Fans of the strategy genre
know that when Sid Meier’s name is attached to a game it will not only be
utterly compelling but also extremely hard to want to stop playing. Just take
his successful Civilization games, for example. Civilization has made a name for
itself by allowing players to create a grand civilization and take charge of
every aspect of it as if you were one of history’s great leaders. It’s a simple
concept but one that is actually deliciously complex. Now Civilization comes to
the Xbox 360 with Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution and does so well enough
that even PC gamers will find themselves pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
I must note that
Civilization Revolution does lose that certain quality you get from playing a
Civ game on the PC yet this is not to say that its core has changed in the
process. It’s been changed enough to fit the Xbox and PlayStation 3 but plays
good enough that the most of the strategy elements fit nicely enough that
veterans and newcomers can easily pick up and start playing just like Sid
Meier’s Pirates! did when it was brought to the original Xbox.
In Revolution, you find
yourself taking up the role of a great leader from different cultures be it
Cleopatra’s Egypt or Queen Elizabeth’s England. You are then put in charge of
building said civilization by taking charge of various aspects of your growing
civilization. You’ll be exploring uncharted regions to build more cities while
extracting its natural resources for your people’s benefit. As you expand your
civilization’s cities you’ll gain knowledge opportunities such as writing,
arithmetic, commerce and a number of other things that help make your society a
progressive and learned one. You will even find yourself building great
libraries and marvelous wonders that define your specific society.
Of course, you won’t be
alone in creating your civilization. There are other cultures you will certainly
encounter along the way. You will find yourself encountering other growing
cities that belong to known leaders such as Alexander the Great to Shaka Zulu.
You can live in peace with the various nations or you may decide to go to war in
order to expand your territory. Unfortunately, the diplomacy feature isn’t very
robust and strategy fans will start wishing there was more to it than just
exchanging useless gossip. You do get the chance to form alliances with other
nations to go up against your enemies together as well as trade knowledge,
though.
When your world does go to
war – which, sadly, is inevitable in real life as well – you will find yourself
either attacking enemy nations head or defending it from invaders. You have a
number of options in creating your troops be it horseback raiders, ground troops
and much later you’ll be implementing armory. As civilizations thrive so does
technology so if you began with archers you will soon end up with a tank
division and air support later. Battles, much like the rest of the game, are
handled on a turn-based style that might not be exciting but is adequate enough
for strategy purposes.
The heart of the game is
the fact that you are forced to tackle on any arising problems hands-on. Lean
towards Communism and your people might just revolt while a more Democratic rule
might appease workers and not the elite. Early in the game you will even get the
chance to discover ancient artifacts such as Ankor Wat or the Ark of the
Covenant. You’ll even have the benefit of acquiring the skills and knowledge of
famous innovators such as Thomas Edison or even the likes of Henry Ford. Your
goal is to successfully see your nation to the Space Age, which isn’t too hard
to do since the game isn’t extremely long.
While Sid Meier’s
Civilization games feel very comfortable on the PC, the game – as I mentioned
earlier – is easy to pick up and simply start playing. The interface is
console-friendly enough that you can scope out the territories easily and the
framerate (while not perfect) is steady enough. The button layout is easy to
memorize so you can, at the drop of a hat, pull up the handy Civilopedia (filled
with all the facts you need) instantly. You can even save the game at any point
and you can chose to turn on or turn off the tutorial hints. In other words,
this is a brilliant port that veterans and those new to the strategy genre will
find themselves enthralled by the game and the choices you make as you play.
Aside from playing the game
as a single-player mode you can also play again setting up certain conditions
you must meet. The best feature, however, is the multiplayer one that allows you
to play against a friend or two using System Link) or up to four of them online
via Xbox Live. A lot of thought was put into the Xbox Live capabilities whether
it’s the fact that you can use Xbox Live Vision features, Game of the Week (a
peek at the leader board) and a somewhat steady framerate. Bear in mind, though,
that the online game is a tad slower than playing solo.
Visually speaking,
Civilization Revolution doesn’t look like it takes advantage of the 360’s
graphics capabilities. This, however, doesn’t mean that it is a bad-looking
game. It contains some rather colorful and nicely detailed maps, characters and
visual effects such as the great Fog of War. The character models are also
appealing in a comical sense. I get a kick out of seeing Alexander the Great’s
pompous gestures or Cleopatra’s attempts at flirting. It’s also humorous to see
the menacing Shaka Zulu laugh it up as Mahatma Gandhi shakes an angry fist at
you.
Speaking of humorous, the
gibberish that comes out of the characters’ mouths is funny for awhile and just
becomes repetitively annoying the more you hear it. It’s joined by some recycled
sound effects that do the trick nicely yet gets boring quickly. The soundtrack
is actually very decent and you can always add your own thanks to the Soundtrack
Customization feature that allows you to play your own music.
Sid Meier’s Civilization
Revolution for the Xbox 360 is quite an achievement in bringing an engrossing PC
game and lovingly bringing it to a console without losing much of what computer
gamers love about the series. Yes, most PC-to-console strategy games aren’t
completely perfect ports but 2K Games and Firaxis Games does a marvelous job of
bring this enjoyably addictive game to gamers that prefer a controller over a PC
keyboard. Do yourself a favor, strategy fans, and pick this one up right away.
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Gameplay: 8.9
The game makes a leap from PC to the
Xbox 360 splendidly and the addictive nature of the game feels right with a
controller. Like past Civilization games, it is entirely up to the gamer to take
their civilization to new and exciting heights. I just wish there was more to
world diplomacy than just gossip.
Graphics: 8.5
Colorful and nicely detailed, the
game’s visuals are simply adequate without doing anything spectacular. At least
the characters look good and animate well enough and you can easily tell your
ground troops apart on the map.
Sound: 8.5
The music is actually quite charming
and changes depending on any given situation that just pops up during gameplay.
The sound effects are repetitive and hardly ever change throughout the game and
the gibberish that comes out of the characters’ mouths get old quickly.
Difficulty: Medium
The single-player mode is certainly
challenging and taking control of every aspect of your rising nation will keep
you considerably busy. Still, there’s nothing here that will have gamers stumped
or confused so this game is the type of game even novice strategy gamers can
pick up and play.
Concept: 9.0
It’s Sid Meier’s Civilization for the
Xbox 360 and it’s wonderfully immersive and deep that it feels like it was meant
for consoles. The Civilopedia feature is helpful and there is much to do in this
game that goes well beyond simply building and maintaining your society. There
is online and offline multiplayer that runs at a slower pace than the
single-player portion.
Multiplayer: 8.5
Playing against others online drags
on the game more than the single-player portion so be prepared for a long,
drawn-out experience much like a game of chess. Despite the slow pace, however,
you’ll find interesting challenges playing against up to four players.
Overall: 8.9
Fitting right at home on the console,
Civilization Revolution is a genuinely addictive simulator that will not fail to
impress and please fans of the Civ series. There are only a few missing elements
that could have put this game at the very top but what is here is done right.
Fans of strategy and simulation games should definitely not miss this game.
