Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

1. Official Site
2. Platform: 360
3. Publisher: 2K Games
4. Developer: Firaxis
5. Release Date: 07/08/08
6. Genre: Sim

by Chris Miller

The release of the original Civilization game on PC in 1991 defined the phrase “just one more turn”. Most gamers are probably familiar with the time-shifting abilities of the series by now: you start a Civilization game in the early evening, stand up to take a quick break, and somehow it’s 3am. Any game whose developers felt the need to include a timer so you actually remember to take a bio break should probably only be dispensed with a prescription. But I digress...

While there have been a number of excellent strategy games on consoles, nothing has quite been able to compare to Civilization. The series has been through 4 main versions on PC, along with a host of expansions and add-ons. Most of these have been excellent, and are arguably the deepest strategy games ever created. Through countless PC vs. Console debates, the PC crowd has always been able to hold up this series and say, “No matter how good your console games get, you’ll never get something like this”. So are they right? Let’s find out.

I was pleasantly surprised when I fired up CivRev (as it will be referred to through this review). Simply put, it looks outstanding. No, it’s not going to rival Gears of War in the eye candy department, but it doesn’t need to. The bright colors give the world a vibrant feel, and the small details really make it come alive. Each civilization has their own structures, including Pagodas in Japanese towns, and Kremlin-style spires in Russian towns. Animations are excellent for units, towns, and map locations - with workers bustling around cities, whales swimming beneath the waves, and fisherman casting nets from their boats.

Combat animations are also well done, and armies clash with all the appropriate explosions, arrows, and bodies all flying about. It can, however, be very difficult to judge the flow of battle from the animations. Many battles will see a lone unit who looks to be completely outmatched suddenly take out multiple enemies for a victory. This renders the 'retreat' button during battle rather useless, since it is impossible to tell if you are actually winning the battle or not.

The units do have a much more cartoony feel to them than their PC counterparts, but it works surprisingly well. The advisers are especially well done, with changing looks that match the particular age of your civilization. There is the occasional graphic glitch - such as the smoke animation missing from a rocket launch, a naval unit spawning in a landlocked lake, or a unit not activating when selected – but overall the graphics are excellent.

Also worth mentioning is the Hall of Glory. This virtual trophy room will display all the leaders you have encountered, the Great People you have recruited, and the Wonders you have built (along with their very cool build animations). It's a nice touch and serves as a progress barometer to see which cool little items you have yet to discover.

Sound effects in CivRev are basic, but get the job done. Tanks rumble and bombers dive appropriately, setting a build order triggers a hammering construction sound, and you'll hear the standard sword clanking and grunting from combat. Again, nothing terribly fancy, but effective. Your advisers all communicate in babble-speak (much like The Sims) which changes depending on their nationality. While the voices are well done, hearing the domestic adviser babble out the phrase ‘onem-grue’ for the 200th time can get on your nerves. Thankfully, there is an option to turn them off completely.

The background music is non-intrusive, but does have some nice context-sensitive changes, such as switching to an ominous tune during battle, and a Pink Panther-esque tune when moving your spy. Having the Civ IV theme song “Baba Yet” emanate from friendly villages was a nice touch.

This was my biggest concern with CivRev. I’ll be honest, I never thought the complex controls of the PC could possibly translate to a console. However, the gamepad control system is extremely efficient and works remarkably well, both on the world map and in the city screen. Every action can be completed with one or two button presses, and I never felt overwhelmed with menus and details. Part of this is due to the simplified nature of the game (more on that in the gameplay section), but I was truly impressed at how they were able to streamline a very complex system into something that feels extremely intuitive and easy to use.

The right thumbstick moves your cursor around the world, and you select your units simply by placing the cursor on them and pressing A. Want to move that unit? Point the left stick to where you want to go, hit A, and they’ll move there automatically. Have multiple units on one tile? Just hit ‘up’ on the D-pad, and it’ll cycle through each unit or army in the stack. Want to select a city? Hit the bumper once to bring up the city screen, and again to cycle through all the available cities. You get the idea, it’s all very simple. The only real control issue I came across is that finding a unit on the opposite side of the world requires you to move both thumbsticks in one direction to "spin" the globe. This isn't a problem in the early game when you have a small number of units that are close together. However, when you have tons of units and armies spread all around the world during the late game, having to constantly rotate the map to pick out individual units can get annoying. And while it is intuitive, I would highly recommend both reading the manual and completing the tutorial before jumping in. Not knowing which controls perform which function is a recipe for quick defeat.

You begin the game by choosing one of 16 historical leaders such as Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, or Julius Caesar, and are plopped down in the world - along with 4 other civilizations - with nothing more than a single settler and possibly a warrior, depending on your civilization. From there, your goal is to conquer the world in one of 4 ways: Domination (destroy everyone else), Cultural Victory (develop enough culture to build the United Nations), Economic Victory (compile enough gold to create the World Bank), or Technology Victory (be the first to reach outer space). Unfortunately, there is no customization to allow for less than 5 civilizations or define victory conditions, which would have been a very welcome addition. The basic premise sounds easy, but becoming the ultimate power in the world requires a delicate balance of both military and city-building skills.

