Civ IV; Massive Entertainment Even If It's Not A Gaming Breakthrough

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fascinating and massively entertaining look at history

Cons: The military system really needs improvement

The Bottom Line: 
Civ IV is a worthy development in the series and worth the bucks to all but the most picky gamer. There's enough here to break up a marriage.

Author's Review
Civilization IV is the latest iteration of the redoubtable, very profitable computer game franchise from Firaxis. Everything is bigger, better, and prettier and this game will provide many, many hours of game play. It’s addictive. Really addictive. Like the Morrowind games, something I really had to wean myself off. It also has absolutely nothing to do with reality, but that won’t stop the legions of previous players from picking up this very entertaining game. Experienced Civ players may complain that the new features in the game are merely additive and perhaps not worth the $60 that the base edition and two expansions will run you, and they may have a point, although I don’t agree.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, in Civilization IV the player assumes the role of, well, nothing analogous to reality, because you’ve now become a demi-god who will guide a particular nationality through some six thousand years of history. The objective of the game, loosely put, is to either dominate the world through conquest or be the first to build a starship and colonize the beyond. (That last is really silly and I wish they would get rid of it.) In the basic scenario, you start off with one settler and a military unit. The settler is used to construct your first city, which in turn will generate more settlers and various improvements so you can expand your cultural, religious and military dominance.

The number of options in the game will at first seem overwhelming. Start with the tutorial and work your way through a few games, starting over frequently. The rulebook seems intimidating at first, but much of it is geared to new players and a lot of the text explains different types of units and technologies so it’s not as long as it might seem. There’s a also a very useful chart of technologies, units and what not that is very convenient for quick reference. Have fun.

For players already familiar with the earlier versions, here’s some of what’s new. First, the graphics are really quite terrific and everything is in 3D so you can zoom in and out. You get a cool little video every time you construct a new wonder. There are neat little videos of when your guys attack the other guys.

There are a ton of new technologies and units. Lots more wonders, too—Wall Street, West Point, Hagia Sophia, Broadway, the Sistine Chapel. The space ship is bigger and more sophisticated. In other words, more of the same but pretty cool nonetheless. You’ve got lots and lots of options as to which technological path you want to follow and that enhances replayability.

What’s really new? First, city management is a lot easier and you don’t have to spend all that time figuring out what squares to put your people on for development. Religion plays a minor role in that you can send missionaries to convert cities to your state religion (Judaism, Islam, Taoism, etc.—there really isn’t any difference between them in terms of effect on the game and that’s a deficiency). You get workers instead of settlers who will increase square productivity. These can be automated, which saves time, except for building railroads when you have to self-direct and that’s a waste of time. There are a number of specialists—engineers and such like—who can be converted from people and who increase science, wealth, etc.

All of this is cool but incremental to the old games. What’s new and more interesting are the various “Civics” You can select different types of arrangements in terms of Government (Monarchy, etc.), Legal (Representation, et al), Labor (Slavery anyone?), Economy (Capitalism? Communism?) and the aforesaid religion. All have different benefits and upkeep costs and are dependent on your technology level.

Another cool bit of chrome is the “Great People” figure. These are created by the game after you generate a certain number of points. They can be used to purchase technologies, become super specialists, found certain buildings, start a “Golden Age” (higher productivity and culture).

More chrome are the different types of Civilizations and Leaders. These give certain advantages in terms of production or upkeep costs.

This of course is the tip of the iceberg and the game is quite rich in its dynamics. You can play hot seat or multiplayer over the internet. There are a number of scenarios that play as if someone created them on the internet.

As already noted, all of this is great fun. You’re going to run into the “just another ten minutes” syndrome, where ten minutes turns into two hours as you try to do just a couple of more things before knocking off and before you know it, the evening is gone.

On the other hand, of course, the game has nothing to do with reality. I could sit here and criticize the inherent silliness in this whole concept, but that would be pointless because the whole operation is so absorbing. I will say this, though: the military side of this game is boring and stereotyped and really needs improvement. The game generally becomes an exercise in siege warfare as one side or the other tries to take cities. Anybody who spent some time studying the many excellent board and computer war games that are out there (I’ve played hundreds of them in forty-some years of military history boardgaming) really could have come up with much better mechanics instead of the “attack and see who’s guys die first” system they’ve got here. This part of the game just screams �).

Moreover, a lot of guys will complain that this game is more iterative than revolutionary and doesn’t add a whole lot to Civ 3. Moreover, there are complaints about bugs.

That quibbling aside, anyone who spends the money on this is going to have a great gaming experience. The game is a little elderly so you might be able to find it lying around new for $30 or so, although you’re really better off getting the “Gold” edition, which as the Warlords expansion with a bunch of new scenarios and runs for $40.. There are a couple of expansions that I just purchased but haven’t gotten around to playing yet. They’ve got fixes to problems I haven’t run into yet. I run this on XP with a missile of a graphics card so the thing works fine so far. I’ve seen some complaints about compatibility so be advised.

Bottom line: for $60 pick up the Gold and the Beyond the Sword expansion. It’s a rip-roaring, addictive and entertaining game, and that’s all you can ask for.