Civilization IV

"For The More Intellegent Gamers"

Conspiracy theories and what if scenarios have fueled thousands of minds over the course of history. Everything from the American Civil war to the dropping of nuclear weapons on Japan has been dissected and second guesses over the years following these events. People always believe they could of done better if they were put in charge. When the constitution was written would they still allow freedom of speech? When the Romans ruled the known world would they instead be doing so with muskets? Or when the pilgrims fled to America for religious freedom, would that religion be Hinduism? There is one gaming series that has just those thoughts in mind and allow those second guessers a chance live out their fantasies. That series is Civilization and this is the fourth official incarnation of it. So will you rule with an iron fist or an open hand?

Over the past several years Civilization, or Civ for short, has ruled the late hours of the night as players fight to break free from the struggle of “just one more turn.” This addiction is so strong it has even gone as far to have a support group for the more involved players. The question though is why the draw is so powerful and what is Civilization? The answer is simple, Civilization is a turn based strategy game based around the idea that the player gets to play as the leader of a civilization of man. That player then leads his civ from the Stone Age to the Modern Age using any means required. The player can choose to battle his way to glory by building vast armies or a more subtle approach of being the nicest leader ever. The path is open to however the player wishes to play.

The actual game play is a bit more complex and really does reward a strong mind and patient player. Every civilization starts off with a settler and a scout or warrior. Using the settler you'll build your first city and that's when the strategy begins. Do you build a barracks to make a more powerful army or do you construct a worker to help build your city? Make the wrong decision early and your civ will be playing catch up for a very long time. Make the right one and the world can be yours.

When you do start city building and expanding you'll need to think about the three main factors involved in building a city. They are: Food, Production (hammers), and Gold. Every tile space surrounding your city has a piece of terrain that will give some of these or none of these to your city depending on your terrain. Food is by far the most important for a city. A city needs food to feed it's citizens and with enough food the city can grow and add more citizens. Which in turn means you need more food, but since you're city is bigger there will be one more worker out in the fields. Production is probably the second most important aspect of a city. The production of a city is represented by small hammers. The more hammers your city produces the faster it can build units and buildings. Finally, gold is probably the least important, but that doesn't mean you should neglect it. Some city areas will produce gold which in turn allows you to buy buildings so you don't have to wait for them to be built or you can trade with your rival civs for tech, resources, and ect. By building workers in your city you can improve the terrain around you by adding everything from roads to lumber mills to improve the amount of gold, food, and production your city will generate.

With the history lesson over we look to the future. What's new in this version of the game? Well one of the most welcome parts of the game I've seen is that it comes with Multiplayer included. Past civilization games forced the player to have to buy an expansion pack if they wanted to play Civilization against other players. This is one of the biggest knocks against the series in my own opinion. Thankfully that has been rectified and now you can play directly, hotseat, or by e-mail against the world. Also new to civiliztion is religion. The makers of civilization were very careful with this aspect of the game. Every religion acts the same, they each give +1 happiness to your civ. However it's not all roses and candy though. Civs with the same religion usually get along a lot better, but civs with different religion are almost impossible to get along that well. Also new with the game are more wonders, new wonder movies, more technologies, more city improvements, more leaders, more units, and basically more everything. They've even added a very light RPG leveling system for units that on level up will give them special promotions. Now that's nice.

On thing that will catch everyone's eye is the inclusion of true 3D graphics. No longer will players have to sit and watch flat units walk around a flat map. This by far was a long over due step and one that will sit well with new players and veterans alike. Speaking of these 3D graphics they are amazing. The graphics are bright and varied with mostly well designed units. Cities are even better as now you can see all the building the city has built from the world map. The large amounts of detail will leave you with your tongue hanging out of your mouth they are that amazing. The only thing that might be better than the graphics is the sounds and music. Like its predecessors, Civ IV has an impressive soundtrack that you might find yourself humming after a few hours of playing. As for the soundfx they are very well done very tight and polished. The cherry on the top of the ice cream has to be the role of Leonard Nimoy (aka Spock) as narrator. When a technology is discovered there is a quote to go along with the tech which is read by Leonard Nimoy. Just by the sound and graphics alone this makes an awesome game.

Despite how great the core game play, the sound, and the graphics make the game there are a few things which are not so great. First of all the game seems a tad dumbed down from previous versions. It is far too easy to connect cities now and roads become almost useless. Put a city on the coast or next to a river and poof it's connected. Another thing that seems a bit iffy is that certain AI leaders will always act the same way. Is Montezuma a rival leader? Then expect a war with him before game's end. Caravans have been completely removed and spies have been nerfed, thus taking most of trading out of the game and making spies mostly useless. Also, some wonders make no sense. The Internet will give you any technology already known to two other players, but by the time you get the tech learned for it and get it built you won't need it. Finally the rival civs are a bit annoying. It seems every other turn they are asking if they can have an open borders treaty with you, thus allowing your units to pass through their territory and vice versa. Well if you say no prepare for another civ to ask right after that or the same civ to bug you a couple turns later. No means no.

Despite these few short falls the game is absolutely wonderful. With the expansion on almost every portion of the game, improved graphics and sounds, and great unit promotions it makes the game a wonderful experience. Couple that with the removal of the more annoying features of pollution and riots over unhappiness and the addition of easy moddablity and you have a game that will rule your life for hours on end. So my liege will you rule with an open or closed hand? The choice is yours.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/05