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Civilization's Baby Brother

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Lives up to the Civilization standard! It's a great game and I guarantee you'll love your first victory in world domination - with whatever path you choose. Unlike previous Civilizations for the PC this one goes along with a faster pace and less customizations (basically no pre-game customizations); however, the multiplayer is far more engaging and easily accessible. This is a game you want in your collection, especially if you haven't played a Sid Meier game.

Good for an hour of play at most

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game was a total let down. The time moves so fast, that just as things get interesting, the game ends. And it is not like the old one where you could keep playing (even though you had won), in this version, it just ends. you can start over, but the same thing happens again.

COMPLETE LET DOWN.....

Inital impressions

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: July 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First let me say this review is a work in progress. I plan on amending as I do more than complete the game at the "Chieftan" level.

As a Civ 3 fan, I was looking forward to trying this out on the console. However, after achieving all 4 victory types on easy I'm wondering to myself "do I really want to do it all over again where the only difference is more aggressive AI?"

Unfortunately this game falls victim to most Xbox 360 games I've played recently: If you're not using Xbox Live it has a very short shelf-life. (I never really could see the appeal of putting on a headset and playing with twelve year olds who shoot their mouth off because Mommy can't hear them.)

Updates pending completion on "Warlord" difficulty...

The World Is Yours, Join The Revolution!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: July 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

So, you say want a revolution? Well here it is! Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is a console version of the popular Civilization series on the PC. Understandably, most people would be skeptical is such a thing could be done to ergonomically suit a PS3 or an Xbox 360 controller, as RTS games which make the leap from PC to console don't fare so well in the transition.

After having played Civilization Revolution, however, I am happy to report that this game is a keeper for anyone that likes strategy games, or would like a change of pace from all those first person shooters that have been dominating the online scene. The game developers really took their time to make a game that is easy to pick up and play, yet deep enough for veterans of the genre to enjoy many different strategic options.

Basically, you select a Civilization from among a group of unique races with their own strengths and weaknesses. It's a lot of fun to try and figure out new ways to take advantage of your racial strengths or to exploit your enemies' weaknesses. For example, the Zulu are strong early in the game because their warrior units can move an extra square, or the Aztecs have military units that heal after every conflict. Other Civ's are stronger late in the game, like the Romans that can make Wonders (expensive buildings with game-breaking special effects) at half the cost.

After you have selected your Civ, you place your first city. Positioning is key here, since you must place it near areas where you can harvest resources to make your city grow or to make units for going to war. Afterwards, the game is like a huge chess board where you fight four other enemy Civilizations. There are also non-violent ways of winning, such as the Cultural Victory (where you build Wonders or generate Great Persons by making building that produce more Culture) the Economic Victory (by making a lot of money and building the World Bank) or Technological Victory (where you beat the other Civ's in a race for outer space.)

The graphics for the game are cartoonish and colorful, and they are adequate for the sheer lunacy of the game's main objective, which is nothing short of world domination. The music is enjoyable, with different aural cues to let you know which Civilization is on screen at the time. Some voices though, which speak in a Sim-like language called Firaxlish, are a little annoying, especially from the side of the advisers. But this is minor nit-picking, as the presentation is top notch, and it's a real thrill to see sprawling cities grow and develop across the map, or to see your mighty Artillery topple an enemy city.

I must say though, that the single player is a little lacking in options. There is no campaign mode to speak of, but there are five different difficulty levels to test your might against. The online multiplayer, however, more than makes up for this shortcoming, as it's a real blast to go at it one-on-one or two-versus-two online. There's also a cool map of the week function, where players compete to see who can best complete a new downloadable map every week.

Civilization Revolution is truly nothing short of revolutionary, as it is the most addictive turn-based strategy game ever to come out for consoles. This is a gem of a game, a future classic which will be the standard for all future games of this genre.

