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Quite possibly the world's most perfect game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 30
Date: December 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

So, you just read my title line...

Am I stetching the truth? No.

I have played this game for YEARS. I first began to play it in 1996.

The beauty of this game is that is is deep, yet easy to learn. It is fun, but not "arcade-like". There is strategy, but it is tempered with action.

You can be: diplomatic or iron-fisted, peaceful or war-like, science oriented or a land-grabber or even a money grubber.

This game has nearly every facet of enjoyment that you could hope for. The most amazing thing is that you can learn something new nearly everytime you play.

The key features to the game are as follows:
Build Cities and Improvements (like aqueducts, etc)
Build Wonders of the World (which give you special traits)
Build Armys
Establish trade routes
Conquer Enemies
Ally with friends
Expand your population
and finally...
Build and send a space ship to Alpha Centauri

Simply put, this game is stunning. You will lose many good hours of your life into it...and never feel an iota of guilt or regret.

This game works well on all PCs from a Pentium 90 and up, so if your machince is older, no worries.

This is unquestionably the best game I have ever played.

I realize Civ3 is out now and that game may be better (I have heard great things), but (for the price) you cannot do better than this game.

A truly classic game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: November 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Newer strategy titles may have more advanced graphics, and the newer versions of this advance on it, but for sheer depth of gameplay and attention to detail this is unsurpassed at this price. With everything in 6000 years of a civilization at yoiur disposal, you'll be addicted for ages if you can get into it.

The great thing here is that tehre are so many different gameplay elements and they all intertwine so well. The scientific developmetn sees your tribe evolve from the early stages, where the only weapons you can have are chariots, phalanxes and the like, and all you can build in your cities are things like granaries and basic barracks, through to the latter stages where you can build dominant Howitzers and Nuclear Weapons, or begin constructing spaceships. The chain of scientific advances, as you decide which developments your society needs, the international diplomacy (sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword) and money management all add elements to the game. The way every single minute decision has so many consequences is great, like the butterfly phenomenon. The advisors also add some good light relief as well as useful advice.

Overall this type of game is much more engrossing than the COmmand & Conquer type titles. Here you can think through every move in as much detail as you like. The whole thing has much more depth, and I'd advise players used to those types of games to check this out as well. A true classic. Now I've reviewed this I feel like digging it out and playing it.

My favorite version of Civ...or, Rome on 64KB a day.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: January 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Sid Meier's Civilization II may, perhaps, go down in history as the late and much lamented MicroProse's most popular and best computer game. (MicroProse, which also produced the F-15 Strike Eagle series of flight sims and the World War II submarine simulation, Silent Service II, changed hands several times, having been bought out by Activision, then Hasbro, then Atari before disappearing.)

SId Meier himself went on to design other, equally admirable games such as "Sid Meier's Gettysburg," but Civilization (and its sequels) will be remembered by gamers for decades. The first version of Civ (in 3.5 in. diskettes) was released over 12 years ago; this was the first version I ever played and drew me into its addictive web of military strategy, cultural development and technological advances.

Civilization II, released on the more versatile and multi-faceted CD-ROM format in 1996, is a vast improvement over the original Sid Meier-Bruce Shelley Civilization 1.0. The concept is the same: you are the long-lived leader of a major civilization (Rome, Greece, Egypt, just to name a few), equipped with one, sometimes two settler units, a few civilization advances (usually Irrigation, Road Building, and a randomly chosen one such as Alphabet or Bronze Working). Using terrain and resources on the mapboard (and usually the map is a sea of black except for the spaces your units are on), you find a suitable place to found your first city, then you start a 6,000 year process to create an empire that will either attempt to conquer the world or, for more points and a tougher challenge, win the game by gaining technological advances through research, building up a huge treasury via trade and taxation, and racing the other civilizations to be the first to reach Alpha Centauri before the scoring period ends in 2010 AD.

The 1996 version (since supplanted by Civilization II: The Test of Time and Civilization III) is a single-player edition, but even without multiplayer options it is still quite a challenge even in the basic Chieftain level. It still has those pesky barbarian tribes that old hands at Civ grew to hate in the first edition, but the graphics are way better -- even 8 years later they still hold up. New (at least in '96) features include one additional civilization per color group (Spanish, Sioux, Celts, Cartaginian, etc.), your choice of gender during leader selection (women like to play sims, too, and Civ 1 only had male leaders and titles), 3-D heralds to announce communications from the AI civilizations, multimedia presentations of Wonders of the World (with new Wonders added and new or revised Wonder-benefits), and new military units (Helicopter, Paratrooper).

To get the most out of Civilization II's features, particularly a stunning title sequence (by '96 standards) and multimedia presentations, it's best to play the game with the CD-ROM in the appropriate drive. You don't need to play the basic game with the disc, but you'll miss seeing and hearing the film clips that pop up when you build a Wonder or, if you are lucky, reach Alpha Centauri before the AI civilizations.

Holy *#$%! The sun's coming up!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 22
Date: March 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The biggest problem with Sid Meier's games is the addiction factor. I'm not a big arcade gamer, but I can stay up all night long trying to prompt my civilization to grow just a bit faster than the neighbors.

A socially useful application of this game is to discuss preferred strategies for winning. With proper calibration, this could turn into a standard psychological test ...

Basics: Start with some stone-age settlers. Settle down. Build cities, improve cities, create units (military, settlers, trade), advance civilization until you beat everybody else to Alpha Centauri.

