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Civilization Revolution
In the first truly excellent console version of the PC’s venerated Civ series, you’ll feel more like an interventionist god than a crownwearing figurehead. After all, even the greatest kings didn’t get to turn 16 tribes of illiterate clubthumpers into interstellar voyagers.
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But there’s more to Civilization Revolution’s clans than endearingly animated historical leaders like Abraham Lincoln: each is blessed with potent but meticulously balanced strengths. Aztecs regenerate completely after every victorious engagement, and Mongols convince barbarian encampments to join the horde instead of dispersing. Selecting a nation is just one decision of countless many, and every one has far-reaching consequences across more than 6,000 years of exploration, city building, science, and conflict that span four distinct epochs.
Though the easiest difficulty level amounts to the CPU playing dead, the remaining four ramp up the challenge nicely. You start with a single lonely settler on a colorful, randomly generated map of varied terrain, nameable landmarks, and environmental boons. Settle your first city, and your subjects will draw resources from adjacent tiles. Gather enough food from the plains, and the young burg’s population will grow, giving you access to a larger workforce. Toil in the hills, and your people will speed delivery of city improvements like harbors and great wonders, upgradable military units from archers to airplanes, and settlers of future cities.
The deceptively simple cycle of settling, building, and expanding forms the ruthlessly addictive core of play, and slowly turning your populace of Stone Age hut-dwellers into sophisticated marvel-builders is remarkably fulfilling. Part of what gives Civilization Revolution its opulent strategic depth, though, is that it’s so much more than just a hollow citybuilding exercise or gore-free warfare simulator. Towns produce temples and trading posts as easily as barracks, and each settlement’s workers can till the fields or research breakthroughs that unlock new buildings, units, governments, and other possibilities. You can certainly win by going on a prolonged genocidal rampage, but cultural, economic, and technological victories are at least as satisfying.
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More importantly, these parallel avenues produce a natural ebb and flow that emphasizes long-term creative thinking and adaptation over prehistoric luck. When no two campaigns play out the same way, settling into a mundane routine is hardly a risk, but 10 scenarios add some piquant variations anyway. In these, you can start out with every technology, or contend with a drastically increased barbarian presence, for example — and Game of the Week events let you compete under controlled, save-free conditions for a spot on the world leaderboards.
For all the layers of freedom and complexity roiling beneath Civilization Revolution’s vibrant map and cartoonish battle sequences, the elegantly informative displays, intuitive interface, and Civilopedia reference guide let you conduct business without drowning in micromanagement. The absence of a full overhead map is strange, as is the inability to rotate the view even momentarily, but your enjoyment won’t suffer much. You’ll sometimes have to touch a dozen cities before you can save, but this never yields more than a minute or two of inconvenience.
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On the other hand, you can’t save at all during online multiplayer games — which take hours on end to complete — but if you’re disconnected during a head-to-head, team, or free-for-all match, an A.I. takes control until you reconnect. Because you and your opponents move simultaneously, you spend little time waiting on other people, and you’ll forge alliances, trade technologies, and scheme in private chat sessions with a tap of the right bumper. You can even set up to a 40% handicap that boosts everything from production speed to combat power to give neophyte friends a fighting chance against your superior intellect.
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Civilization Revolution’s sunny presentation and bountiful depth might not be suffi cient to draw legions of newcomers to turn-based strategy, but it is easily the single greatest example of the genre ever to grace a console.
On Xbox 360
+ Amazing breadth and depth with an intuitive interface.
+ Bright and cheery presentation.
- Can't save long multiplayer matches, rotate the map, or zoom out far enough.
? Will PC vets forgive the lack of religion and solo worker units?
9.0
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REDBULLSEY3
April 01, 2009 at 7:48am
I've never played this type of game before & I love it. It gives fantastic & detail game information & lets you play at your own pace.
Dragon80
March 07, 2009 at 5:26pm
love it showed a freind he went home and bought it the next day. wish each game lasted longer though
Mk3_IcebergSlim
September 26, 2008 at 12:29am
When i got the demo i saw Civilization???? I was like are you kidding me? So i started playing and playing then.... TEN more turns untill demo is over. I was like NOOOOOOOO. I have never been so addicted to such a simple but beautiful game before, ever. If you are looking to vent some stress nothing helps better than demanding Masonry or ELSE LOL. MUST BUY
adamdes2000
September 24, 2008 at 6:37am
a.w.d it is a good game for a mothe or so onlos you have live
1174mt
August 25, 2008 at 10:20am
I've never played a Civilization game before. This is a great introductory to the series, I highly reccomend this game.
Terr0r Inc
July 13, 2008 at 8:45pm
I've been a fan since I played Civ2 for the PC many many years ago. I thought they could convert this game pretty well, but this well?? I bought it the day it came out here which was like thursday, and I've pumped over 40 hours into it since then. One suggestion though, for a Scenario game, gotta make a arms race one where the first person to nuke the world wins!! I know Americans would like that one no? lol.
Terr0r Inc
July 13, 2008 at 8:36pm
I've been a fan since I played Civ2 for the PC many many years ago. I thought they could convert this game pretty well, but this well?? I bought it the day it came out here which was like thursday, and I've pumped over 40 hours into it since then. One suggestion though, for a Scenario game, gotta make a arms race one where the first person to nuke the world wins!! I know Americans would like that one no? lol.
zaar757
July 09, 2008 at 4:05pm
I didn't like this would translate so well to the console (I didn't really take to the Supreme Commander port), but after playing the Demo...oh wow...this is a must buy...heck I think both my wife and I will be buying our own copies so we can play co-op over Xbox Live (I gave her my old 360 when I got the HALO3 version).... The only bad part about the demo - it'll have your crying for just a few more turns when it ends.
Spybreak
July 09, 2008 at 2:47pm
Hmm I'm more of a RTS guy but it is Sid's game here so I'll prob rent it and try it out first. The only turn based strategy game I enjoyed was Alpha Centari.
Pazuzu
July 08, 2008 at 8:26pm
Ok, so here's the deal. I am a huge Civ fan. Have been since it's started. My favorite game was Civ 3. When I got Civ 4, I was EXTREMELY disappointed. Now this game won many awards and got a very positive response. By Civilization standards though, Civ 4 didn't cut it. The religion thing was good, but other that it was just a bust for me. This game looks like an expansion of Civ 4. Maybe even worse. So this might be good by game standards, but is it good by Civ standards.
powergloveman
July 08, 2008 at 4:27pm
I dunno, PS3 only has MGS4 to play so this would be good to play
Mitch OXM
July 08, 2008 at 12:50pm
I've never been a Civ fan because I'd never got in to it, but the demo for this blew me away. Can't wait to pick it up. Perhaps on the PS3, so I've got something to play...
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