Let’s get this out of the way right up front. If you’re expecting a Civilization experience as deep and complex as the PC version, you’re going to be disappointed with CivRev. That said, it is an excellent game in its own right. Instead of trying to duplicate the PC experience, Firaxis made the very wise decision to streamline the console version and make it much more accessible. Most of these changes work very well, but there are a few that fall flat.

The city building is very simple. The world is divided into tiles, each of which creates production, food, or trade (gold or science). When one of your settlers creates a city, it grows according to your management of these tiles. Workers populate automatically when a city is established, and you can either adjust them to focus on specific aspects such as production or gold, or simply let them do their own thing. From the city, you will create all your buildings and units, ranging from structures that increase research and culture, to warriors, pikemen, and cannons. The only real issue I had with the city screen is the lack of a build queue. You will be prompted for a new build order after every building is completed, which does require you to really baby-sit each city.

Once units are created, you can bravely strike out and explore your world. Units can travel individually, or create armies when 3 of the same unit are stacked on the same tile. Armies combine the attack and defense skills of the individual units, and create a much more powerful strike force. Invariably, you will come across other civilizations. Meeting your neighbors opens up some limited diplomacy options, but most of them are rather useless, especially on the higher difficulty levels. You can safely bet that once you meet someone, they’ll be attacking you in short order. For me, the overly hostile AI is probably the biggest shortcoming of CivRev. Trying to play nice and focus simply on city building, technology, and diplomacy (which is a viable – if difficult – option in the PC version) is virtually impossible here. You’ll be attacked early and often, and will typically be ganged up on by multiple enemies. I found myself fighting a battle on 4 fronts more than once, against a strategically competent AI that will always keep you on your toes. At the lower difficulty levels, the AI will simply throw wave after wave of underpowered enemies at your walls, which doesn’t present much of a challenge. The higher levels, however, employ some significantly more advanced battle tactics. They will use spies to weaken your defenses, set up barricades around your cities to prevent use of specific resource tiles, and generally put up a much more challenging fight. My personal sweet spot was the King difficulty (the middle of the 5 available levels), but advanced players can go as high as Deity level for a true(ly insane) test of their leadership skills.

The combat-heavy gameplay does create a few balance issues. Each civilization starts the game with its own set of bonuses. Since extensive combat is inevitable, civilizations that get bonuses to combat (such as Aztecs, whose starting bonus is units that fully heal after each battle) have a major advantage over those that don’t (such as the French, whose starting bonus is knowledge of Pottery). While it’s admirable that the developers were striving for some historical accuracy, playing a non-combat oriented civilization makes the game significantly more difficult.

In addition to playing both city-planner and general, you will also be tasked with developing technological advances for your civilization. These range from basic skills and concepts such as mathematics, currency, and writing, up through advanced technologies like space flight and nuclear fusion. Technologies typically open up additional units or buildings, and many also allow you to create Wonders – high cost structures which grant huge bonuses such as increased production or jumps in population. These Wonders often serve to turn the tide of a game, although I find they really only come into play during the mid to late game. Since the early game is typically so focused on developing an army to fight off your overly hostile neighbors, using valuable resources to create wonders is nearly impossible if you want to survive.

With 16 different civilizations (each with their own specific bonuses and units), there is plenty of replay value in CivRev. Most games can be completed in 2-3 hours, and using a different civilization or striving for a new type of victory means that each game is truly its own unique experience. There are several multiplayer options, including Head-to-Head, Free For All, Team Play, and System Link. Playing against human opponents helps diffuse some of the overly aggressive AI, but finding online opponents can be a bit tough. When you do jump into a multiplayer game, the AI fills in any unused spots, so unless you’re playing with 5 human players, you will still be trying to fend off your angry AI neighbors. Throw in a number of different scenarios that alter the starting age, technologies, or enemy types, as well as a Game of the Week option, and you end up with nearly infinite replayability.

CivRev has been an extremely pleasant surprise. It’s not perfect, but it does a fantastic job of taking one of the most complex gaming franchises and boiling it down to the fundamental aspects that make it so much fun. Even in its simplified state, it is still a massive and complex game with a myriad of aspects for the player to manage. There is something truly epic about taking a culture from one settler to world domination that cannot be duplicated in any other game. While it may disappoint the hardcore Civilization fan, CivRev is a no-brainer for those new to the series or who are casual fans like myself. The console world has never seen anything like it before, and it is one of the most enjoyable strategy games I’ve played. One more turn, indeed.

Gaming Trend Score

88

1. Graphics: 85
2. Audio: 80
3. Controls: 95
4. Gameplay: 88
5. Value/Replay: 90
6. OVERALL:88