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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.

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 [...].

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.

Now With AI Cheating Built In!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 35 / 44
Date: October 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is like going back to Civ III. The combat system will have you pulling your hair out in much the same way as III. The espionage system will quickly grow uninteresting. I just turn it off at this point. So, here's the main problem. You basically need 99% odds in your favor to win a fight. 50% odds means a 100% chance you will lose. Anything below 80% (allegedly in your favor) means you will likely come out on the short end. Other irritants are things like enemy catapults and cavalry retreating with success nearly 100% of the time. Here's how espionage works: spys come in and blow up a mine. So you go fix it. You can blow up a mine and your opponent will go fix it too. They can poisong your wells or foment unrest. You can do the same. Most of the time spies get caught in the late game and not much gets accomplished by way of secret agents. An espionage standstill develops. It doesn't add much. Corporations do little other than give a small financial boost. You still cannot negotiate for trades with any real frequency, let alone build a strategy around trading. A majority of the time your negotiation screen with any AI civ will show only a column of red text, meaning they are not interested in trading anything. Just go it alone. In conclusion, this is no real improvement upon Warlords. The fighting odds make NO sense.

There are points in favor of this game: the new units are interesting; new buildings also add a new layer to gameplay; the new wonders are also abundant and give you a chance to at least grab a few of these key structures if you are struggling. If you are a Civ fan you will buy this game regardless of its flaws. If you are on the fence, just be aware that not all change is good. Sometimes it can just be downright annoying. I've been playing Civ for four years and typically look forward to each new Civ product, but this is a pretty big let down.

Almost like playing a whole new game, but still familiar

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I preordered "Civ IV - Beyond the Sword" almost on a whim. I had also purchased the previous expansion, "Civ IV - Warlords" and had been very happy with it. I am very happy that I followed that whim. In my opinion, Civ IV is the best of the Civ series (which is saying a lot), and "Beyond the Sword" adds some very cool new features which increase the replayability (something very important to me).

The first thing that caught my eye was the new civilizations and new leaders for existing civilizations. I had liked the civilizations and leaders added with Warlords, and these are just as good (my favorite from Warlords was the Vikings). I've tried the Dutch twice now and like them a lot! I can't wait to try a game as the Americans, led by Abraham Lincoln.

As with Warlords, they also added new civ-specific units and some new units usable by all civs. The airship is a neat little air unit, usable by all, that you get around the same time you are getting Cavalry and Ironclads. It is supposed to be good at spotting Subs, but I wouldn't know since my opponent (the Celts led by Boudica) was using them against me while I still had wooden ships! The East Indiaman, a Dutch specific unit, is a vast improvement over the standard Galleon (2 more strength, 1 more carrying capacity), especially in games where control of the seas is a must. It can also be used in place of the Caravel since it can travel through enemy territory and neutrals without provoking war or requiring open borders. No wonder the Dutch became a trading empire!

And of course, there are new buildings and some new wonders including the very frustrating (but also very powerful) Apostolic Palace (a medieval version of the UN). A word of advice on the Apostolic Palace: you must spread your state religion to at least one city in every civilization in order to make use of the voting feature! I had to research a lot of forum threads to figure this out. The Dutch (can you tell I like these guys?) get the Dike, an improved version of the Levee (new building). The Levee gives you an extra hammer on all river tiles, the Dike gives you an extra hammer on all river AND ocean tiles. Both can be built about the time you discover Coal.

But the best feature in my opinion are the random world events. This truly makes every game a unique experience. Some events are good, some are bad, and some are competitive. There are a number of quests amongst these random events that you can attempt to complete for nice rewards (examples include build X number of Y unit type, build X number of buildings in your cities, or found/conquer at least 1 city on X number of continents). A bad event for your opponent is almost as nice as a good event for you. Many of the events seem to be tied to certain time periods, but some can reoccur over and over (surplus food, famous artist/musician, floods, fires, earthquakes). In one game I was invaded by the Goths (Axemen), and in another game by the Huns (Horse Archers)! I repelled both invasions, but it was challenging.

Finally, they added more scenarios and more mods to "Beyond the Sword". I have not tried these yet, but I did play 2 of the scenarios from Warlords and enjoyed both so I am sure when I finish my current game I'll give some of these a try. I don't remember Mods from Warlords, so I'll throw in this explanation. A scenario is completely self-contained game, while a mod can be incorporated into a standard game at startup. Also, "Beyond the Sword" allows you to begin a game in a later epoch, using a point-buy feature to start with multiple cities, buildings, units and terrain improvements. This allows you to start in the medieval era, gunpowder era, and even modern era.

