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Excellent Graphics, if you like the other Civ. games, you will like this

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for my husband and he really enjoys it. It is very complex, but he says they worked out some of the confusing things that he didn't like about Civ III.

Ooooops !

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 15
Date: November 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Finally made it work in a laptop... sort of. But a couple of hours later I was back to CIV 3 (I won't return CIV 4 though, may be I'll give it a try in a couple of months, after taking antidepressants). Sid, why not CIV 3 1/2 with improved graphics and less polution, revolts and corruption? Some videos, some new technologies... Why try to make CIV4 look like other games we CIV fans usually don't play? Why are those 3 guys moving like the Brady bunch? Gimme the old time religion.

Good game. Better than CIV3.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: November 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am surprised to read all the complaints about the stability of this game because CIV4 has been, out of the box, one of the more stable games I have bought this year, and I buy quite a few. Maybe the fact that I have a brand-new high-end system with AMD 64 X2 and nVidia 7800GT helps.

Some reviewers complained about how much shorter this game is when compared with earlier versions. Others mentioned that tech research proceeds so fast that combat units often become obsolete before they can be moved into position. These are legitimate points, but I do not consider them as negative. In fact, the shortened game play makes finishing a game a lot more feasible, and therefore fun, for anyone who cannot afford to pull gaming all-nighters on a regular basis. The futility of amassing a large numbers of soon-to-be-obsolete units elevates the non-military aspects of the game, giving players an incentive to explore the well-thought-out civic, religious and munipal management issues.

Of course, nothing is perfect and CIV4 is no exception, but what really surprises me is the fact that several of its weak points are old issues in CIV 1 & 2 that had been fixed in CIV3. Chief among them is the over-simplified combat system where a lucky pikeman can kill the panzer. Although I agree with the developer's decision to shorten the game and de-emphasize the military options, I still consider a somewhat realistic combat system vital to the CIV franchise. This can probably be accomplished with some minor tweaks (e.g. new artillery actions, faster deployment, separate hard/soft ratings, stronger specialization, etc) in upcoming updates, however, and CIV4 can still turn out to be the closest thing to a perfect turn-based strategy game under the sun.

This game is not ready...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: November 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you buy this, do not expect it to work, even with current patches. I have played and enjoyed all of the other Civilization games and I can't believe that they would do this to longtime Civ fans. They should have waited to release it when it was actually ready. Don't pay to beta test...buyers beware!!

Fantastic addition to the Civ family

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: November 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Civilization to Civ II was evolutionary. The second installment was a great upgrade of graphics and refinement of gameplay, but that's pretty much all it was. Arguably the best of the line, it's hardly an insult to say it was nothing all that new! Civ III changed things up a bit, and I consider that a good thing. While basically the same game at the core, III challenges you in different ways, ways that really spice up the game and make you look at it differently.

Civilization IV does the same thing. At its heart, way down, it's still Civilization. At the same time, it plays differently. You look at the land differently. New units actually mean different strategies, and religion and civics are new and well-developed elements. The AI is more rational in its trading and diplomacy, which is another welcome change.

The first thing you'll notice is that the game is beautiful. There's also so much information there! After years of playing Civ III, I didn't expect to be so blown away the first turn of the game. The exaggerated graphics bring important details to the foreground, while the rest of the interface is restricted to the very borders of the screen. The information overload is mercifully short-lived. You'll soon get used to where to look for information, and it's all right there on the playing screen.

I don't intend to write an exhaustive review - the manufacturer's information at the top of this page is very thorough, and you don't want to read it again. I just wanted to say that as a veteran (but not high-end, God-level) player, Civ IV has been everything I hoped it could be and more. I'm very, very pleased with this purchase. If you've played Civ before, I recommend a look through the manual and a quick run through the tutorial. You don't even have to finish it, but it helped me because the movement and unit selection are different in this game than in previous installments. The manual has notes "For veteran players of Civilization" bolded throughout, so you can skim through looking for these very helpful tips about things that have changed.

The Downside - of course, there are a few things that stick in my craw. Briefly, as beautiful and useful as the main screen is, there are other elements that aren't quite as polished. The advisor screens aren't as useful as they were in Civ III for a few reasons, and silly little things like "Press Enter to Return" cues that can sometimes be clicked with the mouse to perform the action and sometimes need the keyboard. Small things like that are made all the more noticeable by the elegance of the main playing screen.

Anyways, complaints aside, go get the game. If you're a fan of the series, I don't think you'll be disappointed - I've been waiting for this release for a long time, and it's everything I'd hoped it would be.

Sorry to all you bad reviewers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: November 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The reason you are not seeing many good reviews of the game right now is because every person who has the game and can play it cannot put it down long enough to write a review.

My experience so far on my Intel 3Ghz machine has been a great one. I have had no loading issues and the game loads just fine. Gameplay is a lot of fun, and I can't wait to take on my friends when I get a chance. The AI is a lot smarter and a lot more fun to deal with.

