Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

"A stripped down Civilization, but still Civilization nonetheless."

In the early 90's, Sid Meier created one of the most influential games in history. Today, the Civilization (Civ for short) series is still going strong. Mainly a PC series, Civ has had a few less than successful ports to consoles in the past. For Civilization Revolution (Civ Rev), Sid Meier decided not to port Civ 4 to the consoles and instead completely build, from the ground up, a Civ experience for the consoles. It worked, and for the first time, the Civ console experience is an enjoyable one; however, it's not perfect a game.

To get the most unimportant part of a game (in my opinion) out of the way first, the graphics are good. They're not eye-poppingly beautiful, but they do their job, and that is to represent the game world and make it look decent. While some areas could use a little more detailing, other areas are outstanding with detail. For example, you can see every building you build in your city on the world screen. You may not be able to make them all out, but they are there. To reiterate, graphics to me are unimportant, but if they're important to you, you have nothing to worry about, they look fine.

The sounds of the game are decent at best. The music is not bad, but you will not notice it very often. Sound effects, such as warriors fighting or cannons firing are good, and add to the intensity of watching you soldiers pound the life out of your opponent. One thing you'll want to turn off, though, is the Simlish-like (Simlish-ish?) speech of leaders and advisors. It gets annoying quickly, and you'll want to throw your controller at Bismarck after the 10th time you've heard his pseudo-German speech.

The biggest worry for established Civ fans like myself was the way the game controlled. The series is built for mouse and keyboard, so a straight port would probably control horribly. Being tailored specifically for consoles, I have few qualms with the controls. My biggest complain was the fact that forming armies and the Civilopedia (in-game encyclopedia containing both game-relevant information and historical facts about buildings, wonders, units, leaders, nations, etc.) are the same button, so accidentally hitting the Y button twice and having to wait for the Civilopedia to load only to close it can break up the pacing. Other than that, I have found the controls to be very satisfactory and I must say well done to the Firaxis team for not having crappy controls.

The meat and bones of the game is, of course, gameplay. Unless you only like shooters with lots of guns and explosions, you will not be disappointed. The basics of Civ are to start a civilization, expand your empire, make friends and enemies, and try to come out on top. There are a few ways to do this. You can completely annihilate your opponents, advance your technologies and eventually colonize Alpha Centauri, become the richest nation and build the World Bank, or wow the other civs with your superior culture and build the United Nations. Those are just ends, the means in the greatest part of the game. It is turn-based, so you don't need quick reflexes to survive, just a sharp wit. All in all, Civilization is unlike any game you've ever played, and once you experience it, you'll be stricken with Just One More Turn Syndrome.

The replayability factor is quite possibly the best you'll find in a console game. The game has no central story or anything like that; it's more of a board game, where you finish in a relatively short time (2-4 hours in Civ Rev's case) and start anew the next time. Civ games in the past have taken literally days for me to complete. So while the average Civ Rev game is shorter than past Civs, it's very fun and often you'll begin a new game instantly after completing one. As of the time of this writing, I've logged around 70 hours on Civ Rev alone. The fact that you'll be addicted and keep coming back for more means this game will not be gathering dust for a long time.

Now that I've almost completely praised this game, I must now turn to the negatives. This is a streamlined Civ, meaning basically ":dumbed down". While some of the "dumbing down" I do not miss (Pollution, corruption, city revolts, etc., all reasons many inexperienced Civ players gave up), the fact that the tech tree, number of players, customizable maps, less units, leaders, all that good stuff are slimmed are things I hope to see a return in Civ Rev 2.

Possibly the biggest fault with the game is the AI. I partially blame the streamlining, due to the fact that negotiating is gone, it's either give into their demands, offer something almost as bad as what they demand, or refuse to comply. I may be getting ahead of myself, so let me explain. The AI will constantly demand things from you, such as techs they don't have, a great person, or most of your gold. Failure to comply will usually result in war. Complying will just delay war. Their demands are simply ridiculous. For example, why give one of your enemies knowledge of Combustion (needed to build tanks) when they haven't even discovered Gunpowder? Even if a civ is down to 1 city and you have superior armies, they will usually still want war or will offer paltry amounts of gold for peace. Still yet, you cannot bully a weaker civ; you must sell them technologies, usually for a menial amount of gold. It is, unlike previous civs, almost impossible to not have war declared on you at some point. Beside my big rant on their faults, the AI is fairly decent and will put up a considerable challenge on Deity, the highest difficultly level.

All in all, if you're a Civ fan, tried the games before, enjoyed them but found them too difficult and quit, or a newbie looking to get into the series, this is a great game to play. I recommend you play it, as you will soon find that destroying Gandhi's last city with a nuke is satisfying.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/29/08

Game Release: Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (US, 07/08/08)