User Reviews (61 - 71 of 271)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Good as usual, but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm not a huge gamer, but over the past ten years have enjoyed games such as Heroes of Might and Magic, Lords of the Realm, Steel Panthers, Panzer General, Warcraft, and, yes, Sid Meier's Civilization. Civilization IV is a great game and is as addictive as all its previous incarnations. I spent 44 hours completing my last session as Viking Chief Ragnar. And yet some of the criticism expressed in other reviews is valid. Other than the addition of some entertaining 3-D graphics, Civ IV is not really a lot different from Civ II or Civ III. Maybe the designers are reluctant to change an ultra-successful game. Here are some of my suggestions to make the Civilization franchise more fun:

-Spruce up the AI. It can be a lot more creative and challenging.
-Diplomacy could be made more varied and interesting.
-Spies could be more dynamic. Why not allow for the corruption of foreign officials, the stealing of technology, and the chance that your spy could be corrupted and turned into a double agent?
-Why not solicit custom worlds from Civ gamers? Choose some of the best worlds for the next incarnation of the game. Half of the fun I get from Civ is in using the world builder to design the worlds I want to grow my civilization in. There are bound to be some Civ artists out there whose creations I would like to use.
-Why not allow for the continuation of a Civ game into outer space, ala Alpha Centauri? Sure, you might beat your competitor in the space race and get to Alpha Centauri first but they might show up fifty years later with more advanced technology, etc. Or perhaps you will be the one to follow and continue your rivalry on another planet. There could be a choice of planets, each with its own advantages and risks.
-How about allowing you to design your own race and culture, from a given set of variables?
-I find the latter part of the game to sometimes be a bit of an anti-climax, unless you are involved in a life or death war. Why not allow for an alien invasion? Such an invasion might unite other nations, or perhaps other cultures could be co-opted by the aliens. There could be a variety of aliens that could arrive -xenophobes, slavers, traders, benevolent types, inscrutable types. Alien technology could be shared or stolen, etc. There could be early alien scout missions which would warn you that aliens will probably show up later and to take precautions, etc.
-How about allowing for a world catastrophe like an asteroid hit? This could totally change the dynamics of a particular game, since it would affect some civilizations more than others. Advanced civilizations could plan to protect themselves by having a space-based intervention squads ready. Or allow for other types of disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, or volcanic eruptions. Real civilizations have always been prone to such factors.
-The space race option ends too mundanely. How about having a chance that your rocket could blow up? Say a 5-10% chance. Add a good graphic of the ship taking off, etc. You could lessen the odds of failure by spending more time and money on the project, etc. I liked the fact that in Civ II you might lose the space race but still be able to overtake your rival's expedition later with a superior rocket.
-The expansion pack (Warlords) does not really offer much. I was glad to be allowed to run the Viking civilization again, but this should have been included in the original game. The expansion pack was supposed to fix existing bugs, but I still periodically experienced a jarring explosive hissing noise which I think had something to do with SAM units. All in all the expansion pack was not worth the money.

As good as the game is, the whole franchise is static and could use some innovations for the next time around.

Disk 2 Catastrophic Error on install

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 28
Date: January 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am on my 3rd copy of the game having returned it two times before and I am still receiving this error. I have combed various websites looking for a solution as to whether the problem is my hardware, drivers, or other problem. I have not found a solution but I have found many other buyers have encountered the same error. I have not had any problems installing and running other computer games like Battlefield2, WoW, Doom3, CoD2,Quake4,AoE3,Wolfenstein ET on my computer.

Naturally with software return policies being what they are I am essentially stuck with a game that doesn't install. I haven't been stuck like this with a computer game in over 10 years.

Doesn't Work

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 17
Date: November 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After purchasing this game I got it home to find out that it has so many bugs that the majority of people can't play it. Maps come up black, characters lack faces (only eyes and mouths show up) and dozens of other crashes and errors exists.

This game was released prematurely without proper testing and the general public is being punished. Don't buy this game.

Finally ready for prime time

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

As a longtime gamer, I'm not suprised when there are problems when games are first released to the public. However, the problems with Civ4 upon its release were beyond the pale and my original review reflected that. Fortunately, the people at Firaxis have finally put out patches which make the game playable. If you've been waiting on the sidelines, now's the time to buy the game or upgrade to the latest version. The current patch can be found at www.civ4.com.

Newest Edition of the Greatest Strategy Game Ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: May 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For those who are new to the world of Sid Meier's Civilization video games, then you are in for treat. The game concept is fairly simple: you select a nationality (from American to German to Japanese to Aztec) and slowly build up a civilization through the course of history- braving wars, pioneering technology, expanding your territory through settlers, and eventually attempting to establish the world's dominant power culturally, militarily, scientifically or all three. However, the pursuit of this goal offers a large variety of options: which government to chose, which technologies to focus on, what do your military units specialize in, how many cities to found and where, what national economic policy? And the list could go on. For the first time user, these choices will seem very complex and the first game should probably be the tutorial version, which will quickly educate you in the basics of the game play. Once you've mastered the simple concepts, I highly recommend giving a full game on one of the lower difficulty settings a try. The most entertaining part of this game is experimenting with your own strategies and finding what works the best for you (there are several ways to `win' the game; military conquest, cultural preeminence, a space race, a diplomatic victory or the highest score at the final turn).

