Civilization IV - Game Review (PC)

James Lombardi | November 15, 2005  | 0 comments  | Print  | E-mail

Introduction:

It’s hard to think of a gaming franchise that carries with it the prestige and power of the name Civilization. I suppose more specifically, Sid Meier’s Civilization. Maybe there are some franchises out there with more clout and influence, but I doubt there are any that have ruined as many marriages. There were fantastic promises made with Civilization IV, enough that some gamers probably contacted their lawyers ahead of time and asked for the divorce papers to be drawn up - requesting only that they be left with the family’s computer. So how does this one stack up to the rest of the series? Will we see a significant rise in divorce statistics? Will the tank finally win against the lowly spearman?

Gameplay/Interface:

As any fan knows, this is the meat of a Civilization game, and what makes or breaks it; graphics, sound, and other bells and whistles all take a backseat to gameplay. No one needs (or wants) fancy particle effects or real-time dynamic lighting. We want to guide our young civilization to world domination, even if it takes 6000 years to get there. There’s nothing here that would alienate a long time Civilization player, but there have been some changes, so don’t brush this one off just because your copy of Civilization II is still on your hard drive (if all you have on your hard drive is Civilization III, seriously what are you doing? Get this game!).

To give a quick recap for those readers who haven’t played a Civilization game:

There is an awful lot to a Civilization game, but the general idea is that you start as a budding civilization in 4000 BC and you have until 2050 AD (although now you can actually disable the time limit) to lead your civilization to victory. The beauty of these games (and Civilization IV is no exception) is that the victory conditions are wide ranging. One can conquer all the other civilizations, win by simply controlling a vast majority of the world’s area and population, be the first civilization to send a mission to the far reaches of space, spread your culture throughout the world, reach a diplomatic agreement of victory, or simply have the highest score when the time runs out. To get you there, you build cities, develop them, develop your infrastructure (roads, agriculture, etc), discover new technologies, and wage war.

It’s a little known historical fact that Confucianism and Taoism were both founded in St. Petersburg, Russia.	You can now see the specific reasons why that other civilization hates you.

Several of the systems have been revamped in this incarnation of the game. For example, the diplomacy system is fairly different from before. You can clearly see why you have a good or bad relationship with another civilization. Also, civilizations no longer can run about through your borders unless you agree to have open borders with them - and if they declare war on you, their units are transported out of your territory. However, opening borders with other nations increases trade (and your civilization’s revenue) and generally keeps other civilizations happy with you and less inclined to declare war with you. Also, after problems in Civilization III, managing a large empire is easier. Corruption doesn’t become crippling - in fact, there is no corruption. Rather, some loss is factored in for each city your country controls, so you have to balance expansion with the economic strength of your civilization. Overall the changes made to the game are generally for the better.

However, long time fans also know one of the biggest complaints of the series is the handling of combat. Stories of great woe were often told of that fortified group of Pikemen taking down a Panzer unit. During my first game of Civilization IV, (I was playing as the Germans - so I did in fact specifically have Panzers), I launched an attack on one of my neighbors - Gandhi. I had just attained Panzers and was ready to flex some muscle (before everyone caught up to me). I rolled up to a city with my tank…and enjoyed a defeat by the hands (well, arrows) of a couple of Archer units. I didn’t quite agree with the logic of the result given to my Panzers.

To be fair, they did revise the combat system so this is slightly less likely. The way it seems to work now is that each unit has a strength rating, and for those gamblers out there the strength ratings are basically just odds. My panzer had a strength of 28, and that archer had a strength of 3 (but modifiers such as terrain, fortifications, etc., increased this to about 8 if I recall correctly). The battle worked out to 28:8 or so. My panzer wins 28 times out of 36, or roughly 78% of the time. Sure, I might settle for slightly worse odds in gambling, but that is why they call it gambling. Still, the system at least makes some more sense and luckily the game is extremely moddable, so a person can tinker and make things fit a little more to their liking.

Additionally, a few new features made it into this version. A civilization can now see the birth of a "great person." Taken from history, examples of great people emerging from a civilization would be Da Vinci or Einstein. They fit into categories such as "great scientist," "great prophet," "great artist," and "great engineer." Each type conveys certain bonuses and each has a variety of uses. They can join a city’s population permanently to convey powerful bonuses (adding a great scientist to a city greatly boosts its scientific output). They can produce certain one-time effects, such as building a certain structure, speeding construction, speeding certain research techs, or my favorite - the "artist" can add a large amount of culture to a city - great for expanding borders and attempting a culture take over of a neighbor’s city.

There’s no longer one type of government. Your civilization can be customized in a number of different areas.	By looking at the info screen, one can see where they rate in a number of different ways. Here - my power (orange) against the rest of the world.

Another new feature comes in the form of religion. Previously untouched in Civilization games, you can now found a religion and proselytize to other civilizations to gain favor with them. Civilizations tend to frown on those of different religions and become quite friendly with those of the same religion. Unfortunately, that’s the only real effect of religions, no special bonuses or units are given - they are all exactly the same, but are discovered at different times (by researching a specific tech before anyone else, you found the relevant religion). Still, it’s another layer added to the already complex game that adds a little extra character to the game.

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