If I had to find a complaint about "Beyond the Sword", it would be that not all the new features were fully explained in the Civilopedia. Or at least the interface wasn't fully explained. I had to discover some things through trial and error (like the later epoch start feature, or the Apostolic Palace). However, there are some great websites that can get you through this little difficulty (I recommend Civ Fanatics).

I strongly recommend this expansion for anyone who enjoyed Civ IV and/or the Civ IV Warlords expansion. For 1/2 the price of most new computer games, this little expansion will get you to dust off a familiar game engine and at the same time give you the experience of a whole new game. If you are like me, you'll play it more than once to try all the new features! And I still haven't told you about all of them....

WARNING: Be prepared to get drawn back into your little Civ world and lose track of many, many, many hours! Just like when you first got Civ IV, Civ III, Civ:CTP, or any of the other Civ products and expansions. You will not be disappointed.

CIV- Still interesting after all these years!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Almost every new wrinkle introduced in this expansion is a welcome one. I enjoy having lots of civs from which to choose and to try to beat. Some people play the same 2 or 3 civs each time & prefer to be highly expert in that very narrow range & they might not appreciate the broad variety of civs in the Beyond the Sword expansion. I have still not gotten DeGaulle to be anything but a doormat, but will keep trying him from time to time.

Corporations are a cool idea, but they don't gain any traction or have any great advantage at first, maybe deep into the game they get better. Of course, the dimension that matters the most is spying, which begins as soon as you acquire the alphabet technology. Money, units, city improvements, use of specialists, and long-terms strategy all have an impact on your spying prowess during a game. I have played scores of hours, and feel as if I have only scratched the surface on learning how to exercise all of the options available in this one part of the game.

Similarly, getting up in the air when you acquire the physics technology is a bonus. Airships are the best new unit IMHO, but there are many to keep old players working on inventing new strategies in familiar situations. For those looking to get into CIV for the first time, I need to share several items of caution:
1. You will consume huge amounts of time. The game is as addictive as a Tom Clancy thriller and even tho' you know it is time to put it down, you can't at times.
2. The game is complex. Civ III or Civ IV will provide you just as much entertainment as starting off with this expansion pack, and will not be as daunting to learn. Use the expansion packs to enhance your experience once the basic games have lost some interest.
3. The game works best with a strong graphics card and lots of RAM. It is possible to dumb it down and still play without crashing, but the experience is much better with enhanced graphics.

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.

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!

A 'must have'

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This expansion changes and improves almost every aspect of the vanilla product. It takes what you already love about the game and improves upon it by giving it additional breadth and playability. I particularly like the random events that insert themselves into the game. (However, if you don't like them, no problem, turn them off before the game starts.) If you were the type of player who enjoyed the floods, tornadoes, and Godzillas that would show up in Sim City, you will love them here.

Much has been said about the 'Mods' that are included with the expansion both good and bad. Frankly some are clever, and others, not so much. They are a nice break from starting at the dawn of time and do allow you to have a life since they are faster to complete.

A number of the new units and technologies will be familiar to those of you who have been playing earlier versions of the game. For instance, paratroopers are back! Also, those of us who fell in love with Alpha Centauri so many years ago are glad to see it have a place in the game.

What is wrong with the expansion? My only real caveat is that if you are fairly new to the Civ universe and you found Civ IV too complex, you should skip this expansion. You always had to juggle a lot of competing interests and the expansion gives you a lot more to do. Also, and this is very picky, the end-of-game establishment of outposts in space was done in an expansion of Civ II. Grrrr. When the worst criticisms I can come up with are this minor, you know that this reviewer loved the product.

Open up the wallet.

Grandma Gamer Loves Civ BtS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

(Review by spouse of purchaser)
I'd read several great (p)reviews of Civ IV BtS, and was delighted when I received it as a gift. I'm a long-time veteran of Civ games, back to the original Civilization in DOS, before Windows was released for home use. Each version keeps getting better and better.

Until Civ IV, Civ II was my favorite. I didn't care much for Civ III, with its rampant pollution and civil discord. And win by conquest? Fuhgeddaboutit! Civ IV fixed all these annoyances, made it easier to win by conquest, and in general harked back to the things that made Civ II so great. But still, there was some indefinable thing missing. Beyond the Sword more than made up for this lack. The game is, admittedly, a little more difficult to beat than bare-bones Civ IV, but is FUN!

I predict that I'll be returning to BtS for a long time to come.

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