"The world I thought I knew"

Some kids like playing with trains, some like playing with dolls, and then some like to rule a small country superpower with an iron fist. It's the ladder group that the game Civilization II: Test Of Time is catering to. Civilization is a game based around the idea of taking a lowly settler from the Stone Age and building up and entire civilization. Whether it be a militaristic dominate regime or a peaceful teddy bear is up to you. Every choice from what to build in a city to what type of goverment the civilization will have is up to you. Just how this new version stacks up to the original work of art is the question. And the answer is in your hands.

For years young emperors have enjoyed the ability to rule the Earth as they saw fit. But as they went on and they reached the end of their games they would watch as their armies looked to the sky and watched the space ships leave to discover other worlds. After watching the departing ships leave for worlds unknown the emperor would be forced to start again from scratch while always wondering what could be. What Test of Times allows us to do exactly that, see what is beyond the stars. Test Of Time has several different modes of play allowing us to tickle our fancy and play on other worlds or even in a hobbit free fantasy setting. With these new worlds the players have a new place to dominate, but just how good are these places?

Well you can't mess with a good thing and the Original game version is there to prove just that. The game play is exactly the same as in Civilization II, hence the name Original Game. In this version you take a settler unit and start a city with that unit. From there you can build more cities, military units, and wonders of the world. To make the original game even better they've added a few things. First of all the graphics and music have been updated. The graphics, although much better looking aren't that big of an update so don't be surprised if you don't feel all that excited about them if you've played the original version. The music though is pretty good, very sharp and more involved in the game. There is one track though that seems a tad out of place. It has a futuristic vibe to it and if you are in the ancient times it may make you raise an eyebrow. This version still doesn't answer the question of what happens after your space craft lands on another planet, but thankfully another mode does.

Extended Original mode allows us to play the original version, but with a small twist. After your spacecraft arrives on Alpha Centari you can actually build cities and explore this new planet while still maintaining your civilization on Earth. Not only that but if you start the game as one of the three alien races you can actually start on the alien planet and then move to Earth. A very interesting idea, but with a few fatal flaws. Once you've gone through all of the Orginal Game research and built everything you could build then there isn't anymore. Even though you may be on an alien planet there are no additional technologies and no additional units to built unless you play as the aliens. Interesting concept but with only years of developing Future Tech that only adds to your civilization score, it doesn't add much.

But wondering what could have been is not required, because we can see exactly what they should of done when we play the Science Fiction version of the game. This version of the game allows you to play as one of several different aliens on one of three different planets and the space around the planets. Here you get all new technologies, units, and buildings. Well saying they are "all new" is a bit misleading. What they've done is basically renamed all the buildings, technologies, and wonders and rearranged them. The only thing that is really "new" is the units and the graphics. The idea of playing on several different planets is nice, but this version would of been a lot better if they used this mode as part of the Extended Orginal instead of just standalone.

Finally there is one mode that will have the D&D fans happy or ticked depending on how insane they truely are. The Fantasy Game version is just that directly from the fantasy world. You'll be able to choose one of seven races and try to dominate several "planes." These planes are Underworld, Undersea World, Surface World, and Cloud world. Not only does each race come with different starting areas, but they have completly different units. Though in actuallity the fantasy game is really just another renaming of the technologies and buildings it's probably the best version of the game. Still that isn't saying a lot.

Despite these several new modes of play, the improved graphics and sound, and the improved interface there are a few problems with the game. First of all there is saying that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," well that holds true for this game. It's had so many minor updates and useless mods added that it's a lot larger in size. So if you wanted an older game to play on and older system then this would not be a good choice. Also, if you already have Civilization II then this game really doesn't do anything for you. The additional modes are nice, but really they are nothing you haven't seen already. In the end it's really a decision of how much of a Civilization nut are you? Can you handle not having the same, but minorly updated game or do you want to spend your funds else where. All in all this is a solid game, but you've already played it before.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/24/05