Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

"Sid strikes gaming gold again!"

Introduction

Hey gaming fans, your old pal Pikachu has taken a shot at reviewing this latest game by game master Sid Meier. What can anyone say about a Sid Meier? To the PC fans out there, they know he's always coming up with gaming gold. The consol fans out there, don't really know him. To have a Civilization game without him is to have Zelda without Shigeru Miyamoto contributing, or to have a Metal Gear game without Hideo Kojima directing. The main difference between the later two and Sid is that Sid swapped companies and focused on PC titles. While those two were loyal to the company's and the consol, well now consol fans you get to see what Sid can do.

The entire focus of Civilization is to win. You choose one of fourteen starting Civilizations. Each of them with different bonus in different eras, and are clumalitive. Once you've chosen a faction, you can win via economic, military, dioplomatic, or techilogical means in this version of Civilization. The road to victory depends how you like to play. Since not everyone plays the same way, and with four roads to victory, you'd be surprised how many times you need to work on one to give you the leverage to win another way, or to even stay in the game. For our PC friends out there, this isn't the Civilization you know and love, think of it as a cousin to it.

Graphics: 7/10

I've tried to go gentle on the graphics score. The problem is that there was too much chopped away. Don't get me wrong the unit to unit fighting looks great. I love the ability to fall back if you feel your unit will lose. The in game movie for the nukes are explosive. I am not all about eye candy.

However, the lack of detail you can see from the map sometimes hurts your ability to play. I mean out of all the buildings in a city the only one you can really see is the City wall. Since when you control over five cities' you don't want to spend all the time in the world clicking and visiting each of them to see what civil improvements they have. Which ones are in vital need of certain improvements, I mean at best you can see some squares around the point where a city is. This means you're in the dark as a barbarian about your own affairs.

User Interface: 7.5/10

How can you transfer all the bells and whistles from a PC based game to a little hand held where the screens are a 1/10th of a size of PC Monitor? Well, as Civilization has shown, with a mixed effort. Since as much as I want to bash the interface, you feel they tried.

Now I remember during a published interview with Sid Meier how he stated he had wanted to make a game like this for years. Want some of the critical problems? How about the fact you can't click on a unit, use the stylus and drag out its course? How about the fact you don't have a clue what's defending another city until you attack? Unless you're unit is a scout. As I mentioned before the whole lack of being able to get clue what's going on a city before you zoom in. I mean common, even in Civilization the original game players' knew if they were invading a small city, or a Capital.

I know like many Civ players the whole F Key syndrome which has all driven us a bit batty trying to track down the correct key sometimes. With the DS Start holds 4 options, Select 4 options, there you go as simple as pie. Hated to balance your budget even on the easiest levels? Not a concern with Civilization Revolution. Hated moving each unit, or telling a city to keep producing units? Not a concern with Civilization Revolution, you get auto-armies when you stack 3 units. The cities will keep producing troop of the type you set until new tech comes along, or you tell the city to stop. Just avoid any worrying out there, at the end of every turn you can make any changes before letting the AI do its turns.

Now mentioning cities reminded me of something. Now since day one of the first civilization you had to use a unit to generate roads. This rule has gone the way of the Do-Do. On the city's screen you can select build road, and link two of your cities' I admit this slows down an invasion, but you're no longer risking a civilian as you link two cities'. You can even use this feature to have the Calvary come to the rescue as one city is under siege and another is not. Once you get into the city's interface you might not see the flash you want, but you've got a well built interface.

Game play: 10/10

This score a rare thing for me to put down. Now as always Civilization fanatics we have spear men that are defeating tanks. Its always happened, it always will happen. It's not a bug. Don't get on the forums and complain, since that's life in Civilization, that once in a while a spear man will defeat a tank. Those quirks of combat will turn a shoe in battle into a battle where you'll want to go back and try it again. Since you don't understand what happened.

That being said, I find the game to be fun and addictive. These are traits a game like this requires, since a board player will put it away. The mixture of bonus from techs, and finding lost city's is one that kept me thirsty for more. One of my own axes over the years was how unaggressive the AI was on the easier levels. With Civilization Revolution I think if you can keep a treaty for more than 10 turns its luck. Since short of destroying you foe, or putting the fear of your army into him, the computer will attack relentlessly and without mercy. I learned this lesson when in an early game on the Warlord difficulty, GHANDI! Yes, peaceful Ghandi sacked my undefended capital. Just to give it as a point of reference warlord is one of the easier levels of play in Civilization Revolution.

