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Addicting fun gameplay keeps Civilization going

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: June 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I meant to write this review months ago. However, in an effort to produce the best review possible, I decided to do a quick run through in Civilization 4 to make sure all my points were accurate. After several days of "quick run through" in which I would not pull myself away from the computer for hours on end, I found my memories of this drug addiction to be spot on.

Civilization 4, for those unaccustomed to the series, is a turn based strategy game on a massive scale. You begin in 4000 B.C. with one town and advance through the ages, progressing through swordsmen, musketeers, infantry, and tanks. Your objective is to expand your civilization to be the greatest in the world, be it the most advanced, the most powerful or the most expansive. Whoever has the best score in 2050 or accomplishes a victory objective before then is the winner.

The overall system has changed little since the first incarnations with government choices, production capacities, combat and terraforming. The new introduction in this sequel is a more in-depth government system. Rather than choosing democracy or monarchy, you can choose to modify your government within five areas. Do you want to have freedom of religion or a theocracy? Would you rather use slavery or serfdom? These choices help you handcraft your civilization throughout the game and enable you to strategically design your political strategy.

Another introduction to the game is religion. Based upon technologies, a civilization can found Christianity, Confucianism and the various other religions of the world. Being the founder of the religion as opposed to simply a follower gives the advantage of hosting the holy city and improves commerce slightly but offers little else. To spread your religion, missionaries can be sent to other regions. While religion plays an effect on foreign affairs (people of your faith like you), and can benefit your cities through government strategies (allowing religious cities to build faster, get stronger units), it is not as developed as one would like. Each religion offers the same bonuses and does not have any unique feature to each. It would be interesting to see religion develop into a greater force in future games. One slight annoyance with religions is that Christianity can be founded before 0 A.D. For a game of this style, the B.C.E. and C.E. system would probably have been a better choice as it is not as Christian centric.

The A.I. in the game has improved significantly, with civilizations rarely going to war with you simply because they can. Modifiers are now clearly stated so you can get a feel for how a civilization likes you or not and see what can be done to change that. In addition, offers such as defensive pacts make dependency on one another possible, albeit annoying. In the late game, you have to be careful about going to war as defensive pacts can result in everyone and their brother declaring war on you. In addition, while diplomacy has been improved, there are still certain warmongerers who will do anything and everything to attack you, including running through several civilizations. I'm looking at you Genghis Khan.

While the game is amazing with tons of replay value through the possibilities of playing again and again, it is not without its flaws. The end game can become ridiculously overwhelming as you control thirty to forty cities and go to war with similarly powerful countries. Attacking the Incan empire when I outnumbered their cities two to one near the end of the game was terrible as it became impossible to keep track of where all of my tanks were at and where they were coming from. The game needs something similar to the Warlords series in which you can tell cities to produce units and then forward them to another location. This might help waylay the tediousness in trying to attack four cities while sending units from across the map to help reinforce positions.

Another annoyance, albeit trivial, is the loss of wonder production. In older games, when you were building a wonder and someone else built it, you could redirect the production capacity to other buildings so it wasn't a total loss. In Civilization 4, if someone builds a wonder that you were building, you lose all that production and receive gold as compensation. This can make wonder building a hassle as you find yourself constantly being outdone by an opponent and falling very far behind as nothing is built.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun and well worth the cost of entry. You'll find yourself drawn in by the outstanding music and be held tight as you swear, you'll stop playing after just one more turn.

Buggy and no support, wait a little before buying.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 19
Date: November 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The terrain is black with AGP on and white with it off, the 3D heads show up as only eyes and teeth, the city tiles display only 1 or 2 pieces of toast instead of toast/hammers/coins, and the movies are choppy.
It's been over a week and there is no word of ever fixing these problems, and take2games does not reply to emails or answer phone calls or at least say "hang on guys we're working on it"
Unless you have a brand new computer wait until they patch this game before buying it.

Unplayable

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 19
Date: December 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I received this game for Christmas and have had nothing but problems with it. There is a patch on the Firaxis site, but that did not help. The game slows waaaayy down and then will crash. I have a new PC, so that isn't the problem. The game seems to have a memory leak. It gradually uses more and more of the PC's resources and then freezes up.

I am very big Civilization fan, but this inferior product is simply not playable. Wait until a new version comes out and check review sites before purchasing.

