What's Your Favourite Civ Intro?

I was nostalgically going over the opening sequences of various civ-type games (most of which I've played a lot) just now and realised that some of them - right down to the music - have stuck in my head. (Had to use Youtube for some when I couldn't find the disks...)

So what are your favourites out of this bunch? (Choose as many as you want.)

[Posted to the Civ4 discussions forum because that is my favourite game. Strangely, there doesn't seem to be an appropriate forum for this poll, because it isn't exactly off-topic, but it's also non-specific.]

My opinions:

Civ1: Wow, this does have a strange retro charm. Brings back memories of playing around with the old Amiga SID chip...

Civ2: Actually, this is where I come in Civ-wise. Important, I guess, because this sets the recurrent theme of world music background (in this case sort of Andean) and introduces that distinctive Civilization font.

Civ2 TOT: A fairly snazzy montage, though decidedly low-budget even for 1999. Undistinguished sounds.

Civ3: There's a sort of minimalism about this that I like. The Tower of Babel metaphor is memorable. Music works, but is quite forgettable, IMO.

Civ 3 Complete: Included for, well, completeness. Just a spruce up of the original Civ3 really, but loses some of the charm, I think.

Civ4 Vanilla: Ah... My second favourite. But then it's Chris Tin's score that makes the big difference. I also really like the little lights of cities spreading across the world from Sumeria and the dizzying zoom-in to the beseiged city.

Civ4 Warlords: Not a fan. Perhaps I just don't need a close-up view of some screaming crosseyed oaf's tonsils.

Civ4 BTS: Never warmed to this, though it is competent. Perhaps it is the overly portentous score or something. (We're lucky that in RL JFK wasn't such an impulsive fellow as the Prez in this vid.)

Civ5: Well, it's not too bad. Unusual amount of spoken narrative - in previous versions all we have is a guy shouting 'fire!' (I assume) in Portuguese. Better than the game really (but that's not hard).

SMAC: A classic for its time. The best part is the use of actuality footage. Sticks in my mind at any rate.

SMAX: Minimal little space battle. Not much to say except that it's adequate for an add-on.

CTP1: Got to be said that this set a fairly high standard for 1999. I remember showing it to non-gamer friends who were impressed that a mere PC game carried an intro like this. Best bit, I think, is the future transition segue with the ruined building.

CTP2: I voted for this as well as Civ4V and SMAC. Why? Well, maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, but for me it's also because of the way it stresses alliance as well as conflict. Unusual. The music sticks in my mind too.

EDIT: I'm sure I've missed some, likely add-ons. Please let me know if so.

EDIT #2: Yes, I missed Civ Revolution, for a start. I've never played it, but just looked at the intro movie and it's not bad, certainly above average. Interesting how the Neolithic people's future visions anticipate the Civ5 intro. Marks that one down a point for lack of originality. I'd add Rev to the poll, but don't know how...

EDIT #3: And Colonization. Didn't play that either. Ah heck, the main core games are there...

SMAC is the best one I love the actual footage, the voice acting and animations (which were pretty awesome for their time).

CIV DOS is my second favourite. It's the charm that got into my head and is sitting there till today (I can remember that opening tune as if it were yesterday).... ahhh It sure takes me back to the times with my "old faithful" 486DX2 machine ....

3rd place in my book goes to CIV IV Vanilla opening sequence where (Mr.Spock ^^) tells the tale of Civilization : "In he beggining of time there was ...... (etc.)" (It's not the intro itself but the opening animation after choosing game details ) (edit: oh and there's the melody from Civ 1 there too)

I gotta go with Civ I. Nostalgia? Maybe. But I also dig how it is sort of a "pre-intro" for the game intro ("In the beginning...")

First time I started a game in Civ IV, my ears perked up when I heard those familiar notes, then I heard the biggest nerdgasm when I heard Nimoy start narrating the intro...

SquirrelCensus said:

then I heard the biggest nerdgasm when I heard Nimoy start narrating the intro...

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Speaking of the devil ... I've had a nerdgasm when I heared this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=R9KKyZ5d3h8



I am sorry I know it's out of topic but I couldn' resist

Even though the game is inferior I have to say the intro to 5 rocks the house!
I mean the "Pixels" that all of us anti-5ers about are served well in the intro.

AdamCrock said:

3rd place in my book goes to CIV IV Vanilla opening sequence where (Mr.Spock ^^) tells the tale of Civilization : "In he beggining of time there was ...... (etc.)" (It's not the intro itself but the opening animation after choosing game details ) (edit: oh and there's the melody from Civ 1 there too)

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SquirrelCensus said:

First time I started a game in Civ IV, my ears perked up when I heard those familiar notes, then I heard the biggest nerdgasm when I heard Nimoy start narrating the intro...