Game ends before you can finish

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 26
Date: July 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This would be a great game, it's a lot of fun to play, except for one HUGE problem. The game just ends, before you can actually finish a game. You will be playing a fun game, then out of the blue you will get a message saying the game will end in 5 turns, and then it ends. It's like playing a NASCAR race game for a 20 lap race, and then after 17 laps the game just says 'sorry, the game is over, you were in 3rd place on lap 17, you will never know how you would have finished'.

And even if you manage to reach a victory condition, the game just ends. You can not finish advancing the civilization.

So until they fix this huge bug and allow you to play as long as you want (and many others have brought this up) the game is totally worthless. And this is really annoying as the game would be great otherwise.

The Civ we know and love

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Sid Meier has done it again!
The Good:
Absorbing and addictive gameplay, this reminds us all of the "just one more turn" policy with the other Civ games.

Easy to control.

Better graphics than some say. Not as good as some games, but you easily get used to it.

A good selection of civilizations to choose from.

Just a great game overall.

The Bad:
Too short! I almost hit the turn limit. I was just really starting to annihilate my enemies when the advisor guy said I had 5 turns left.

Everyone speaks gibberish. It's not so bad at first, but they could say at least one real word!

Overall:
Great game. Get it. Sixty bucks is a little pricey, but get the game when the price goes down and you will be well satisfied. Now, if you have played Civilization 1,2,3,4 with a passion, you probably won't like this. If you have played some Civ, you won't be dissappointed. If haven't ever played Civ, try it out. It's a great game.

Simplified

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After playing the computer civilization games since the first one, I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of detail this one gives. I understand that the mainstream market probably would be turned off by the level of complexity involved in most of the Civilization games, but this game goes against the brand in this respect. I expected something more like Civilization IV in this release.

PLease, Sid

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: August 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game had potential except that it kept ending as things started to build to an interesting point. This misfortune was the result of a time based engine that stopped the game - perhaps because the programing got too complicated for Mr. Meier- at odd and sometimes dramatically underplayed events during an arbitrary time run and was a misfortune in design, whether you won or not. My advice to Mr. Meier is not to name a game after yourself unless it is better than this one or your Japanese.

A Great Transition To The Console

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

For longtime Civ fans, or gamers that have wondered what the fuss was about, Civilization Revolution finally brings the Sid Meier gameplay to the console. (Well, okay. Technically, there was a version of Civ II made for the original Playstation, but the less said about that the better.) If you've ever wanted to play Civilization on a console, this is the definitive translation.

Some people would say that this is just a "lite" version of Civilization IV on PC, but that's doing a disservice to the amount of gameplay changes and adjustments Firaxis did to bring this to the console. Many aspects of the game have been streamlined to facilitate quicker turns. A typical game between you and 5 AI-controlled opponents can be started and finished in a couple of hours, whereas the same parameters on the PC version could take days.

Beyond just making the game faster for console multiplayer, Firaxis also changed some key aspects of the game. Roads are no longer built by workers traveling between cities. They are built instantly by paying a set amount and selecting the destination. Worker units are gone altogether, in fact. (Most everything is done automatically.) Civilizations have inherent bonuses that carry across time periods. Artifacts are new items that show up on the map (like Atlantis) that confer huge bonuses to the civilization that discovers them.

The only negative would be that diplomacy, a tentpole aspect of the PC game has been streamlined almost to the point irrelevance. The only options at any time are to declare war, demand tribute, give a gift, or ask about other civs which wouldn't be too bad, except the enemy AI is so agressive towards the human player that any response other than war is only temporary.

All in all, it's a great game. Fast, engaging, and challenging enough for vets, but easy enough to get into for the uninitiated.

Not the worse

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: July 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If CIV 3 was the latest available CIV game on the PC, then this game would have been an absolute disgrace.

However, considering CIV IV was already the disgrace to the CIV name, this one isn't actually that bad in comparison.

The game lacks propper rally point and automatic scouts. Other than that it's completely playable.

As somebody else mentioned as well, the AI towards the end of the game seems to go into some sort of 'desperation' mode and tries to attack you even if it has no hope of getting anywhere. This forces you to deal with the attack, which can be annoying.

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