When engineering your society the nationality you choose dictates your choice of leaders, and the names of your cities. The leaders affect your society based on the attributes they inspire your people to achieve; and these attributes in turn affect how well your people work with science, economy, civics, religion, military.... For instance: Both Napoleon and F.D.R. inspire their people to build world wonders in a shorter time; Napoleon however, also excels at inspiring the military, whereas F.D.R. inspires the economy. So a French civilization under Napoleon vs. an American civilization under F.D.R. have fundamental similarities and differences that affect the game play.

Now, this choice is only the first you must make: your people demand many more. You will be deciding the degree of freedom; from serfdom to emancipation. The type of economy: mercantilism to free market to environmentalism is a choice as are the choices of political participation: free speech or fascism? Each of these choices determine the final product of your government, in stead of the old technique of choosing only "democracy" or "monarchy". This enables the player to have a range of democracy, or a range of communism (America today or Europe today? China today or the Soviet Union of yesterday?). I don't mean to focus on only democracy or communism, but they are two good examples.

Eventually you will also found religions (unrelated to the actual history of religion and its cultural geography). Again, different religions confer different benefits: each has a series of religious buildings to construct that help your society, although different religious have different prerequisites. For instance, Christianity requires more churches to build a monastery, than Hinduism to build their version of a monastery. Conquering a civilization of a different predominant religion is more difficult to maintain order in; and if you can evangelize your religion it can serve as a source of revenue and espionage- not merely the cultural and `happiness' value.

Both the elements of governance and religion depend on the level of technological advance. You won't have Islam until after Judaism and Christianity have been founded, most likely- and a true democratic government is not available until later in the game.

There are a slew of natural resources available to exploit: strategic, luxury and health. Some resources are required to build certain military units (iron, coal and steel); others are required to build wonders (ivory, marble, stone) and/or greatly speed production of certain city improvements. If you have several cities in flood plains, or other areas that confer a health penalty, the health resources become much more essential to your culture to prevent the spread of plague and disease. Once your population expands, you'll need luxury goods (wine, silk, gold) to appease your burgeoning metropolises. Again, technology will expand and contract the list of available resources: ivory and whale oil will become obsolete eventually, and wine is not available until the requisite tech is researched. Some resources, modern media, are not available until world wonders are constructed, and if you do not build the wonders first you'll end up having to barter for the "hit songs" or "movies" of your rivals.

Now, if that description doesn't perk your interest in Civ4, then it may be that you won't like this game. However, if you're starting to think how you would rule your Roman Empire, or how you'd take the Sioux to outer space first, then buy this game now. I'm fairly confident that my review thus far has provided a reasonable expectation of what the game is about. But if it is the complexity that scares you, don't worry- after a few games you'll be hooked, and even an experienced player will learn new things later on- after many, many hours of fun.

For those who've played all the game editions since the early nineteen nineties, Civ4 is a success that adds to the legacy. It continues to round out some of the nuisances of before (removing civil disorder riots and pollution squares altogether), while adding new angles and perspectives to experiment with. Unfortunately the diplomatic options have a tendency to lean toward: You versus the World; especially later in the game. I think this stems from the programming that makes the computer chose one of the various options for victory and then pursue that end relentlessly. In the real world civilizations will play to win, but there is no "end of history" that we can achieve. In the game, the computer knows that if it lands on Alpha Centauri first, the game is over- and once you hit the space race you'll not have much luck trading techs with an opponent bent on that victory path. You'll enjoy the new "great leader" concept greatly, as well as the new terrain management options. There are even more new features, but this review is getting long. Just know that the improvements are solid and numerous; but not complete. There will still be another (at least one or two) Civ game before perfection is reached.

One critique that I'll add is this: for the first time, the newest version of the "Civ" series requires a fairly medium-high end computer. I purchased the game and play it on my one year old laptop: Centrino 1.4 GHz, 512MB Ram, no extra video acceleration. But it is a very slow process of loading the game up, and in the later turns when the world is vastly populated with units, the time between my turn and the computer's is agonizing. I've adjusted the graphics and sound accordingly, and the slowness persists. Maybe I'm just not a computer wiz enough to get the program to max efficiency- in any case, make sure you understand that the game is very graphics intense. This provides a beautiful game display at the cost of some slow turns. Now, if you have a brand new computer or one that is high end on game play stats, then don't worry.

There is an expansion coming out this summer that looks very interesting: I've read that it will add the possibility of creating `vassal states' as opposed to just conquering completely. Could add a lot to the game, since there are times when I realize that even if I sign a treaty I'll only delay the inevitable conquest of my aggressive and annoying neighbors. There will also be added nationalities and some other interesting options. So- you'll soon be afforded the opportunity to purchase more Civ. It might be better to bite the bullet, wait and get a `packaged deal' with both the original and expansion if you're playing on a budget.

