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Worthy Expansion

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 37 / 41
Date: July 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have enjoyed Civilization since my discovery of this wonderful game in the mid-90's. Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is a nice addition if your a "builder", Warlords the last expansion added some great features, but Beyond the Sword has hit the ball out of the park with new spy unites early in the game, more complicated game dynamics including corporations, religion, spy related point system, and new wonders. Another big plus, is the advanced technology tree, I always wanted to continue past the "Future Techs"-- now I can. PS -- to play civ on linux see [...].

Excellent Expansion for the Greatest Game Ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 17
Date: July 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this expansion a few days ago and Sid Meier knows how to design a game and keep it going for decades; hopefully the future as well. I would love to see Sid Meier and Will Wright (Sims Franchise, Simcity Franchise), team up and create a game that is like "wooow," I just can't imagine playing this and realize that I never wen't to sleep lol. Imagine a Simcity/Sims/Civilization type of game where you can be the ruler of your civilization, build your civilizations and its cities/states/provinces/capitals/capitals/towns/villages and you can become a sim or all of the sims and act as thow you control a city/state and so forth, create factories, be responsible for activating your countries defenses, or go on multiple media and calm your citizens and even frighten them into loving your rule. Have elections and if you loose you could loose to a pacifist who will lower your budget on defenses, armed forces, and/or raise taxes, and expand influence. Anyway Im getting ahead of myself....

Sid Meirer rarely makes a stinker of a game (one was Railroads). This exapnsion is top of the line out of the 2 created for Civilization 4. Sid Meier is a GOD! While he creates a expansion with the theme of warlords which deals with wars; Beyond the Sword, deals with stuff outside of wars. Spies are greatly exapnded and while its not perfect it's at least a start. To me it was totally useless and weak in Civ4 and Warlords. The introduction of Corporations is a great addition to continue where religion begins to tale off and become non-existent but it just seems weird in which religion never penalized you. When you have a corporation it can. It would be nice to see that as a corporation grows, it might have an influence on your government. Other additions include: more Wonders, expanded and improved traits of Civilization leaders, more units including Cruisers, tactical nukes, guided missles, attack subs, Privateer, and Ship of the line just to name a few. Naval supremacy takes on a new title in the game now. You also have the introduction of canals, river trade routes and creating a forest preserve.

Between the 2 expansions and the core game this makes Civilization 4 a must have for strategy, simulation, and empire building gamers. While the core of the game is untouched from Civilization 3 in which you guide a civilization from the stone age to the future, it is much more polished, less buggy (not that it was very buggy), and the added content blends in masterfully. This is a remarkable game that makes it even worse to say," Just one more turn!" Sid, dont stop now!!!!! Add more please! More realism, more content!

Anyone remember Sovereign which was being developed by Sony Online--take all the concepts in it and blend it into Civ4 and you got a game that you haven't seen since David Lightman got in trouble with NORAD and Mr. McKittrick (Wargames).

Please note that this game tries to utilize the techniques and rendering of todays video cards as well as great sounds and acoustic enviroments on sound cards. Dont give this game 2 stars because your P4 7 years ago with a onboard sound card doesnt let you enjoy this game.

So much Fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: July 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing the Civilization games forever it seems. I started out with Civ II and havn't stoped since. This expansion blew me out of the water. It is so much fun and the new stuff like corperations and spies make the game even better. The only thing I am disappointed with is that there is no throne room or palace screen, and I miss the advisors from Civ II.

Problems solved.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 41 / 48
Date: July 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As I understood it, the "Beyond the Sword" in the title referred to making the game more interesting in the period after most of the world's territory has already been staked out and all religions founded; previously there was little to do in the late-game apart from declaring war out of meandering ambition and/or boredom (which may yet have been some pretty spectacular social commentary though it didn't make the game any more fun to play). This expansion pack adds espionage, missing from Civ 4 until now, although as I understand it a popular feature in previous installments. I've so far heard mixed feedback as to how much weight it actually carries - and will admit that I didn't bother really trying it until my second or third game of Beyond the Sword - but I can confirm that it most certainly gives you something to do.

Beyond that, the game runs a bit better than it did previously, and the addition of neat little cause-effect events (i.e. "A dispute has arisen over a marriage between your citizen and a neighboring civilization's; offer money to boost foreign relations or decline and receive a boost in your cultural output") add a lot more than you'd think.

Meanwhile - as is always the case with expansions like this, there's hardly any way to react to any of the new tangible content (the requisite Civs, leaders, mods, etc.) other than to be glad of the fact that it's there, though that's no reason for complaint. Beyond the Sword makes Civilization IV a better game.

