Civilization IV (PC DVD)

In a nod to the graphical ability of modern day PCs the graphics have been upgraded all the way from rubbish to okay-ish. Actually, the 3D effect as you zoom out to a view of the whole globe is quite nice but otherwise this is not going to be giving Doom 3 any sleepless nights.

The far more important changes are to the gameplay which has had all the overcomplicated elements from Civ III ripped out and, most interestingly, many of the features from the original that had been considered sacrosanct. City riots and rebellions are now extremely rare and other tedious elements such as pollution have been removed. This all adds up to a tighter, faster paced game that doesn't get bogged down once you get a lot of cities up and running.

A new team-based online modes attempts to add a similar injection of speed to the multiplayer - although whether that will prove as successful remains to be seen. More promising is a greater emphasis on religion in the game, as well as great people from history that can help morale, combat or research and sometimes all three. With strategy games becoming ever rarer Civ IV looks like it could finally make them, if not fashionable, at least popular again. -- Harrison Dent

This preview is based on an incomplete version of the game; features or problems mentioned above may not appear in the finished game.

Anyhow, on to the actual review...I am a long time Civ player who can still recall sleepless nights at college with the first in the series so I will focus on the major changes from earlier versions and how they impact the experience.

- the removal of micro-management hassles (pollution, civil disorder, much better automated workers) is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it is great to not have to bother but on the other it can feel as if the game "plays itself" and also means it can be easy to not keep track of cities so closely which can lead them to becoming very inefficient. You need to discipline yourself to still check in on each city frequently.

- the streamlined interface is a great improvement, with many things available on the screen at all times (of note are the sliders controlling distribution of resources between research, culture and cash) instead of tucked away in a seperate screen.

- the 3D interface is slick and smooth, it is easy to use the zoom feature to recreate a top down view (a la Civ 2) or an isometric view (a la Civ 3) or to zoom out to see the whole globe. A big improvement that is not obtrusive.

- the change from government type to five categories of "civics" each of which has five options is a great one, adding real depth and providing much more flexibility in how you run your city.

- the addition of religions is a nice touch, religions are founded in a city of the civilization that first hits a key technology and then spread automatically or via missionaries. Each other city with the religion then sends gold back to the holy (founding) city which can get quite lucrative.

- the technology tree is a lot flatter and gives you more flexibility than in previous versions, penalising you only by making it cost more and more to acquire techs if you head far up one branch instead of building a broad base.

- the diplomacy model is much better than Civ3, other leaders are far more reasonable in their demands and trades and much more balanced in not just declaring war on you as the human player when you hit the lead.

- civilization boundaries work much better, other civs can not enter your boundaries at all (unlike Civ 3 when they would keep doing so and refusing to leave unless you actually declared war) unless you sign an "open borders" agremment. Even then they can not attack you without declaring war at which point they get dumped back outside your borders.

- trade works very nicely and smoothly (better than the caravans in Civ 2) with an emphasis on founding cities on rivers and coastal squares (where they become automatically connected) and logical decisions produce trade routes generating money and sharing resources both within and between civilisations.

- on a subtle point, almost all game features require unlocking (e.g. you can't build a quarry until you discover masonary) and then interlock in a pleasing fashion (once you quarry stone construction times for several buildings and wonders are halved) which gives many more options than before for strategy.

- it is worth reading the manual that comes with the game, at least up to page 96. There are a lot of major changes to the game which you won't pick up on without it. The in-game tutorial was worth half an hour of time also.

- for decent players of Civ3 (and I am not a master by any means), the "settler" difficulty level is likely to be a walkover (I just won in 1979 on my first try without having to fight anyone through the whole game). I'd recommend starting above this. The Spanish are a nice civilization to pick as they can change civics without anarchy which gives you a good chance to experiment.

- finishing the game at "normal" speed on a "standard" map took me a total of 4 hours and 9 minutes, a far cry from the eye watering times it could take to complete a game of Civ 3.

In summary I feel I have only scratched the surface of the game and need to ratchet up the difficulty level and start to tweak more aspects of my strategy (you'll note I haven't commented on the combat system as I don't feel I have had enough experience with that important aspect of the game yet)...and I haven't dared to go online for a thrashing yet...but even from my first, full single player game I am convinced that this is an excellent evolution of a brilliant series. I only wish all the people having such trouble with getting it to work luck, once you do it is well worth it.


