Sid Meier's Civilization IV Complete for Windows: A Game Review
At the time (1991), I owned an Apple IIe personal computer. I used it mainly for word processing; I was then beginning my career as a self-employed copywriter and communications consultant, but I also liked to unwind with military-themed strategy games (Avalon Hill's Gulf Strike and MicroProse's Crusade in Europe), flight simulators (MicroProse's F-15 Strike Eagle), a few sports games (Epyx's Street Soccer), and some naval-related sims (MicroProse's Silent Service).
Raci, however, was into PCs in a big way at a time when the operating system was MS-DOS, so he owned more advanced games than I did. He was, and still is, a very generous person, so we had an understanding that if I saw a PC game that I really wanted, we'd go "halfsies" and he'd invite me over to his house twice a month so I could play it.
To make a long story short, we had bought several MicroProse sims together, and he had invited me over to play my favorite - Silent Service II.
But before I could get my hands on the boot disc to run that game, Raci said, "Before we play your sub game, there's something I want to show you."
That "something," as it turned out, was Sid Meier's Civilization, a simulation of human history patterned somewhat along the lines of Sim City and Populous, in which you, the player, guided one of seven civilizations from near-caveman primitive levels all the way to early 22nd Century hi-tech spacefaring ones.
Although at first I was disappointed that I wouldn't be "running silent, running deep" with our submarine game, I eventually got hooked on Civilization. I learned how to build cities, roads, forts, irrigation, city improvements, and Wonders of the World. I mastered the art of diplomacy, trading, and, if push came to shove, making war. I loved everything about Meier's masterpiece, from the Civilopedia to the frantic "end game" to race the artificial intelligence-controlled rivals to Alpha Centauri. (Well, almost everything. The randomly-generated barbarian raiders never ceased to annoy me, and being compared to Dan Quayle as a leader always irked me.)
Since then, I've owned three follow-up versions to the original Sid Meier's Civilization: 1996's Civilization II, the somewhat less-than-worthy Civilization II: The Test of Time, and 2005's Sid Meier's Civilization IV.
Civilization IV: The Return of The Sid: The fourth iteration owes much of its updated design and interface to Sid Meier's space-themed Alpha Centauri, with much of the Graphic User's Interface (GUI) of that game being first adapted for Civilization III when Sid Meier founded Firaxis Games and returned to the franchise he created for his first software company, the late and lamented MicroProse. (Firaxis has since been bought by Take Two Interactive, the publisher of Civ IV).
Now, the basic concepts of the original Civ are present in this 21st Century upgrade. Players still must build an empire up from one solitary city, then expand outward by founding new cities, creating internal lines of communication, foreign and domestic trade routes, building (and upgrading) armed forces, and dealing with other Civilization leaders (controled by either other human players or AI ones).
Because I skipped out on Civ III, the new GUI player interface and lead designer Soren Johnson's new tweaks caught me totally by surprise. Not only were the graphics and sound more impressive than those of my favorite version (the 1996 one), but some of the new features were simply amazing.
As in all the versions of Civ that I've owned, players still start the game with a Settler (to build your first city with, of course), but now they have either a Scout or Warrior as a companion. The latter units can be sent to explore theterra incognita of the mapboard (there's an "Explore" command option that automates this function). Players also, as in most versions of the game, start their first turn in the year 4,000 BC with two randomly chosen Civilization advances from which they then advance up the Tech Tree till they "discover" Future Technologies at the end game stage in the Space Age era.
Although the basics of the game are the same, Sid Meier's Civilization IV has a sharper, more detailed look, with three-dimensional worlds and fully-animated units which are more appealing and exciting. The graphic interface from which players can issue orders - Build City, Go To, Build Improvements, Fortify, and Attack, for example - is easy to learn and use, and it frees players from having to remember keyboard commands. (Owners of previous versions of Civilization probably won't have any problems, though, since many of the more important keyboard commands - B to "Build City" and F to "Fortify Unit" - haven't changed. Also, players can select an option that allows them to move units around with the aid of the Numeric Keypad: they'll see which spaces the unit can move to because a numeric graphic, centered on the unit, will appear on screen as long as the unit has movement points.)
Even better for players who find micromanaging tedious, particularly in the revenue-generating aspects of the game, many of the tasks related to trade and city management are automated. Instead of, say, having to send caravans to rival civilizations' cities to increase trade, such new diplomatic options as Open Borders and specific leader-to-leader deals ("I'll trade you gold for your furs!") make foreign trade easy-peasy.
Religion plays a a much larger role in Civilization IV. Where in previous versions the concept of Religion was generic and not tied to any of the great world faiths, players have the chance to found any of the seven major religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism, and Islam. The game doesn't delve deeply into specifics and it desperately avoids to show any biases, but players who found a religion can then build a culture-unique wonder that can make citizens happy and improve the civilization's culture rating.