Alot of stuff

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: July 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

What a supberb expansion pack! So much content it will take a while to check it all out. They did excellent with all their additions to the game on this expansion. Highlights of the expansion include: 10 new civs, 16 new leaders, 11 senarios, new additions to the space race, new events system, additions of corporations, natural disasters, quests, more modern era additions to weapons and military, and Even advance starts! They really packed this expansion full. Lots of content for those that felt jipped off the last expansion. This is one excellent expansion for civ IV lovers!

Civ4 is my favorite game ever-and now its even better!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: August 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Warning: installing this game can be a nightmare! Make sure your current Civ4 install is up-to-date and fully patched-I had problems on Vista and my friend on XP.

This expansion rocks! It adds to the gameplay-new civ's, techs, and game play ideas.

Totally worth it-I'm addicted again.

A nice update for Civ fans

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For those folks looking to update your Civ playing time - this new update really hits the mark. With new wonders, technologies, features and world leaders - they have given folks enough new content to freshen up the series. Some of the new features, such as the espionage and corporation elements, sort of seem more trouble than its worth, but for some of the more detailed-oriented players, they will enjoy factoring in those new game elements. Even the most casual player, however, will like some of the new wonders and units. For me, the gameplay seems to be big step up from the original Civ IV game - and that makes it a bit more enjoyable than before.

Sink your teeth into this hearty expansion!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 75 / 79
Date: August 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Beyond the sword offers so much more than the previous one. Here is what I believe to be the best aspects:

Espionage is now a much larger part of the game. You may use funding to increase and decrease the amount you would like to concentrate on it. Just like science and culture.

Next war mod- This will add about thirty more techs to your tree in the end-game. Clones, mechs, and mind control centers are just a few examples. The only thing I don't like about this is you have to load the mod in order for it too work. Also, it is a tad annoying that the end-game music plays throughout the entire game if you choose this.

A bunch more leaders and few more civs- this is always a bonus. Holy Roman Empire and Byzantium are great choices. Being a fan of ancient Mesopotamian culture I appreciate the Babylonians and Sumerian civs being added as well. Native Americans are also a fun addition.

There is a new random event concept that actually adds a lot of fun to the game. Something good or bad happens at random and you make choices that either make things better or worse.

When it comes to the scenarios, it looks like they were going for a bit of experimentation instead of the usual. Still if you're anything like me you play these once and never look at them again.

There is one that is like a cyber-punk scifi where you fight zombies. Interesting idea but there isn't much to it. Just walk around in dark buildings while you are assaulted by wave after wave of zombies.

Perhaps the best one is an outer space scenario where you colonize planets. About ten new space civs to choose from and a brand new tech tree .

The Charlemagne scenario as you may have guessed involves the many countries vying for power during the dark ages.

Broken star is a russian campaign that involves a fractured russia. Choose a faction and attempt to find nukes.

I believe the animations have been improved and the units of different civs have been changed so they have more personality. ie. an asian civ will look asian while a native american civ looks native american, instead of the units of every civ looking the same.

Unlike the last installment I believe your getting your moneys worth this time around.

An awesome game to play! ...Except when it crashes

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For as long as I have been playing the Civilization series I have been thinking of how great the games are, and how much greater they could be if they added some things. This expansion pack has added many of the things that I've been dreaming of! Random events, new units, civilizations, leaders, and buildings, corporations, advanced espionage, and the scenarios all combine to make this the one of the greatest computer games I have ever played!
However, the game crashes often. By changing some of the graphic settings I've made it crash less, but it still does at times. Unless your computer has very good graphics, it's good to save often.
Other than that, the game is stupendous and it will be hard for Firaxis to come up with more to add. If you're a fan of Civilizaion games, this is for you!

Some good, some bad

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: August 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Well they added Espionage and Coorperations, to wich seems to drive you away from the actual game itself at times, it is still fun and interesting, though some of it seems to be a little bit too much to grasp, being that the original game was so stream lined.

Mod's and sceanarios are hit and mis, The space mod is very detailed and feels and play's like and entirely different game, they probably coulda sold this as a stand alone game and it woulda done well.

Some of the new civilizations are pathetic, the Dutch come to mind... besides some involvement during piracy, there is realy not much to make them a worthy Civilization for a game. if you wanna include making windmill's.

Overall a great add-on to the original, though some elements take away from the original gameplay, this is probably the most ground breaking expansive part of the Civ series to date.

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