One of the Great games of all time...
Seriously now, Civilization is one of the games that has, through it’s 4 reincarnations, stayed true to the concept that made it great from the very beginning. And that is IDEA. Sid Meier has performed a wonderful job of incorporating all those good things about Civilization that were there from the very beginning, with a few necessary tweaks, into a new, modern- and nice-looking package.
There is a two very distinct ways how this game should be described. The first one is for the people who have never played the Civilization game. It takes some time to explain to people why a game like this is really great fun. The second one is for the people who have played old Civilizations and it is as short as it can be: THE NEW CIV IS OUT!
The concept of the game is managing a civilization from the tribal days of human kind, to its full technical development in modern ages.
The amount of things to manage is remarkable (armies, production, religion, expansion, relations with other civilizations ...) and on the other side in the realm of management. We’ve played games where the management of 1000s of aspects soon draws you away from what should be an enjoyable time playing the game. This is not the case here. Everything is perfectly balanced and you will find yourself really immersed in all of the game’s aspects.
For people who might think this is complex (I have met a few people who couldn’t find a quick grasp on the concept in Civilization III and have therefore abandoned the game altogether), there is a very comprehensive, and nicely shaped Tutorial with vocal guidance of none other than Sid Meyer.
For all of you who have played the game before (any of the games in the series) you will find the grip very quickly and in no time you will be playing this as you did the old ones... Not much has changed (although there are some slight but significant changes) in gameplay so you’ll be up and running in no time...
The graphics are state of the art, the sound also, technically I can find no flaw whatsoever. I guess this is one of the reason why the game was voted Best Game of the Year on numerous places...
If you didn’t play it yet, don’t wait, go, buy and have FUN!