Culture is also very important in this version of the game. In fact, it's almost more important than military power, although weak civilizations rarely get anywhere in Civ IV. Here, the better a player's culture rating, the higher his/her score. Civilization leaders can build Theaters and culturally important Wonders of the World (such as the Hanging Gardens or Hollywood) and adjust the amount of tax revenue that goes into Culture. This makes the citizens happy and hopefully more productive, and lessens a player's chances of having a city revolt and "flipping" allegiance to a rival Civilization. Conversely, the more culturally influential the player's cities are, the chance that another city belonging to one of his or her rivals will rebel and ask to join the player's civilization increases significantly.
User's Comments The Pros: Because the franchise has evolved over the past 16 years, to say that Civ IV is more advanced than its 1991 forebear is both obvious and an understatement. The graphics, which work best with a top-of-the-line video card and at the very least a PC with a Pentium IV CPU or better, are eye-poppingly beautiful. (If you don't have a copy of this game yet, go to http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/home.htm and check out the official Civilzation IV site to get a look at the new visuals, plus a version-by-version comparison. Better yet, buy the game!)
Like in most of the versions I've played, players can zoom in and out for either close-up views of a single bit of territory or, for a wider view, all the way out to see the world as if from orbit. Of course, the new look is totally awesome, with everything - from units to terrain looking more three-dimensional and with more details - there's even a "flying through the clouds" effect when zooming out to see the outermost views.
The sound here is also incredible. Not only are there action sounds - units marching make a tramp-tramp noise, while catapults have a spring-and-release sound that is followed by a stony-sounding crash - but there are ambient sounds as well. For instance, in the modern era, if a player listens closely enough, the sounds of cars blowing their horns and other "metropolitan city" noises can be heard.
Oh, and when players give orders to a unit, they'll hear a culturally-appropriate acknowledgment; German units will say Jawohl, American units will say "Yes sir!" and so on.
There's also a time-appropriate musical score (which can be turned off) which features selections from various periods (Baroque music can be heard, for instance, after the Renaissance era). There are also "heraldic" tunes for each leader that are played during negotiations or "we demand tribute" meetings, each melody reflecting a specific civilization's nationality and political/philosophical bent. Players should listen carefully for musical cues throughout the game, especially for the dreaded "war bugles." Those usually mean an AI leader has declared war on somebody else, and it's best to keep an ear cocked, because sometimes the player may be the recipient of a war declaration.
Another exciting feature is the addition of spoken quotes and an "in the beginning" voiceover by actor Leonard Nimoy as the game is going through setup. The quotes, such as "I cannot live without books," by Thomas Jefferson, are said when one discovers a civilization advance, and the "in the beginning, the Earth was without form, and void" is taken verbatim from the 1991 version's "game building" phase.
Gamer's Issues: The Cons: Although I love the game for many reasons - there are now more victory options than just either beating the crap out of everyone else or being the first to reach Alpha Centauri - I do have a few quibbles about Civ IV.
The biggest, of course, is that it's definitely a memory hog. The version I have requires two CD-ROMs for installation and Disc 1 must always be in the DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive when playing the game. My PC is just barely adequate for its graphics and memory requirements; to play it without the game slowing down or freezing I must close everything else, including my Yahoo! Messenger. This probably doesn't happen on more powerful PCs, but on my e-Machines T5408 PC it requires some fiddling around with the graphics settings so it won't freeze up in mid-game. That means that I have to settle for slightly less detailed visuals, especially in the unit graphics where one soldier has to stand in for three.
Another problem I've faced is that Firaxis/2K Games periodically releases patches to address software/game play issues that surfaced since the game came out in 2005. The game has a "Search for Updates" option, and because I bought this game in February of 2007, I obviously needed at least one major patch from the git-go. The first time I went to the Downloads page at the official site everything went well and the patch worked well.
When I next used the "Search for Updates" option, things went badly. One .dll file stubbornly refused to install itself, which entailed me having to uninstall the game, reinstall it, then get the first patch back. I tried to get the new patch two more times, and each time the result was the same. I'm now resigned to playing the game with just the v1.61 Patch.
Requirements:
Operating System: Windows® 2000/XP
Processor: 1.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
Memory: 256 MB RAM (Windows 2000) / 512 MB RAM (Windows XP)
Hard Disk Space: 1.7 GB Free
CD-ROM Drive : 4X Speed
Video: DirectX 9.0c-compatible 64 MB video card with Hardware T&L support ( GeForce 2/Radeon 7500 or better)
Sound:DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c (included) or higher
Recommended System Requirements
Operating System: Windows® 2000/XP
Processor: 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 1.7 GB Free
CD-ROM Drive : 4X Speed
Video:128 MB Video Card w/ DirectX 8 support (pixel & vertex shaders)
Sound:DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c (included) or higher
Supported Operating Systems
Windows 2000 "Service Pack 1 or higher WITH Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher
Windows XP: Home or Professional w/ Service Pack 1 or higher
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