Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution Review
Introduction:
World domination! That is what the famous civilization series is all about. That and choice; the choice of who and how you want to do it, and as far as that goes Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution (Civ.) is 100% accurate. If you are an old Civ. fan there are things you will miss, but for new comers to the series there is plenty of fun to be had and enough number crunching and strategy abound to keep you busy for the rest of your summer.
Gameplay:
You are one of 16 famous leaders through out history from as far back as Cleopatra to as recent as Gandhi, each receiving different bonuses at the start and through each technological era. The single player is very open and does not feature a ‘Campaign’ mode that most strategy fans would expect, but it has 5 degrees of difficulty from Chieftain to Deity. Also included are a number of pre-made scenarios that have different rules from your standard method of play.
Victory is decided in one of four ways: Domination, Economic, Cultural and Technological. You can take over all the other civilization’s palace cities, obtain 20,000 gold and build the world bank, obtain and keep 20 Wonders/Great People/Converted Cities and build the UN or research Space Flight and launch a mission to Alpha Centauri. Anyway you look at it the game, there’s a large amount of diversity for victory and play style. The game features a very familiar looking technology tree, which can be daunting for new players the first couple of times they see it, but becomes second nature after a few games.
Extras:
The multiplayer in the game is sadly plagued with disconnects and latency issues, which make it seem like the game was rushed. As I mentioned before, technology plays a big part in the game – mainly in the changing of the era. You start out in the ancient era and then move to the Medieval, Industrial and Modern era’s once you have researched 4, 14 and 24 technologies respectively. There are currently no imbalances between civs. during online competition, but if you do not use your era bonuses you will find yourself quickly falling behind. That is, of course, if you can at least find a game that you can join and won’t have at least one player lag out or quit early.
Conclusion:
While it is a good game, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution does very little to stand out from the other titles this summer, and the multiplayer on it suffers tremendously. While there are numerous possibilities for single player combinations to make your games different, they do not differ quite enough for my taste. Though the game is still good for a laugh when you find yourself being threatened by honest Abe or Gandhi, how can you not enjoy it?
Score: 7.5
