by PK Hufford on November 17, 2008

Sid Meier is universally recognized as the master of computer game design. I remember playing F-15 Strike Eagle, on my old Commodore 64 when I was a kid. Civilization is his masterpiece, delighting millions of gamers and evolving through several versions. Civ, for the most part, has been exclusive to PC’s and Macintosh’s. However, with the PC market in a decline the past couple of years, it was only a matter of time before the franchise expanded. Game developer Firaxis has done an excellent with Civ Revolution, streamlining what is traditionally a complex strategy game perfectly onto the console.

As with other Civ games, your goal is to start your civilization out from the Stone Age and strive for world domination. There are four types of victories you can achieve; economic, cultural, technological, and of course, crushing your opponents militarily. Each type of victory has certain conditions, such as building the United Nations for a cultural victory or travelling to Alpha Centauri for a technological victory. And of course the most popular is stomping your opponents.

Choose from 16 different civilizations, each with different strengths and attributes, all of which are balanced very well. For example, if you want to work on achieving a cultural victory, choose the Egyptians, because they start off with an Ancient Wonder of the World. If you want an economic victory, the Aztecs start off with more gold. For raw military might, you’ll want to pick the Germans or the Romans.

Once you’ve chosen your civilization, you plant your stakes, build your capital, and explore your surroundings. Along the way, you’ll discover barbarian villages that need to be dealt with and discover new territories that you can claim. Rivers and forests as well as ancient artifacts will give you bonuses.

You’ll also start managing your cities and directing the population on what they should be focusing on, either research or wealth. When a city is focused on research, you’ll speed up technological research and wealth helps you earn gold. Constructing certain types of buildings in your city, such as markets and banks, will increase the research or wealth you can earn, while libraries and universities increase your research technologies like Democracy, Irrigation, or Gunpowder. You’ll also need to increase your city’s culture to keep the population happy by constructing Temples and Cathedrals as well as increasing the city’s borders. Watch your cities’ cultural level carefully; if it’s too low they may decide to join an opposing civilization. Eventually, you’ll discover other civilizations, and you’ll need to decide if you want peace or war. I recommend you don’t start picking fights too early; they’ll make outrageous demands of you soon enough.

Combat is very simple in Revolution. You simply march your units up to the opposing unit to initiate a fight. Before the fight begins, you’ll see the offensive and defensive modifiers, which is a pretty good indication of what the outcome of the battle will be, and you’ll have the option whether to continue with the battle or take a defensive position. If you decide to proceed with the battle, you also have the option of retreating if you feel the need. On defense, though, you have to see through the entire battle. As each unit racks up victories, you can upgrade them with special abilities, such as being able to move an extra square or receive an attack bonus.

Revolution is packed full of information, a lot of which I’ve had to leave out. Part of the experience is unlocking its secrets. But don’t feel intimidated, there’s plenty of help through your advisers as well as the Civilopedia, which has all of the information you’ll need about the civilizations and technologies you’ll need to employ. Graphically, the game is stunning. The character animations are pretty funny as each of your advisers shove each other aside to speak with you. You may get annoyed by the gibberish that they speak though, but the music and sound effects are appropriate and of high production value. Controls are easy to master, with everything you need to access just a press of a button away.

Civilization Revolution is just that; a revolution in turn-based strategy gaming. Firaxis has done a superb job of capturing the essence of the original game and bringing it to the masses without sacrificing the very things that we loved about it. If you’re not a fan of this genre, I recommend that you definitely give this game a try. I can assure you that you’ll be instantly hooked. Just make sure that you block off several hours of your day when you start playing.

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