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Yep, I think that counts as part of the intro, and a wonderful moment too, as you guys say. I don't know how I failed to mention it. A classy act, Civ4...

AdamCrock said:

Speaking of the devil ... I've had a nerdgasm when I heared this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=R9KKyZ5d3h8



I am sorry I know it's out of topic but I couldn' resist

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Whoa. Does Peter Jackson know about this? Who needs An Unexpected Journey?

Must be Civ IV Vanilla. The music is totally superior to anything else they came up with, also the globe view with the lights appearing in the mediterranen is moody an kind of cool.

It's time to bump this thig up !


Also check out this vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A to go along with the lyrics I've posted above. The video is very cool - joined version of some Civ 4 intros - Hope You Enjoy !

.,Civ V's the far best for me..(intro movie only) ..stupid AIs ruined everything Civ V has..

jarhead_leif said:

.,Civ V's the far best for me..(intro movie only) ..stupid AIs ruined everything Civ V has..

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"Religious wars can be so unpleasent" .... For one of the participants at least

AdamCrock said:

Also check out this vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A to go along with the lyrics I've posted above. The video is very cool - joined version of some Civ 4 intros - Hope You Enjoy !

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Very nice, tho it also includes Wonder Movies. That's a whole separate poll - and for me a no-brainer, I'd have to vote for SMACX for top WMs, some of them are quite brilliant, and of course, there's that great voice acting...

Doctor Phibes said:

Very nice, tho it also includes Wonder Movies. That's a whole separate poll - and for me a no-brainer, I'd have to vote for SMACX for top WMs, some of them are quite brilliant, and of course, there's that great voice acting...

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Have to agree SMAC had the best wonder movies fo sho.
It looks like the rest of the games never even tried.

Civ intros/main screens are the one are where Vanilla is better than expansions. I voted for Civ4 because of the main screen... the actual loading video I haven't watched in eons, but if we count the main screen as part of the intro, it's by far the best of the Civ4's, both due to music and the great Earth animation.

I also voted for Civ3 vanilla, because, although it wasn't as good as Civ4's, the Tower of Babel sequence was a more memorable intro than Civ4's, and was good at setting the mood. Civ3 Conquests' intro didn't set the mood in the same way (not sure about Complete, though I know its main menu was inferior to Conquests', and I'd say to PTW... though PTW's menu music was the worst of any Civ I've seen).

Haven't really played II/V/Alpha Centauri enough to compare them fairly, but I am confident in saying the intro music/main menus aren't as awesome as IV Vanilla's.

,.you got me into thinking of purchasing SMAC..
,is it worth buying even though i already have cIV??

jarhead_leif said:

,.you got me into thinking of purchasing SMAC..
,is it worth buying even though i already have cIV??

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It's a different game. For one thing, there aren't any pre-defined units. You mix and match weapon (or tool), armor, transportation mechanism, and up to two special abilities (which turned into "promotions" in Civ4).

Also, your units don't have just XP levels, they have Morale, which is a combination of experience and current civic choices -- like, when you switch into Theocracy, all of your existing units gain +1 level of the Combat promotion, and when you switch out of Theocracy, they lose that promotion.

I personally love SMAC, particularly with the add-on (Alien Crossfire).

"Baba Yetu". Definitely the best.

Civ4 Vanilla seems to be running away with it, unsurprisingly. But of course, this is a Civ4 forum, difficult to say what would happen on Civ3 or Civ5 groups. I think Civ3ers would probably be more the more even-handed of the two as they are more likely to have played the other Civs...

,.i think there's a flaw in cIV vanilla..a city on war while celebration(for a new king) taking place on a nearby hill??

,is there any explanation for that??

jarhead_leif said:

,.i think there's a flaw in cIV vanilla..a city on war while celebration(for a new king) taking place on a nearby hill??

,is there any explanation for that??

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I've always wondered. I reckon that that is a barb city planted nearby when no-one was looking (a little close tho I think, fogbusting needed) - lots of archers. Who, though, owns the triremes and who owns the galleys? I suppose the coronation shows a change of civics to Hereditary Rule. That might just have come up as an option in the middle of the fighting.

I do like it that the intro makes it clear that one trireme, galley or archer stands for a whole fleet or regiment. It's easy to slip into the idea that you've just got one sad wounded bloke on a hill (well, maybe that's true with scouts).