It's the perfect time of year to review the best PC game I've ever played, and for the first time, I'm giving it a 10.
Because of the lack of any good video games on the catalog, I randomly chose Civilization 4. Boy, had I made another choice, I would be groaning over the long missions of Far Cry and leading "heroic" defenses in Warhammer 40,000, which of course, gets boring.
I was amazed by the trailer DVD the game came with, but even more impressed when I read the game's manual and box. An hour later, I was starting the tutorial. In those moments of the tutorial, I kinda understood how big the game really was. You start off as a group of hunter-gatherers and work your way up to modern and future technology. The game comes with a technology chart. It was a HUGE chart, explaining everything from cave-men technology to modern machines and future weapons. But, even though I expected it from the beginning,the "select-your-leader-and-civilization" page was LOADED with different kinds of civilizations, from the German Empire to the Mongolian Empire, with almost 2 leaders for each Empire. So here's the review:
Gameplay- Game play is pretty much the best part of the game. You start with cave-men, move up to indian-looking warriors, and off to Classical themes and modern themes. The game is played like Risk, alhough I've never played that... But anyway, it's turn-based. You move units like pieces on a board and scout, build trade routes to friendly, build new cities, research anything from religion, to the alphabet, and to sailing. You can win a Cultural Victory, a victory by...culture? Yes, you research more stuff, you gain more points , and your people are happier. The main point of the game is to have fun by expanding your empire, using your subordinates to do various things, and becoming friends with other civilizations while fighting off evil civilizations (just joking about evil). And of course, you can win by capturing an unprotected base by first off declaring war. You may trade research items and cultural borders, allowing you to learn new things while being able to wander into other civilizations' territory without declaring all-out-war.
The bad part about the game play is that most things- including research- take a long time to finish/produce. A small settler unit will take more than 20 turns to make, confusing the player on what he should do in those above-20 turns, rather than just ending his turn and letting everyone else expand their empire AND gaining more points. This sometimes makes things a little tedious, but it goes away fairly quickly.
Sound- Awesome. The music is authentic, especially the intro and in the main menu, but the same goes for the single and multi-player modes. The languages the people speak sound authentic as well.
Graphics- The graphics are fully-detailed and objects are 3D. The leaders look surprisingly realistic as well.
Overall, this game is for anyone who wishes to use up time wisely. Seriously, this game is pretty historical, and it's not a waste of time. There's a load of things to experience in this game, and to me, this is the best PC game I've ever played.