Civilization Revolution
From Civilization
Civilization Revolution (full title: Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution) is a 2008 iteration of Civilization developed by Firaxis with Sid Meier as designer for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. A Wii version was originally expected but was put on indefinite hold. The lack of a PlayStation Portable version was attributed to a lack of development manpower.[1]
Sid Meier was enthusiastic about this game, being quoted in both the press release and trailer as saying, "This is the game I've always wanted to make."[2]
A demo was released on Xbox Live Marketplace and the North American PlayStation Store on June 5, 2008. The demo allows players to play until 1250 AD as Cleopatra or Julius Caesar, and also allows multiplayer play.[3]
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[edit] Gameplay
Civilization Revolution is a turn based strategy game in which the player can take one of 16 different civilizations, each with special abilities, from prehistory to modern times and the near future. In past installments the player had more control over the rules of the game and often the game could last for more than ten hours. In Civilization Revolution the games for the most part can be finished within three hours. For the console version, the gameplay has been streamlined and simplified to make the game easier to play for newcomers to the series.
In addition to naming cities, players are randomly allowed to name a geographical feature such as a mountain range, plains, or rivers.
[edit] Victory conditions
A victory can be achieved in four different ways. Unless specified/defined in a scenario all four victory conditions are open to be used. Different civilizations have distinct advantages over others depending on their "bonuses".
- Domination: One must capture all other civilizations' capital cities, but they do not need to destroy/capture every city.
- Culture: Obtain a total of 20 great persons, wonders, and/or converted cities in any combination, and build the United Nations wonder.
- Economic: Acquire 20,000 gold and build the World Bank wonder.
- Technological: Be the first to reach Alpha Centauri.
If your civilization is nearing one of the above mentioned victory conditions, all other civilizations will declare war on you in an attempt to delay or stop you from winning. The construction of the World Bank, the construction of the United Nations, and the launching of the ship to Alpha Centauri can all be stopped by capturing the enemy's capital /palace .
[edit] Features
Civilization Revolution has 16 civilizations with corresponding historical leaders, 5 different difficulties, 4 different ways to win, streamlined time scale for quicker play, fully featured online play, including auto-matching, ranked games, and leaderboards, voice and vision chat, downloadable content, Achievements, civipedia, and advisors. The game also features a "game of the week" mode which will allow players to download a certain game setup each week. Players are be able to compete for the best single player score with this game setup.
[edit] Civilizations featured in the game
Each player can control one of 16 different civilizations, each with a different leader and its own specialties and abilities. Each civilization starts the game with a different special bonus that can be either a technology, a Great Person, or a special ability and then gains a new ability every time it enters a new era. The time the civ enters a new era is determined by the number of technologies the civ has successfully researched. The game begins in the Ancient era, then progresses to the Medieval era, the Industrial era, and finally the Modern era.
Therefore in a given game each civilization can have up to four bonuses that vary from civilization to civilization.
Many of the civilizations have specific specialized units that only they can build, but, by contrast with previous games in the series, these are for looks only: special units do not possess abilities beyond the normal unit but may have varying stats.
| Civilization | Leader | Starting Ability | Ancient Ability | Medieval Ability | Industrial Ability | Modern Ability | Special Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | Queen Elizabeth I | ||||||
| Japan | Tokugawa Ieyasu | ||||||
| Aztec | Montezuma II | ||||||
| China | Mao Zedong | ||||||
| India | Mohandas Gandhi | ||||||
| Mongolia | Genghis Khan | ||||||
| Rome | Julius Caesar | ||||||
| Egypt | Cleopatra | ||||||
| France | Napoleon Bonaparte | ||||||
| Arabia | Saladin | ||||||
| Greece | Alexander the Great | ||||||
| Spain | Isabella of Castille | ||||||
| Germany | Otto von Bismarck | ||||||
| Zulu | Shaka | ||||||
| Russia | Catherine II | ||||||
| America | Abraham Lincoln |
There are also NPC barbarians who will wage war with all civilizations in the game until the globe is conquered with all civilizations being destroyed. As a variation from some of the the PC versions, barbarians now live in villages and will attack from them. Also the level of barbarian activity cannot be adjusted as in previous games, though the level of barbarian activity changes in certain scenarios.
[edit] Single Player
The single player of Civilization Revolution starts with the founding of a single city in 4000 B.C. to the Space Age in 2100 A.D. The player then expands their empire and research new technologies. The player has four different ways to win and is competing against AI opponents. There are scenarios that do tweak the rules such as super powered barbarians, all technology already discovered, and more.
[edit] Multiplayer
Civilization Revolution features some robust multiplayer options, including match making and ranked games for up to four players (in free-for-all, one-on-one, and two-on-two team battle modes), as well as leaderboards and support for voice and video chat.[4] Although many critics and players agree that the multiplayer is slow, there is an option to turn on a turn timer such as in chess to attempt to make the game go faster, and one can also use the diplomacy panel and the city screen during other players' turns. Split screen multiplayer is not supported.
[edit] Downloadable content
For the Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 3 versions, each week a new Firaxis created scenario will become available to players for download. Players compete to earn the best Civilization Revolution leaderboard score for that scenario during that week. Firaxis has also released DLC for PS3 and Xbox 360 which includes wonders, relics, and even specific maps such as deserts, continent look-alikes and several others; new wonders include the Tower of Babel, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and several others which can be utilized in game like any other wonder .[5][6]
[edit] Reception
The game received mostly positive reviews by critics. As of October 30 2008, Metacritic lists Civilization Revolution at 85% for the PS3, 84% for the Xbox 360,[7][8] and 81% for the Nintendo DS.[9]
GameInformer magazine gave the game a 9/10, stating that the controls work very well on the consoles, and, while the game is simpler than Civilization IV, the faster playability is very enjoyable.
GameSpot gave the 360 and PS3 versions a 9.0/10 and an editor's choice award, praising its gameplay and visual design but found the multiplayer to be slow.
IGN gave it an 8.8/10.
Game Revolution gave it a B-.
PlayStation: The Official Magazine gave the PS3 version a 4/5.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Previews
[edit] Postponement/cancellation of Wii edition
On February 4, 2008 2K Games and Firaxis announced that the Wii version of Civilization Revolution was put on indefinite hold due to lack of manpower and no PlayStation 2 or PlayStation Portable editions of the game to share assets with. Firaxis programmer Scott Lewis explained, "CivRev was originally a Xbox 360/PS3 project and was in development for over a year before the Wii/DS platforms were added. The result was that the time and effort it would have taken to remake a game built for higher-end hardware from the ground up would simply have been too costly."[10] On June 10, 2008, Sid Meier reaffirmed plans to develop a Wii version, stating that Firaxis had "no intentions of turning backs on the Wii version."[11]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Official press release
- GameVideos.com official trailer
- Dedicated Wikia site
- Civilization Revolution on IGN
- Trailer and Screenshots
- [1]
- Firaxis Explains Civilization Revolution Wii Postponement (Gamasutra.com)
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[edit] References
Firaxis Explains Civilization Revolution Wii Postponement (Gamasutra.com)