It sounds so mundane, so banal. It is. But if your brain is wired wrong, it's more addicting than heroin, valium, and nicotine put together. I've had to delete the installation on several occasions because of failing health and job performance!

A deep, rich, well-developed strategy game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: August 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Civilization is a strategy game, with an extremely well-developed background.

One of the joys of the game is its scope. Start with a single unit of pre-literate vagabonds: first one to Alpha Centauri wins. Along the way you have to develop cities, armies, science, industry, etc. The early decisions are easier, but the game continually grows more complex, with more decisions and more dangers.

The heart of the game is the Advancement system, which lets you develop human knowledge in a reasonable but not quite predictable way. Most advancements have pre-requisites. You can't develop Railroads, for instance, until after you have both Steam Engine and Bridge-building. This forces a reasonable structure on your development, but there are still many choices to make. Develop just the money-making advances, and you'll be overrun by rivals with less money but better units. But if you just develop your war-machine, you'll use it up against your near neighbors while civilizations far away are developing faster.

You also have to allocate your tax resources into money, sciences, and luxury. (One realistic touch is that democracies have to spend a lot on luxuries, but still wind up with more overall resources.)

The game structure is intuitive, the mechanics are straightforward, and the strategic decisions are complex. It's a deep, rich game, and continues to be worth playing.

11 Hours Changed My Life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: March 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

In 1992 on the original Sid Meier's Civilization came out, I played it for 11 hours.

And lost.

And then, I played it again for days. I've played other games since then, but none rival Civ in its mastery of presenting the complex as if it were simple, and its ability to combine seemingly unrelated functions (granary = increased food storage = faster population growth = larger cities and more cities = granary =...). Who knew that granaries built in 2000BC could make or break your existence in 1950AD? If you are interested in the grandaddy of all civilization-building games, you have to get CivII.

Not experiencing Civilization and calling yourself a strategy-game buff is like a sci-fi fanatic never reading Tolkien. Its inexcusable.

Best game ever.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: August 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I got hooked on this game a couple of years ago, and it's still my favorite. You are the leader of a civilization, and you control the moves and decisions of what to build where, and what civilizations you want to conquer. Sort of like starcraft, but in my opinion much more addictive. You found cities, and each town builds one thing at a time, whether it be a troop of soldiers, a city improvement, or a wonder of the world. The goal is either to wipe out all other civilizations, or be the first civilization to colonize the moon. Sometimes I decide to play this game for an hour, and end up playing it all day. Very, Very addictive.

My all-time favorite game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 17
Date: October 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game came out a number of years ago, and I am still playing it. It's amazing to me the countless hours I have spent playing a game I have won (and lost) countless times! If you are new to strategy games and you want to try a game out, buy this one. You can start off at an easy level and when you're ready for more challenges, start a new game with a higher level of difficulty. It has an easy user interface and is very intuitive. But beware of one thing - you will lose countless hours playing this game! It's addictive!

Have to get it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: January 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

When I first played this game, it took me only a short time to figure out how it all works. That's what's great about this game, it's so simple! There are tips and guides that help you if you need it. Also, there are so many things you can control. You start out in a few thousand B.C. with your simple warriors and triremes. Than as you go through the ages, you control stuff like Marines, Battleships and even Nuclear Bombs. Even more, you can choose what civilization you want to be, (Romans, Celts, Zulus). Each civilization has it's own unique path you can take, and each civilization interacts differently with other civilizations. One of the neatest parts is that you can discover discoveries such as The Great Wall (to protect your cities) or The Manhatten Project (to build Nuclear Bombs). You can check up on your adviseries to see how your cities are comparing with other tribes and you can set up meetings with other tribes to nagociate or trade secrets. The secrets are things such as Masonary or Bridge Building that you can discover. So, by ending this review, I want to say that this is one of the best 2D (eg. WarCraft) kinds of games you can get!

I forgot what sleep was....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: September 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Bored one night, I perused the dorm looking for something to do. A "friend" (I'm pretty sure it was the Devil himself in disguise)of mine comes up to me and hands me a game with the solemn words "Play this." From that hour until this very day Civ2 has had a permanent place on my hard drive, and will like as not be the very last game I ever uninstall. I don't know how to describe the addiction. It is probably something akin to what heroin users experience. It is *that* strong. If you're new to this game, I'll give you the basics. Starting as one of about 25 different civilizations, ranging from the Aztecs to the Egyptians, you start with a stone age nomadic wanderer. You build your capital city, and thus begins your meteoric rise to fame and conquest. The research tree is simply enormous and after a while you'll get to memorize the perks of each and have a set pattern for advancement (I recommend getting Philosophy ASAP for instance. It gives a free research advancement). Build the 7 Wonders of each Age, from the Pyramids all the way on up to the Apollo Missions. Each has a great incentive and unique reward to offer to your Civilization. Government styles give you the choice of everything from Democracy (Superb money making and technological edge, but not good for sustained warfare) to Fundamentalism (Great moneymaking/war waging govt. but slow on the research). Discover gunpowder and finally vanquish that annoying French city on your fringes. Discover railways and move your troops around with no movement penalties. And if you're thinking of sleeping sometime during all of this, go ahead and give that thought up right now. You will play this game until the wee hours of the night, perhaps all the way up until you appear bleary eyed at work, unshaved and unkempt, existing on nothing but coffee. Perhaps you'll even get written up for staying up all night as I did playing it. Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds, the designers of this game, are true geniuses. Brilliant!

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