I could never install this one.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 17
Date: November 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Okay. I can install and play: F.E.A.R., Star Wars Battlefront II, Band of Brothers Earned in Blood, Battlefield II, Prince of Persia, LOTR Battle for Middle Earth, Halflife 2, etc. I haven't encountered any serious issues with any of these games so far. But! I cannot install Civ IV. I can't get past the Direct X installation. I have the latest version from the Microsoft site, and none of my other games have complained about my Direct X. But Civ IV keeps telling me that I need to install the correct verions of Direct X. So I swapped it with a friend. He didn't have the Direct X issue, but he had the crash and "black map" issues.

Two people with dynamite systems, who play all of the latest and greatest games - and neither of us could get Civ IV to play correctly. I'm astonished at all the other complaints. I haven't seen this sort of buggy software since Bethesda! Are we sure Sid Meier had anything to do with this release?

Oh, and don't worry about patching this version. My friend swapped the game to another victim. Muwahahahaha!

Really Not Tested

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: November 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Adding to the reviews below, I have been unable, with four days of trying, twelve uninstalls, and 5 contacts with Tech Support, to get the program to even load. It is not graphics; the manufacturer has simply thrown ideas out with no clue as to the cause. Athlon 2700, ATI Radeon 9200, Meets all specs for game. DO NOT BUY THIS until they fix these issues!!!!!!!!

please read - important !

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: December 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I realize that most of the bad reviews here about this game are based on technical problems with the game, mostly due to problems with graphic cards that cause performance trouble while playing the game.

I must say one thing:
I had bunch of problems when I first installed the game. The first patch brought out by the company already fixed all of them and I can play the game without any difficulties.

It is a beautiful game, done with a lot of love and you can tell easily that a lot of work and time has been put into the game.
Plus the design in my opinion is the best compared to all previous civ games.

Buy the game, update it with the patch & simply enjoy, it's worth giving it a shot !!

Classic game and nothing else.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: December 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Before I go into details on why I consider this game to be, IMHO, the best strategy game to be released this year, I feel it is necessary to damit that this is probably the best Civ released. It all comes down to the more accessible interface, ability to modify the speed of the game, more gameplay improvements like nation borders, and the game can modified to a greater extent.

I've noticed that a few reviewers seem to assume that the original games are better, but most don't provide any good reasons for this assumption, or none at all. The best I saw was the ability to paint units in Civ 2, something that would probably work better since Civ 2 is 2d.

I also feel for those who are having complications running the game, since they are seriously missing out.

It is an understatement to say this game is simply fun. It is enthralling, is easy to control (the numerous concepts are difficult to master however), and possesses an addictiveness that makes it almost impossible to rise from.

The game always starts out with you choosing a city, and assists the player by suggesting good locations for your city. Some may dislike this, but the assistance provides long lasting effects, particularly when the population grows later in the game.

The game allows you branch out on just about any path you choose and most civilizations start out possessing certain benefits, with leaders that possess specific traits. For instance, George Washington, of the American Empire, is financial and organized so plots with commerce get 1+ added to their commerce when rise about 2 or more commerce, and receives -50% civic upkeep cost and certain buildings are half off.

There are numerous building and technologies in the game that affect how a starting civilization may turn out. You can focus on militaristic develops if you plan on starting wars early on. Cultural bonuses ensure that you borders expand. You could focus on economics if you plan on ensuring your population is always happy, and growth to ensure that they are alway healthy (both of the last two generally ensure there is no unhappiness). The choices you make may dire or beneficial consequences in the long run. An underdeveloped military makes your empire easy pickings for a militaristic nation. Poor culture will ensure that your cities are captured by more influencing civilizations without any bloodshed. You can trade technology and lands with you opponents, or form diplomatic treaties that ensure trade or the ability to move through friendly lands without provoking war.
There are Great People in the game which can provide immense benefits to cities in which they are settled (if yiu choose to settle them), or provide other small benefits by continuously doing certain tasks. If things get out of control, you can have the game automate things for you. This can be especially helpful when your engaged in war.

War can be tedious and resource waisting. It also makes your citizens unhappy the longer the war continues. Units can receive promotions in order to better combat certain units, or to provide certain benefits in certain terrain. Certain units are better able to combat certain units, cavalry can crush archers, archers crush melee fighters, and melee fighters crush spearman. The a.i. isan't a push over in combat either.

