Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (PS3)

...engine were borrowed from another Sid Meier game, which is Sid Meier's Pirates. Both use the same cartoon graphics, so I assume this had saved the developers a lot of time behind their project.

There is a fair bit of downloadable content found on the Playstation 3 network, new possible maps and scenarios to use. Currently unsure if my data will be released due its low popularity right now.

I haven't really tried the ...
...it, because it has some strengths and weakness. Its generally very slow, as other players can take ages and I do mean AGES to take their turn. This causes a lot of frustration if the turn timer hasn't been activated. However, it does add some attractive features to add more interactivity. Players can use video chat as well as the standard microphone to microphone talks. The maximum seems to be four players in a few possible modes such as free for ... more

It's been a while since a Civilization game was released for a Playstation system. The last version was Civilization 2 for the Playstation 1, a generally watered down version of the PC's. I didn't even realise a Playstation 3 version was released until I was shopping around on Play.com. I bought myself a fresh copy for £18 with doubts in my mind to why it could be so fairly cheap.

The idea of the game is to build up your civilization from the current and past such as: English, French, German, Spanish, American, Aztec, Zulu, Roman etc. All the way from the bottom (Stone Age) to the current era we live in now, modern. You'll start off with sticks and stones but playing your cards right will lead to atomic warfare, which I hope never, gets used for real in our lifetime! The player's main objective is to be the top civilization and there are many possible ways to conquer your opponents other than combat. Capturing every civilization's capital city triggers a victory, saving a lot of battles. Building a certain amount of wonders of the world will lead to advancement type win. Having a successful spaceship journey is the biggest victory to achieve, which makes it to our nearest galaxy of Alpha Centauri. So many ways to win and I haven't even found all of them out just yet. Not a big fan of this idea, especially how you can't switch them off. Certain players like I wish to have a long game, not something that will last a few hours each day.

On that subject, the duration of each game played is very poor indeed, far too many ways to finish the game. A player can roughly finish off the entire game in about three hours. I thought to myself that you must be able to turn off certain victory conditions; there must be a way to make it longer or the possibility of forever, sadly not. That's one of the main reasons I'm knocking this down a star. The longevity is my biggest concern. If it wasn't for the multiplayer options, then it would be very understandable why so many players would want to trade this in.

The game engine uses a turn based system, you move your pieces and the AI moves theirs. A bit like chess. When you are happy with your turn, you simply press a button to move onto the next one. Giving the player much time to think about their actions and decisions unlike real time games that require instant reactions.

Every city can be improved with different structures and wonders of the world. All the way from the past such as the Great Wall of China all the way to possible future wonders such as cure for cancer. Each wonder gives a unique advancement to a civilization that built it. For instance building the United Nations will make it extremely difficult for another civilization to attack you first starting a war due to the mass politics involved. Constructing the Manhattan Project will lead to the allowance of nuclear weapons without causing unhappiness in cities. Normal buildings can be picked as we see in everyday like churches, universities, cathedrals, markets, etc. Depending on their use, it will take a certain amount of turns to construct them completely. They can be rushed by using gold if the play urgently needs them in a specific city.

Like most of the game, combat is also turn based. Each unit has strengths and weakness and certain ones are stronger than each other. The combat zooms in slightly and has some small animation with the units fighting each other with some pretty decent sound effects. Although for instance, one tank won't mean that's only one tank in the entire unit that actually stands for about ten I think. Combining around three tank units will form an army and will be tricky to defeat. Depending on how many battles a unit wins, it will gain experience and work its way upwards to expert. At this point, they are very difficult to go up against. Some battles can be rather amusing if you are an era above another civilization. At one point, I had modern troops against spearmen. The battle lasted about quarter of a second. In terms of experience for certain units, this can happen with minor types like spies. Spies can make your life a lot easier when used correctly, be able to sabotage certain city structures. An expert spy will generally have the same ability as James Bond, always successful and an asset.

Interacting with the AI is rather impressive. Like in many of the former Civilization games, you can create certain alliances to crush other enemies or to trade technology with each other. For example, two small struggling civilizations could team up against a dominate type in order to survive. At one point I was war with China with them sending in an army of tanks that got wiped out thanks to my defences. Their leader then sent me a message saying "Ha...I had no use for those tanks anyway". So many little comical things can happen during your game play.

Graphics are very cartoonised and I believe this game was somehow aimed at a younger audience. Even when battles take place, it doesn't even look that violent or serious. The PG rating on the game box is my biggest point of evidence. I have no complaints about how the interface looks; it's very smooth and cute after all. Advisors that come up will also be animated, talking and moving with "The Sims" type of language, mumbling type that makes no sense. Leaders for different civilizations will also have different accents depending on their nationality. It seems most of the graphics in the engine were borrowed from another Sid Meier game, which is Sid Meier's Pirates. Both use the same cartoon graphics, so I assume this had saved the developers a lot of time behind their project.

There is a fair bit of downloadable content found on the Playstation 3 network, new possible maps and scenarios to use. Currently unsure if my data will be released due its low popularity right now.

I haven't really tried the multiplayer feature and I'm not really sure if I like it, because it has some strengths and weakness. Its generally very slow, as other players can take ages and I do mean AGES to take their turn. This causes a lot of frustration if the turn timer hasn't been activated. However, it does add some attractive features to add more interactivity. Players can use video chat as well as the standard microphone to microphone talks. The maximum seems to be four players in a few possible modes such as free for all, two versus team and one versus one. All matches can either be ranked or not. Ranked matches will have an effect on your overall score in the leader boards.

True diehard fans of the Civilization series may want to give this a go. It may be to your liking like it was for me. Strategy gamers will more than likely enjoy this, but may not if they want a game that lasts a long time. I one for was extremely disappointed about the game length and I'm not sure what the developers were thinking with that. Like with my copy, it's possible to pick it up brand new for very little. 

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