Now for the couple of bad points I have seen. I cranked all my graphics, including 4xAA, up from within the game. About half way through the game when my wonders were built the video and audio was choppy. When I turned the AA down to 2x the problems went away.

The second problem is that in the endgame the turns do seem to slow down. I am wondering if there is a memory bug somewhere in the game that needs to be addressed.

Other than those two issues the game is Awesome, Amazing, and Spectacular. For those who can't get it to run I am sorry. Please don't blast the game if you have not played it. Vent about Firaxis, but not the game.

The Cadillac of Turn-based Strategy Games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: November 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

For fans of the genre, there is more of the same from the master; Sid has made Civ IV a worthy successor in his monumental series. The fundamentals of the game are still solid, however, there are enough new twists and turns in gameplay for it to feel really "new". Not to mention the new look, which hits you over the head immediately.

To the meat of the subject - the gameplay has been made more complex, for sure. New religion action will confuse at first; I am still on the fence over if this is an improvement. Developing the surrounding territory of your city involves more choice, though you can still just set the workers on auto if you want. But they somehow avoid everything looking like a post-apocalyptic railroad yard as the map usually did in the later stages of Civ III. The new unit promotions are interesting, and diplomacy has been nicely streamlined.

Best point - new Great People, really cool evolution from Civ III

Bonus - when I went to a site (Gamespy, I think), it told me I wouldn't be able to play the game because I had the wrong video card. Well, I have played for almost a week and no problems. I will definitely come back and revamp this review if I have crashes.

Enjoy building your worlds and I will enjoy crushing you on-line in multi-player!

Great Upgrade to Classic game, BUT still crashing after patch

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: December 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I just love the gameplay upgrades in Civ 4. I have been playing Civ since the Dos version and I really appreciate them getting rid of some of the micromanage stuff that can make the game less fun, especially in the later turns of the game when you have a lot of cities. The 3D helps visualize the world a lot better and it looks great. But it still crashes on my very decent 1 year old system after I installed the patch. This would be perfect if the coding would have been better to make the game more stable.

Whole new CIV experience!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: November 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

i have been playing civ4 for a week now, so far this is shaping up to be great! I was somewhat worried when some online article wrote about how civ4 is going back to its simpler root, but after playing it I realized that civ4 is by no means simpler. All new concepts like civics, great people, religion, unit promotions, and more, really takes the civ franchise to a whole new level. What is simpler, is the way these game concepts and mechanics are presented, making the game easier to understand and play.

Highlights of new and modified game concepts that totally changes the way civ is played:

- settlers and workers don't consume population when created, but a city can't grow while producing settlers and workers.

- cannot roll-over shileds. This totally changes the wonder building strategies.

- The ability to generate "great people points" means specialists are now a very integral part of the gameplay (starting from the beginning of the game), not just an afterthought.

- Civics, Unit promotions, religions, and more!

Pros:

- fantastic graphics and sound, altho that's not that important with civ games.

- new interface puts the most useful information right on the screen, saves a lot of mouse clicks.

- expand on previous game concept such as more resource and land improvements to add more depth to gameplay.

- lots of all new game concepts make civ4 on of the most original sequals. It plays nothing like civ2 or civ3, but equally addictive.

- the alarm feature which I think is new. i haven't used it yet, but i think it should help me at least keep track of what time it is in real life so i can get some sleep.

Cons:

- the revamped graphics might be resource intensive. I have no problem in general running it 1280x1024 on my a64 3500+ machine, with 6600GT and 1.5gig of RAM, but it does skip a few frame from now and then when the game is first loaded, and when playing the really, really uninspiring animations for wonders.

Not worth your time or $.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 21
Date: February 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

After Alpha Centauri and Civ 3, I was hoping to get back to the pure fun that were Civ 1&2. I can't really put my finger on it, but it didn't happen.

Can't quite put my finger on it? Of course, there are the bugs. Lots and lots of them. This is just a badly packaged and tested game - I bought it on day 1 and the editor didn't bother to put up a support page for this game till about 4 or 5 days later - after various game sites had pages and pages of bug reports.

But even looking past the bugs (not an easy thing to disregard, believe me), the game just isn't that much fun. The end game still involves drawn out slugging matches with guys who should know better. There is still much micro-managing to be done, because the AI doesn't impress by the way it manages terrain improvements. The vaunted zoom feature? You quickly figure out that zooming too close is useless. Use the wide angle and you can't really see what is happening, so it is about as useful as the world minimap. So, you are left with basically the same ol' Civ, a bit more spruced up.

I played 5 or 6 games, but then lost interest. Been there, done that. With less bugs. I am hoping that the Python + XML scripting capabilities will result in good mods coming out.

Part of my problem is that I find the development vs. warfare split distracting - I would rather play a wargame (like Rome Total War) or a game which included a lot less fighting and focussed more on development. Doing both just doesn't thrill me that much anymore.

Along with religion, the other decent addition was the unit experience and specialization model which rocks. And the encyclopedia was much better integrated this time.

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