The a.i. generally excels at playing on a level that constantly challenges the player, and makes for a shrewd, if somewhat artificial, opponent. It generally makes good deals, and generally assist it's allies when war calls (not always though).
Speaking of which, the games difficulty can be adjusted to suit one's preference. There are wide range of difficult levels that affect a.i. abilities, and general events that take place on the map, such as raiding barbarians. You can even give the a.i. an advantage at the start of the game. The game can either be too easy, or too hard. It all depends on you.

The sounds are pretty good, particularly the menu music, and the noises you hear when you zoom in or out during gameplay. The graphics are pretty good for this type of game I suppose, they aren't the selling point however. I haven't experienced any crashes or installation issues as of yet. Though it is odd that the second disk is labeled play, when the first is the play disk.

Just get this game if you love strategy!! You (hopefully) won't regret it. Hopefully my review was clear and concise (probably not).

P.S.
Sorry to those who will not agree since I didn't say the game was buggy (how could I), or didn't make the empty statement of labeling Civ 2, or 1 for the matter, as being more superior. I suggest you try the demo before buying the game if you are uncertain.

Here are some more professional reviews for those who feel inclined to know such things.

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/919352.asp

Download the Updates - Problem Solved

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: January 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I've read the grossly out of date spotlight reviews above. The game crashes refer to a version of the game now two patches old. There are major memory fixes and some outstanding UI updates in the latest version.

Now, as to the game itself. If you've played the other Civs, you'll understand what I mean when I say that IV is the ultimate expression of what the other 3 versions made you want. It's absolutely engrossing, totally engaging, vast and complex ... in short, it should be rated E for EVERYTHING rather than Everyone.

I would make this 4.75 stars if I could, only because I miss the individualized Wonder Movies from some previous versions (this version uses the same 'building from scratch time lapse' movie for each wonder), and I would have hoped for a very slightly more detailed city view (you can't mouse over the buildings for their name, and some become indistinguishable from one another). But of course, these little items are not what the game is about.

As in previous versions, you will almost certainly kiss your free time goodbye the first few days (or weeks if that's you), figuring it out, starting over, getting new maps, all that good stuff. Your strategy must be layered and in-depth to win at any reasonable level of difficulty.

The UI is fantastic and easy to use, the zoom levels are smooth, the global view is a great addition, the AI is smart. And you have Spock narrating the whole thing. Could it GET any better? About .25 out of 5 better by my count, and that's pretty good.

Bottom line, if you liked the other civs even a little, then this is a must have. If you liked them a lot, prepare to be permanently preoccupied. And if you've never played them before, there's no better version to take the chance on than this one. If Civ IV doesn't hook you, then this whole genre of gaming isn't your bag.

And again, don't sweat those spotlight reviews above. The major issues have been addressed in the patches. Get the game, then get the patch, then get to empire building!
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Over the last few days more reviews have been posted. I'm especially puzzled by the reviewer with an Alienware experiencing crashing. I play this game, movie, sounds and all, all the way through to it's conclusion, on huge map, epic timeframe, 12 other civs. No problems. I repeat, no problems. And this is not an alienware. I'm on a simple P4 2.8, geforce 6600gt, 1gig RAM. Cobbled together from the remains of my old computers and some parts I bought. Maybe people have insufficient cooling systems or inferior brands of NVidia cards, though I doubt this is the problem for the Alienware reviewer. I suggest visiting the civfanatics.com forums and finding out if you are overlooking some simple fix. The game is worth it.

Can't load the game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: February 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have a pretty good machine 2 GHZ, 1 Gig Ram, 2 x 100GB hard drives, a brand new dvd+/-rw drive, and yet this program won't let me load it. It crashes as soon as I put the second CD into the drive with "catastrophic failure", and then the load ends.

Completely Unplayable!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: November 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have never been so fustrated trying to get a game to work. After reinstalling the game a number of times, going through all the fixes, reinstalling my video card, etc, etc. I can still not get this game to work. Was this game even tested? Check the forums for Civ 4 and you will find that I am not alone.

I am extremely dissappointed. Maybe instead of rushing a product to market to make money, 2K games might think about testing to make sure it even works first.

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