Question from a Civ II Playstation Fanatic

I had never played any Civ game until about 3 years ago when a friend I work with found an old copy of CivII for the PS. He had loved the game and had not played it for a while. The more he described it, the more I wanted to try it. So I got a copy and have been playing it for the past 3 years.

Previously, I had been a fan of various rpgs, but had stopped playing them as much because I got hooked on the NCAA Football and Madden games. But Civ II is a game I play constantly...and I love it!

It took me a while to get to the point where I could win at the deity level, especially the space race. I never tire of it and even though I have been tempted to buy the PC versions, I haven't. Mainly because I would much rather be in front of the big screen than sitting in front of a PC.

I even bought an Xbox 360 recently, mainly to play Revolutions (to be fair I also got it for the better versions of the football games I just mentioned). Revolutions will be the very first game I play on it because I bought it on Amazon and had the console and game shipped together. I should be getting it Monday and am really looking forward to it.

I came to this board and I am very disappointed to read that the game will not be as in-depth as most of you are used to. Having played only Civ II, do you think I will enjoy it or did I just waste my money.

I just signed on this board as a new member, so be gentle with me.

I think you probably will since you seem to also like sports games. It still has a very deep strategy element to it, especially when you play other humans. It's shorter then the last ones so you won't put in as much time. The only thing missing is tedious micro-managing. As long as micro-managing was the main element that got you addicted to Civ II you should love it. Be sure to post wether or not you like the game when you get it and play.

I must admit I do like the micro-managing, although it does get tedious at the end if you have a lot of cities. Since I find it easier to win with a smaller amount of cities (mainly because of the difficulty in keeping my people happy), I may like this new game.

Does it make the game boring after a time since there are so few civilizations, techs, units, and diplomacy options?

beeberts said:

Does it make the game boring after a time since there are so few civilizations, techs, units, and diplomacy options?

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Not at all. All 16 civilization feel and look very different. I rarely find myself finishing the whole tech tree even in the future. The amount of units before the moderns era seem right, but when you get to modern era you may find yourself wishing there were more, but thats a small detraction. All your necessary diplomacy options are there plus a few fun ones. You may wish you could do a little more in the counter-offer department, but considering how in Civ II your rivals would reject most of your counter-offers I would say that doesn't detract at all.

It could go either way. I've played all the Civ's since Civ 1 and I enjoy CivRev. But you need to go in knowing that it's simpler and that the maps are smaller and the games will be shorter and less involving. I view it as a fun way to play a complete game of Civ for when you don't have the time to play a full Civ4 game.

For future reference, if you've got a half-decent Internet connection you should get an XBox Live Silver Account. They're free. A lot of the games including CivRev have free demos available on XBox Live that you can download whether you have a free Silver account or a paying Gold account.

"...considering how in Civ II your rivals would reject most of your counter-offers I would say that doesn't detract at all."

You are definitely right about that!

Still, it's fun to try and finagle a foe by giving them a tech or unit that you don't need and then asking them to remove troops or share maps on the next turn.

Thanks for all your help someguy486.

You've made me start looking forward to playing the game again.

Thanks for the info ydejin.

I have to admit I will miss the long games, but maybe the XBox thing you just mentioned might come in handy. I think someone I work with told me they may have downloads for things like longer games, larger worlds and micro-managing.

beeberts said:

I have to admit I will miss the long games, but maybe the XBox thing you just mentioned might come in handy. I think someone I work with told me they may have downloads for things like longer games, larger worlds and micro-managing.

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I think that's unlikely. They are adding things to the game like new wonders, but I haven't heard anything on new world sizes or longer games. In fact, I've specifically heard that they kept a single world size to make it easier to keep the game balanced (some of the Civilizations have Civilization-specific bonuses, for example, would be much stronger in a large world so balance would be thrown off with different size worlds).

So you think that it's also unlikely that they will add things for more micro-managing as well?

beeberts said:

So you think that it's also unlikely that they will add things for more micro-managing as well?

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I'm not sure what kind of micromanaging you're looking for. CivRev got rid of worker units, so no control of individual workers to build roads, or mines, or whatever. I can't imagine those would come back (and frankly I think the game is probably better off for it). Basically you plunk down a bunch of money and roads magically appear. Mines and fields are controlled by buildings built in cities instead of having to move worker units around to individual squares and ask them to build.

CivRev already has the ability to micromanage which tiles a city is working, although by default the Console handles it (I often override it myself).

I can't think of any other specific micromanagement issues which come up in Civ games. You will of course control your military units directly as with all Civs. You have direct control over what you're researching (in contrast with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri which by default didn't allow you to pick specific topics). You have direct control over a city's production. You control the Science vs. Money ratio directly (although the mechanism is different than the traditional slider bar).

Thanks again ydejin.

I was just about to hit the sack when I read your last post.

I think maybe you're right. The reason the games are so much shorter is because they've simplified things a great deal.

I'm sure I will enjoy the game.

If not, I can always spring for a newer PC and hook it up to my big screen and wait for the newest Civ for the PC...if my wife lets me! HAH!

Thanks you two for all your help and keep posting on this thread if you have anymore info.

Goodnight.