Civilization Revolution review

17 years ago, back in 1991, a developer called Sid Meier (one of the founders of Microprose) created a little game called Civilization. It went on to become one of the most loved games of all time, winning the best strategy game of the year, and in 1996 was named #1 in a list of the top 150 games of all time published by Computer Gaming World. Each one of the sequels has been met with high critical acclaim - these include Civilization II, III, IV, and the brilliant Alpha Centurai. You can also play the board game (Highly recommended), and even download Civilization III onto your phone. This review is dedicated to those few poor souls who have not experienced the totally addictive - ‘…just gotta have one more turn before I go to bed’ gameplay which is a hallmark of all Civ games. Enjoy…

In Civilization Revolution you take control of a race of settlers in 4,000 BC with the goal to create a civilization that will endure the test of time. By using exploration, combat, discovery and diplomacy you develop your civilization into the modern day, whilst other Civs are doing the same. You can win the game in a number of ways including:

    * Cultural - Here you look to dominate by using your culture. Victory is gained by gathering 20 great people, wonders, and/or other cities joining your own (’flipped’ cities). Finally you then need to construct the United Nations wonder to claim your cultural victory.
    * Domination - Capture all the other leaders’ Capital cities to win by domination.
    * Economic - Collect 20,000 gold in your treasury, and then build the World Bank wonder.
    * Technology - Learn all of the technology to create and launch a space ship. This winner is the first to get their ship to Alpha Centauri.

You start the game as one of sixteen famous Civilizations. Here you choose which Civilization you will lead - each represented by an historical figurehead from that group - Like Elizabeth for the English, Ghenghis Khan from the Mogols, and so on. Each Civ has certain advantages compared to the others which can give your civilization a boost at different stages in the game’s timeline. The choice you make here can determine how you play as each race and has the benefit of making some good replayability as each game can be quite different depending on the leader you choose. Gameplay is turn-based, and each turn you are able to manage units, cities, and diplomacy by moving across the map and choosing what you want to do.

On any given turn you might create a new city. In that, and any other cities you own, you can then choose what to build, from different units, or from a selection of buildings. You might then also move some of your existing units towards a foreign city with a view to combat. The choices are limitless, and you’ll constantly be making decisions including whether to defend or attack, what to build to gain the best advantage, what to discover in terms of technology to take your civilization forward the way you want to.

Technology plays a key part in the game, and there exists a detailed tech-tree which you work your way through. Each new discovery can bring great rewards or even disadvantage, and you’ll need to plan your way forward carefully to ensure you make the best decisions. Another key aspect of gameplay is diplomacy. During the game you’ll meet with other civilizations and you’re able to exchange technology, information and gold, or blackmail them if your powerful enough. You can set up peace treaties, you can break peace treaties. You can even use your diplomatic ties to attack another Civ.

Other important aspects of gameplay include the type of Government you want to run from a choice of six different types. Each type affects your peoples’ production and reaction to war amongst other things. Choosing the right kid of government at the right time can be important for the growth of your Civilization. There are wonders to discover, great people who can appear in your cities, and special bonuses to be gained from dangerous barbarians, and friendly tribes. As you can see - the game is huge in scope, but the implementation has been done fantastically well for the console. The control setup in particular makes addressing all of these options easy with a number of different ways to choose between cities and units, so you’ll never feel that you wished you were holding a mouse instead of the controller. Whilst all of this sounds complex, don’t be put-of - this is not a game of micro-management. It’s at a higher level than other similar games. Also much of what could be tedious has been automated, there’s a good save system which allows you to save the game at any stage during your turn - which is essential for a game of this nature.

From an atmosphere perspective, the Firaxis team have done a great job of presenting a complex game like this in a simple and fun way. Units and cities are presented in a magnified fashion, and the graphical style is one of vibrancy and colour which resonates really well whilst your playing the game. Adding to the fun feel, Advisors and other characters don’t actually speak, but make sounds, and you read what they’re saying in a text box. Again, this works into the overall style of the game well. There’s lots of different sound effects and music as you play the game, which further enhances the overall feel of the game.

Finally the game offers a variety of difficulty settings from Chieftain to Diety, and there always help near at hand in the form of advisors and the ‘Civilpedia’ which provides descriptions of every aspect of the game. The ‘Civilpedia’ is contextual so will go straight to the relevant topic if it’s able to. I recommend looking over this tool ,as it provides lots of useful information, including real historical information. Civilization Revolution comes to us as a complete package, and the following game modes are included:

    * Play Now - Go straight to the ‘Pick your Civilization’ menu and away you go
    * Single Player - Includes Standard, Scenarios - where you play some interesting takes on history and other fanciful notions, and Game of the Week which is where you play a pre-set game from the designers to see how well you rank compared to other 360 players around the world - Civs answer to leaderboards.
    * Multiplayer - System link and Live Ranked and Unranked matches - Head to head, Teams, and Free for All

Personally I really enjoy the single-player game in Civilization Revolution. There’s a lot of replayability when you consider you can choose from any one of 16 different civilizations, you can win the game in 4 different ways. In addition the game comes loaded with 10 scenarios, and there’s the game of the week to play and compare yourself on a world-wide basis. Multiplayer works very well if that’s what you’re into. Being turn-based, lag is not an issue. As at the time of writing, there was only a limited amount of players, but I was able to go head to head with an Aussi, and found the multiplayer works very well indeed. Do be aware though, you’ll need to set aside anywhere from 2 - 4 hours for a single game depending on the amount of time set or each turn (you can choose fast, medium, or slow). I think over the next couple of months a definite community will get into multiplayer, which is great if you have the time to dedicate.

Overall then, Civilization Revolution is hands down the best strategy game for the consoles, and you’ll get some good life out of it. For those of you who have grown up with the different iteration of Civ on a PC, you’ll may not appreciate the amount of streamlining which has been done to facilitate a console audience, but for everyone else this is one of those must-own titles. Go on - see if you can create a civilization that’ll last the test of time!