Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

"Not the Civilization I know"

I'm no huge fan of PC gaming, but Sid Meier is a genius. Most, if not all of the PC games that I've played and loved are his brainchild. Civilization, the civ-building simulation which allows you to guide a tribe of real-world people from the stone age up into the modern era, is one of my favorite PC series. It's made the jump to the 360, PS3 and, strangely enough, the DS under the title Civilization Revolution. And although there's potential here, Civilization Revolution for the DS is just another sad game that couldn't live up to what it promised.

What did it promise? Essentially, DS owners were ensured a Civilization game. It would be small and scaled-down, admittedly. It would not be the same huge, epic game that the PC version is. Much of the gameplay minutiae would have to be cut out. But we handheld gamers seemed all set for a mostly-intact Civilization experience. Age of Empires: Age of Kings is an example of a PC game that was moved easily over to the DS. Sadly, Civilization Revolution is not.

There are two main problems with Civilization Revolution that ultimately stop it from being the fun, addictive title it could have been. One of the problems lies with the execution of the game itself. That's not a huge deal. But the other problem, sadly, stems from limitation on the DS hardware itself. It's saddening, because many games out there thrive thanks to the unique functionality of the DS. Sadly, “unique” is not what Civilization Revolution needed; it needed more real estate to work with.

Playing games on handhelds has always been different from other forms of gaming. When you're playing on a 22” widescreen monitor or a 50” HDTV, it can be difficult transitioning from the big screen to a small, cramped one. But in Civilization Revolution, the size of the DS screen gets in the way not just of playing pleasure but also in the way of gameplay.

Much of the appeal of the PC versions of Civilization comes from the massive maps. You're on a continent with several other friendly or not-so-friendly nations and how you deal with them is entirely up to you. But because the DS' screen is so small, it seemed a wise move on the developers to pare down the size of the map for the DS version of the game. But as a result, you find yourself extremely cramped. You can navigate around the world in a boat in a matter of turns, you'll explore your continent in a few minutes, and you're left producing tons of units and you've got nothing to do with them. The enemies on the map are few and far between and you'll spend turns shuttling troops across the ocean to a tiny island where a warring nation is, while the rest of your sprawling civilization is sitting around doing nothing.

It's just that the epic feel of the PC versions is gone, and playing through this title now feels like a turn. Interaction with other civs doesn't occur often, and you'll find yourself with huge stockpiles of units and nothing to do with them. As a result, your turns are often spent doing the one or two important things in your civilization and then spending five minutes telling everybody else to sentry themselves or just wait around. It's really frustrating, and the lack of interaction means that the combat and diplomacy options which are so much fun just aren't put to use very often. The game works, I suppose, but there's just not a whole lot to do once you start playing.

This is a problem that stems from the system itself, but the other significant issue is more a result of bad execution on the dev team's part. Civilization was always great for it's combination of in-depth gameplay combined with surprising accessibility. However, Civilization Revolution seems to have flipped that formula on its head and instead what we end up with is a rather shallow game that's hard to get into. The variety of technologies and other little gameplay additions are largely meaningless in the big scheme of things, as you can win the game by just mass-producing war units and barraging the few enemy encampments that you come into contact with.

That is to say, the technology and improvements that you come up with have no real bearing on the way the game plays. Rather you're playing as a dictatorship or monarchy, you still have absolute control. Civilization bonuses have no noticeable impact and each civilization plays identically to each other. Yet despite this lack of depth, Civilization Revolution is not a particularly user-friendly game. The tutorial is severely lacking and any newcomer to the series is going to be seriously overwhelmed. Just navigating throughout the game map is a chore, and both the button and stylus control configurations feel clunky and unintuitive (you wouldn't believe how many times I accidentally told a unit to heal when I wanted to go “back” -- stupid B button). You're given very little guidance throughout the game aside from a few nagging advisors and it'll take a couple play-throughs to fully acclimate yourself with how you're meant to play this game.

But frankly, the game is too boring to do that. By the time you've mastered the ins and outs of Civilization Revolution, you'll likely be sick of it. Each game feels far too similar, the civilizations lack distinction, and there's a huge gap in terms of difficulty distribution. It's a boring, disappointing game that lacks much strategy, combat, or city management. It's a pretty shallow strategy game and as such would be a good introduction to the genre, but fans of the real Civilization are going to want to stick with the console versions of Civilization Revolution or just good old Civilization IV.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/08

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