After patches, a fantastic game   December 6, 2005
Bjorn T. Madsen (Ashby de la Zouch, England)
58 out of 61 found this review helpful

I wrote a review after having played Civ4 for a week and gave it three stars (subtracted one for immense stability problems, another for slowness of unit movement and combat resolution).

After the patch, all stability issues are gone. The game runs smoothly and has never crashed on me. Similarly (whether by patch or my own lack of discovery), I've realized that you can turn on quick movement and quick combat resolution.

What a game this is!

In many ways I considered CivIII a sideways rather than forward step. A different take rather than an evolution, so to speak. I'm happy to say CivIV feels just perfect, and much more like a spiritual successor to CivII than to CivIII.

All the annoyances of culture are gone, while the good aspects have been kept. The resource system is vastly expanded as is your worker options. Combat makes more sense and the unit upgrade tree is a fantastic addition that makes you cherish your units so much more (too much, in fact, as I find myself naming units after great battles). Gone are the days of civil disorder and building upkeep, and once you’ve settled yourself from the original shock, you realize it makes much more sense in its new implementation. Health, a new addition to the city screen is a much more collected way of handling the pollution modern cultures seem plagued by.

It is, in other words, a much more coherent package, created for multiplayer from the get go, and wrapped in snazzy new graphics. While not perfect (nothing is), the minor issues left are based more on subjective taste rather than objective, large-scale issues.


Civ IV is brilliant - once you get to know it!   September 3, 2006
D. Ballard (Lincoln, UK)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

When I first purchased the game I too experienced some of the graphical glitches mentioned in a number of these reviews. However, what you do need to make sure of is that you have downloaded not only the civ IV patches but also the latest drivers for your graphics card. This fixed all slow down & grapical glitches.

This is a wonderful game with loads of the civ 3 'mistakes' in game play removed. Particularly good are the gameplay features relating to promotion of military units and the new important features of religion - it certainly pays to convert everyone to your cause (both financially and dimplomatically).

This game is definately worth the money - the only downside being that you may encounter starvation and sleep deprivation as once you get into it, you won't want to leave the computer for several hours at a time! DB


An all time classic   August 24, 2006
P. D. Campbell (Cambridge)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

This is truely a great strategy game. I have played all the civi games from the start and this is far and away the best. I have been playing it off and on for 6 months now and I still find new depths to it.

There are quite a lot of features in the game. The genius is to combine the features in such a way that they all complement one another. There are few, if any, features that are there for 'marketing reasons'.

Particular improvements since civi 3 are:
- villages and towns (thes provide good revenue but require forward planning)
- Corruption is handled much better, particularly at the more difficult levels.
- The new religous aspects work well
- Unit promotion is a major improvement

The only feature that irritates me is when my cities rebel and go over to the other side - and you can turn that off.

The greatest turn based strategy game ever, by a mile.


The best of the Civ series   December 21, 2006
J. D. Shepherd (Highlands, Scotland)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful

I have enjoyed Sid Meier's Civilization series for several years now, and Civilization 4 is IMO the best yet. The graphics are great, immersing you into a cool 3D world with an easy to learn, well designed interface. I like the music, even though I did prefer some of the guitar music from the modern era in Civ3, but running Media Player in the background is an option. The new features in Civ4 (such as promotion, civics, health) refresh the game, and deleted/modified features (such as pollution, and corruption....at last!) make the game more pleasent to play.

I play Civ4 on my mid-range laptop. It has 1Gb RAM, 128Mb shared video memory, and an AMD Turion 64 Mobile Tech. CPU. It is possible to select a widescreen resolution at 1280 x 800. My laptop runs Civ4 rather well. The videos for intro and wins don't play well, but the game runs rather smoothly otherwise on 'High' graphics settings. Lo-res movies can be downloaded from the Civ4 site (www.civ4.com).

Civ4 is a worthy successor of Civ3, and the new and revised features make it a game enjoyable by civ fans just as much as those new to the Civ series.