In any case, Civ4 is a game you can play again and again, and you'll find yourself to start considering rationing your time on the game- so that work, school, and social life are not neglected. Well worth the money. Enjoy.

(*****) Great Graphics
(*****) Great Sound/Music esp. Leonard Nimoy narration
(****) Good Interface
(n/a) Story is up to you- the course of human history at your fingertips
(******)Excellent Replay value

Huge disapointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: December 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is just a disapointment. My system is brand new, but the game doesn't run properly. I have also installed the patch and updated the drivers... to no avail.I just wish they would give me a refund. If I were you, I would try running the demo first, before rushing out to buy it.

Get the 1.09 patch, and take hardware reqs seriously

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Civ IV is a nice advance, simplifying the tedious aspects of Civ 3 and adding some nice new capabilities. I wouldn't rush into getting it, though.

First, it's clearly aimed at a moving target when it comes to hardware. Many companies do this - create software that's really aimed at somewhat higher hardware specs than most folks have in their possession. But Firaxis has gotten more aggressive as anybody I've seen - I have a six-month-old Dell with 1 Gig main memory and 96 MB on the video card, and the game still complains that I'm below the minimum configuration. The game runs sluggishly instead of the smooth playing I'm used to with Civ 3.

So don't even think about getting this game without some serious hardware, and I'd suggest you have ATI or nVidia graphics cards rather than the Intel Extreme graphics that I have.

If you do get the game, don't even try to play until you download the 1.09 patch. You can get it via the [...] web site, which is Take Two's dedicated site for Civ IV. The patch cleared up various video anomolies for me, and finally made the game worth playing. Many of the early reviews refer to some serious bugs that are fixed with this patch.

The interface takes some getting used to. It's tweaked to streamline long term play instead of being approachable when you walk up to it. I found navigation to my cities and units confusing at first, but once figured out, it works well.

Once you get past the initial obstacles, there's a lot of richness to the strategic aspects of the game. Lots of techs, lots of unit configuration capabilities, and better handling of religion and culture than Civ 3.

To be blunt, though, I consider the graphical stuff to be mostly eye candy, and I wish it had been left off. The essence of Civilization is strategic planning and thinking, whether on the civil or military side of the game. As a game like chess demonstrates, all you really need for that is symbols for your mind to manipulate. So I don't think the investment in graphics gives an appropriate return in playability or enjoyability in the game. Of course, in today's game magazine environment, I suppose game makers have to do that to get good reviews, but it's still unfortunate as far as I'm concerned.

If you like Civ 3, you will eventually want to get this. It's a move generally in the right direction, though not as clearly in the right direction as I would have liked. And it fixes the most annoying problems in Civ 3, such as pollution and game balance that heavily favored early conquest.

Just don't get in a hurry. Another patch wouldn't hurt, and I'll bet your next computer will run this game a lot better than your current one.

Civilization IV - don't buy it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 33
Date: October 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Civ III was superior in every respect to Civ IV. Gameplay in IV is mind-numbingly slow, and the emphasis on 3D rendering just detracts from the game (it's Civ, not Age of Empires!). I will be returning it for as much of a refund as I can manage.

This game installed and worked perfectly on my computer, but I was still hugely disappointed. The high standards that have guided the Civ franchise until now have been abandoned.

Beware, Beta-ware! Bugged, Boring, and Botched

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: November 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This software is a Beta release. Even after the 1.09 patch, it Crashes to Destop or causes BSOD's. Stuttering sound and movies. It is a terrible resource hog. This is on a rig that exceeds all published RECOMMENDED specifications, yes, I mean those printed on the box.

The game itself is unfinished; it feels like a Yugo.

No personality, all the cute things from the previous versions are gone or dumbed down. No popheads, only a sterile City Screen with numbers. No Advisors, only spreadsheet like advisory screens. Wonder movies are not fun and informative. No throne room. No Aerial view. No victory movies. No fun.

The pace is too fast for single player; you will find yourself building units that are obsolete before they are completed. Multi player is bugged, good luck. And beware, as it will create folders on other peoples computer that may use your real name if you play online.

Unless you are into self-flagellation, or love to spend more time troubleshooting than playing, even on top of the line game rigs, stay away.

Wait a few years until a few expansion packs come out and buy the complete version; or pick this up in the bargain bin next summer or on eBay - some there are giving it away for the cost of shipping only.

Buyer Beware - Firaxis and Take2 are scamming you on this one. Save your money.

Doesnt Work

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: November 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I just got off the phone with Take2. They say this game is incompatible with ALL Intel Graphics cards. I can't comment as to its playability as when I try and play it the players appear to be floating in midair and there is no map. In addition do a google search. Even non-intel graphics cards are having SERIOUS issues with running this game. I'd hold off on buying it I'm wishing I hadnt right now and I love the series.. probably spend 20 hours a week playing civ 3

Review Page: Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next 

Actions