"The Civs' have made a turn for the worse..."

After making a Civilization 1, 2, 3, and expansions for them, you'd think that Civ 4 would be better. Well, think again. After cashing in a hard-earned 50 bucks, I found out this game isn't exactly a great game. A minor annoyance, if you will.

Graphics: 8/10

Eight words: Good graphics, if your computer can support them. Cities look nice and realistic and so does the landscape. Everything shines and stands out. It makes it feel like you're actually in the game. It looses a point because I find that I need to turn the graphics down a tiny bit for smooth gameplay. For brand-shiny-new computers, it's a 10 out of 10. Overall, great detail and color.

Music and Sound: 6/10

This game also has very realistic sounds. From a bird singing to a city's market, it sounds pretty cool. Also, I like it when your Civ's soldiers say something when they get clicked. If you speak English and another language in this game, it's pretty cool. Music, however, is another story. Except for the Title Screen song, there is no music. It really takes a chunk off the rating. Come on, a few songs would be nice!

Gameplay : 1/10

The overall rating just took a big dip. This is where the game faults. Boring war, boring unit creation, boring, boring, boring. After a little while of playing, you get too tired to continue playing. A resource system would be fantastic, like food, gold, wood, the like. Instead you need gold, for unit management, production, for building stuff faster, and food, for your city. Why is building things free? It's enough to drive you crazy. War is lame, too. You just build units, and send them to your enemy, blah blah blah, randomness factor, blah (emphasis on randomness factor). You find yourself praying to beat your opponent, instead of knowing you will or won't.

Replay Value: 1/10

Civ 4 is so repetitive, it's not even funny. The only fun you have is probably going to be a maximum of an hour after you start your first game. Once you've played one game, you've played them all. Too bad they don't have a career mode or something. That would've been much better.

Multiplayer: 6/10

An average multiplayer mode for a not-so-good game. A bad combo. The multiplayer is only a little more fun , only because you're not playing against the AI. Other than that, it's the same.

Buy or Rent:

Rent. It's just not worth the cash to buy it.

Overall: 4/10

A sad attempt for a well-known franchise to make a game. I'm pretty annoyed about Civ 4. Next time I plan to buy a 50-dollar game, I will do extensive research. Very extensive research.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/07