Civilization Revolution

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Civilization Revolution was far far below my radar seeing as I’m a consoletard and my PC gaming experience encompasses basically the original 1992 Alone in the Dark, Myst, and The Sims. Having never played a Civilization game before I didn’t know what the big deal was. I had also made a solemn vow not to buy any games until Spore and Fable 2 (especially after getting so badly burned by the NEW Alone in the Dark.)

But one day while perusing the Xbox Live Marketplace I noticed free game demos and downloaded "Civ Revo" (as the cool kids like to call it.) Eventually I played it and then immediately rushed down to the game store exclaiming "GIMME!"

For those of the glorious PC gaming master race who might have been concerned you’re absolutely correct: Civ Revo is the epic PC series Civilization scaled down for the consoletards. This is especially readily apparent once one feasts their eyes upon the heaving cleavage of Catherine the Great, Cleopatra, and Queen Elizabeth. However did torrent play Civilization 4 for the PC shortly after playing this game so I feel I’m in a position to make viable comparisons. 

What? The games industry thinks you need
titties to draw the console crowd? No!

So what they’ve basically done here is take the idea of Civlization and cram it into console play with a brand new game built from the ground up. And I’d have to think they’ve done it pretty damn well. It is the same idea, albeit a bit simplified, fast-paced enough for console play but not so fast-paced that you can’t keep on top of everything you’d like to. But there’s a few things that may be missed from the PC, like say the ability to customize the map.

You have less Civilizations and only one leader each to choose from than in PC incarnations, and rather than a ticker of information at the top of the screen you have various delegates who help you make decisions and tell you of the goings on in the world. Other world leaders will also contact you now and again to offer trades of information or threaten you and they all speak in varying degrees of Simlish made to vaguely sound like their Civ’s particular language. You can also contact the other leaders with a limited diplomacy panel which basically involves buying and selling technology/info or threatening a weaker Civ you just met when you’re given the option. Some folks have criticized the slightly more cartoony look and feel but it makes it a good one for the kids, and hey it has loose loose ties to actual history so they might learn something. Maybe. Or just find themselves fantasizing about Catherine the Great.

Artist’s depiction of the artist
playing this game

The game has a tenuous grasp on history at best, sure you can be historical people and build historical monuments but they latter are not, shall we say, Civ-specific. And in the end your goal is the conquer the world in one of three ways: Domination, Cultural, Economic and Technology which are capturing everyone else’s main cities, building the United Nations, building the World Bank or building a space station that makes it to Alpha Centuri respectively. And you only have from 4000 BC to 2100 AD to do it! You do this on a turn based system, every thing you build from units of soldiers to buildings to great wonders will take a certain amount of turns depending on how many people populate the city you’re building in and how much production you have. Meanwhile you may have to protect yourself from other Civs, either ones that try to take you over with military campaigns or ones that will seduce your cities to join them with superior culture. In the ancient era turns pass about 100 years each, by the modern era each turn is only two years, even so you can complete a single game in about 3 hours. There are five difficulties on which to play the game, by the time you get to the third, King difficulty, the challenge of staying ahead of the game really becomes apparent.

There’s of course also a multiplayer mode, I can’t imagine what playing against other people rather than AI would be like. Too hard? Too easy? I’ve yet to try it.

Sound complicated? It really isn’t once you get used to it. You can formulate your strategy on any number of factors: which Civilization you choose to be (they all get various bonuses), where you build your cities, building your technology to dominate militarily or culturally or for exploration to find ancient artifacts that will give you a boost.  No two games will really play the same. For me the game is like crack, I just can’t put it down, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea that’s for sure. I’d say to PS3 and 360 owners try out the demo first, if you’re anything like me you won’t be able to wait to get your hands on a full copy.