That aside if you have an equal military power, and don't threaten the computer, you'll be left alone and given a chance to trade techs and such with him/her. Mind you the closer you come to winning via one of the methods mentioned in the introduction. The more likely it is the computer will attack you, if only to try and slow you down. Usually a treaty has you offering tech or cash to stop the war for the short term.

Now air units and navel units have always been special in civilization. Since for the last few the air units have become more bombers, and they really can't destroy opposition ground units. The closest they get to destroying a unit, are fighters defending and destroying incoming air based units. Well that law is gone. Fighters and bombers can destroy a city down to the last unit, and sink ships at sea. This is a nice fall back to how things were down in Civilization the original game.

All navel units except subs have the ability to carry an unlimited amount of troops. This will simplify how you play the game. No more need to build 2-3 ships to move your invasion force, just take one ship at your own risk. Since if the other guy sinks that ship, you might be suing for peace at the earliest chance you get. Another neat ability the ships have in Civilization Revolution is how they can launch unlimited support fire missions. Just park them so they're next to the unit to defend a land unit, or a city to help with a city attack.

Well, where would a fine world leader such as you be without a loyal spy? Well, we've taken a page from Civilization 2 here. No spy rate here. Just build the spy, get into the enemy city, do the deed, and get out. Caravans are the same as they were in Civilization 2, except now both Civilization get part of the cash one generates.

I know this whole part as been a bit long, as I described the uniqueness of certain things here in Civilization Revolution. I feel it's almost required. Since some readers will want to know what the DS edition is packing. How things have changed and how they haven't. Hell, in some cases what I have written could be major selling points. Since this game mechanics hearken back to Civilization and its sequel.

Sound: 3/10

Yes, I can hear you going ouch on this sorry score. With Civilization on the PC the music is epic. It changes with the era; you can almost feel it move you along. I've played this game with headphones, without them. Yes the units have different sounds as to the type they represent. However, the lack of music that grabs you and moves you. It's hard to go for. The clapping after you've won feels cheap. Like five people clapping just to be polite. The noise the different world leaders make during your chats with them is so cheap, I think I hear greeting cards that do better.

Multiplayer: 8/10

I can only imagine how hard it was to get this to work. Sticking who knows how many players online via the DS is hard enough. Then adding the fact that you can play the same map and scenario VS players on the XBox360 and PS3, it's not an easy task.

I've played a few online matches, and the connectivity is decent. If a player drops out the AI seems to fit the level of the players playing until another human player subs in. I don't have any real room for complaint here, when it comes to these online matches.

The game of the week idea is fun, since while I own a DS, a sibling of mine owns an XBox 360, and you can bet your bottom gold piece that we will face off there. Trying to see which one of us can achieve the higher score. This despite the graphics and difference in how they operate as consoles is fair. Mind you I think there should've been a leader board for this, even for the DS players. It might've taken some extra time and effort, but for those of us who play to dominate on the world scale, it would've been fun.


Replay: 10/10

For those players who've never touched a civilization game. It's simple enough. You get a random map with random AIs. With all the ways to win and all the levels of difficulty a play, you are going to be busy working at this a while to beat them all. You add in the scenarios and the online play. You might be on a second DS before being done with this title. It has one of the best replay values on the market.


Final Call TIME!

You've read the review, and you're asking me to one line answer here. "Should I rent or buy this game?" BUY THE GAME Simply put, you can't get a better game at this price on the market for the DS. You've got unlimited replay value, a well designed online system. What more could you ask for? I'll even go one step further. If you know a friend or family member who travels allot, loves Civilization, and doesn't own a DS. Buy that person this title with a DS, odds are they'll thank you for it.

I'll be honest here and say I originally admit I didn't like it I was confused by the controls, the lack of graphics, and the fact I had to relearn a classic title in my books. However, as I got into the grove of it, this game grew on me in a big way. Civilization Revolution is a stripped down cousin to the PC version of the game. I use the word cousin, since you've got allot of things you see in the PC games here, you've got new concepts, and you're missing allot also. For the PC players out there who demand a number. Think of it as Civ 2.5. You have stuff from before and after Civ 2.

You're not going to have huge maps, countless rivals, or endless ways to win. You've got a game that will run 2-3 hours at most before you've won, or lost. With the "one more turn syndrome" which kicks in, this comes via combat and the tech tree. There is also a solid engine with rules that make sense. Well, it's a good thing you can close up the DS as quickly I close up this review, and know that once you re-open it, you can get back to business of taking over the world!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/08

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