), while also providing a bunch of interesting new features and good flavour changes. BtS certainly features the best AI so far in the series, along with making the modern gameplay more fun than it has ever been.

There are a few rough edges, such as the balance of some events, but these problems never detract significantly from the expansion's overall quality. When playing BtS, you will notice that it's different from the original game at almost all times. It should really be considered an important milestone in the Civ series, as no other Civ expansion to date has added this much - or even attempted to. BtS has extra value for those who only have Civ4, as it also includes all Warlords features except the scenarios.