Civilization IV (PC) > Reviews > Firaxis Get It Right

Author's product rating:   

Playability & Enjoyment	Excellent - very playable game
Graphics	Good
Sound	Good - relevant music & effects
Difficulty & Complexity	A difficult game - needs a lot of patience

Advantages:	welcome new features, 3D engine, simplification of certain aspects, mod support
Disadvantages:	overwhelming depth, limited in - game support

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I've been playing the Civ series since its inception in the early 90s. Civ 2 was the first I became extremely hooked to. I gave Civ3 a look, but for some reason it never grabbed me in the same way. It felt a little cleaned up, but without the charm. Much like what SimCity 3000 was to SimCity 2000.

If you've never played any of the games in the Civilization series before, here's a quick overview: In Civ, you choose one civilization to play from 4000BC onwards. Over time, you spread your empire through new cities, accruing new technologies as you go along. You choose how to play, and hopefully win your game. You can dedicate your resources to building vast armies to invade that country whose borders are ominously looming around yours, invest in the arts to make your empire the most culturally significant or balance these as your circumstances change. You can communicate with your neighbours - whether to trade, form pacts, start conflicts or share knowledge.

Civilization IV makes some really wonderful changes to the dynamic of the game.
First of all, probably the least important change but probably necessary to win over new players to the series - the 3D graphics engine retains some of the board-game charm of previous incarnations, whilst taking advantage of neat details like a dynamic representation of your cities, zooming out for a whole-world view, and cute unit animations. Thankfully though Firaxis have made the wise choice of not making the graphics too fancy as to get in the way of gameplay.

One of the most significant new features is religion. Religions, once founded, propogate throughout cities and across countries - to what extent this happens depend on how much support your government gives to its state religion. Being of the same faith as your neighbours can improve diplomatic relations, and certain government civics (another new feature that lets you tweak the way your government is run) can take advantage of your religious side.

Culture, which was introduced in Civ3, affects your empire's based on how much culture it produces. This is affected by the number of Wonders built in your cities, or the number of Great People - artists, merchants, scientists, engineers and priests who are occasionally generated in cultured cities - residing in a city. Culture is a representation of your influence in the world, and can even help take-over (flip) cities owned by other countries.

These are just a couple of the major changes - there are many many more small adjustments (including how city growth stops whilst settlers are trained, removal of corruption and improved AI).

One of my favourite aspects of this game is the many depths to which it can be played. Someone who first comes to the game may quickly be comfortable with the idea of constructing buildings and units, getting into combat, and simple diplomacy. Over time, they may wish to get a little further into micromanagement by taking over tile management, to tweak how cities make use of their resources. Then, instead of just agreeing or disagreeing to trades, they may begin looking at who has what resources, what technologies, and considering how to play people against each other. The genius of the game is that the game is completely playable even when the user distances themselves from a lot of the options. Only as they get more comfortable do they involve themselves more, perfecting their strategies.
However, this similarly is one of the game's disadvantages. I remember feeling very overwhelmed at first, and having a feeling that I was somehow missing out on something by not touching every single button. Firaxis include one tutorial which moves at quite a slow pace, but does well to introduce many important concepts. It would've been nice if there was more of a feeling of 'feel free to play with all this stuff, after all - it is only a game, but don't worry - this is not the most important thing to get to grips with right now'.

However, Civ IV is a game of staggering depth, which is certainly worth the small cash investment, and the slightly more substantial time investment to get to grips with :) With all the combinations of randomly generated maps, leaders and all their individual traits, and infinite strategies to compete with online, it'll be hard to exhaust your interest in this game quickly. And even if you do, Civ IV includes incredible support for mod development, ranging from additional civilizations and units, right up to total conversions that are almost whole new games in themselves. The software develoment kit (SDK) recently released by Firaxis has completely opened the game up to developers. So, if you're a hobbyist developer this is certainly worth looking into, or if you're a player who loves to enhance their game we should begin to see more substantial mods in the coming months.

If you've been disappointed by short-lived games lately and looking for something new, or are a dedicated follower of the Civ series and holding out to make sure this is worth your attention - let me assure you, it is. :)