neurotic33's Full Review: Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Gold Edition for Wind...
Civilization IV launched at the end of 2005 and I bought nearly after its release. In its initial launch stage, I had to wait for several series of patches to be released before finally getting into the game. I was still amazed by the great graphics the package offered.
If you're new to the Civilization simulation/strategy like game, then you’re sure to be the one that falls into the ranks of those who have a long path of learning lessons to forego before being able to completely make it through an entire Civilization’s game play.
Civilization IV has great 3-D graphics for illustrating the civ playing world. The level of detail for all graphics is excellent and makes the game experience all the more enjoyable. The shear depths given to each game object is so extraordinary that you barely start to recognize one object from the other. A road made by a worker can have endless loops and curves between one tile to the next; instead of straight lines that connect each other in tiles. One particular level of detail I enjoy is in the combat. When units face each other in combat, the game temporarily zooms in on the combatants and illustrates a mock fight between the two. A unit typically has about 3 individual characters representing 1 single unit or representing a fraction of the total strength of the unit. Within the small movie like instance, the number of the individual characters drop down to illustrate a losing instance. Eventually all individual characters are destroyed to illustrate a loss of one of the combatants. For the winner of the battle, the unit will remain with their decrease of individual characters until the unit heals to restore them back.
The game play can be very drawn out in playing hours. A "Standard" game may take anywhere from a day to play to a week. Of course, there are your typical instances in that you have no option but feel like abandoning the game that in the end requires you to restart a new scenario. Most of this may simply be that the AIs you typically play against are very good at accumulating and managing their empire to a far more superior level than you. The game picks up pace and has stronger demands on you being able to know everything about your empire without missing a fact depending on your choice of difficulty level. Starting at “Warlord” for a difficulty level may be a bit strong for any novice player, and even the next difficulty of “Noble” can pose as a challenge for most intermediate players.
There is simply so much to manage in your empire, it’s difficult to explain all aspects of the entire game within a single page. A major new concept in the game is to change religions and government standing types in a slightly different way. You are presented with several different religions, ruling types, methods of ruling, etc. to help govern how your empire works. On some ruling styles, such as the “Vassalage,” you can build your building faster. However, by the time you have enough technology to achieve the next ruling type you have to consider your options. If all of your cities have not achieved building all buildings they require yet, then converting to such a system will reduce the rate at which you can build though allowing you to score bigger points by doing so. Features like this and choosing what to build make the game very complex to grasp in its entirety. It can also be virtually impossible when you are placed on a timeline to get every aspect just right and your empire just isn’t keeping up fast enough. That’s the whole challenge of the game.
Music and sound also keep you entertained long enough to stay focused on the game. It adds to the game’s appeal with music changing every few centuries or so and is modifiable in the game settings like toward repetitions and such. Sound is always diverse in keeping the player in touch with the game versus having a shell like game where there is no feeling to it.
When working with the time consuming game, you will find yourself wanting to venture into the Internet side where the challenge takes on new perspectives. This is hosted by Gamespy in that you have to go to their site to register for an account with them before playing online. If you do not have an account, and yet attempt to login, the game does not display any error messages here for some reason and is a bug in the login system. If you try to create an account through the login system and you have entered invalid message, again there will be no error message telling you this. I had to simply wait for 5 minutes before figuring out something wasn’t registering. Once online though, if you are lucky enough to make it, you will find game play is a bit faster and maybe more your speed. Most players online play short games that end before any future tech can be researched in conquest games. These can be team involved or free-for all. The rules that can be setup for online game play is just as diverse as the rest of the game, allowing for the setup of unique and varied games between one another.
I wish there was more I could go on about this game, but it is just too graphic intense with lots of features. A lot of time went into this development level and seems to run pretty good. The only problems I had were with playing in large custom maps (solo) and the game requiring too much CPU near the end of a game length (i.e. 1600 AD, game end usually at 2000 AD). I'm still always looking for more ways to rack up points in the game to sign my initials in the logs as God-Like, but I’m still a Dan Quayle or 2 away from that one!
I really enjoy playing this game and while it can be addicting, it's also great quality work. It does focus a lot on the thinking side, so the only grind is in how long you can stay focused on one goal (and a challenging one at that). I like the level of detail in the game and all aspects thought out.
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