Review: Sid Meier's Civilization: Revolution

Mike Bantick
Monday, 30 June 2008 16:07

Opinion and Analysis

If you were not already aware, CivRev is a game that spans the history of mankind, taking us from a wandering nomadic tribe through to (hopefully before other leaders in the game) space flight and the big move to Alpha Centauri.  At least that is one way of winning CivRev.

The idea is to develop your Civilization, constructing cities, building armies of conquest, developing culture, attracting great historical individuals or managing to produce great wonders such as the Hanging Gardens or Shakespeare’s Theatre.

Through shrewd diplomacy, construction, defence and reasonable planning, players (playing as a civ’s leader) can achieve victory through Military conquest – pretty obviously involving wiping out the other civ’s in the game. 

A Cultural victory involves garnering enough status boosting Wonders or buildings to attract “great people” or even causing rival cities to “flip” to your way of life.

Finally there are the Economic – amass a great fortune – and Technological victories.  The diametrically opposed goals of wealth, versus investing in technological breakthroughs at a rapid rate.

Along the way – depending on difficulty level – your advisors will wander in with tips on what to do next.  The presentation of these advisors, along with the interjection of the opposition rulers is a fun part of what could boil down to a dry game.  The animation and in character dialogue sits well with that rather comic look of the rest of the game.

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