Civilization IV (PC)
Manufacturer: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Part number: 21712
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- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Features gameplay enhancements and a redesigned interface.
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Gamespot editors' review
Civilization IV (PC) price range: $12.25
- Reviewed by: Andrew Park
- Reviewed on: 10/26/2005
- Updated on:10/27/2005
- Released on: 10/25/2005
The bottom line: Features gameplay enhancements and a redesigned interface.
If you're a fan of the incredibly addictive Civilization strategy series and haven't bought Civilization IV yet, you can probably stop reading now to go buy the game. Civ IV makes plenty of great changes and additions to just about every aspect of the hazardously habit-forming strategy blueprint that famed designer Sid Meier and his talented team have made famous the world over, from combat to diplomacy to research to production to winning the space race. And just like with previous games in the series, Civ IV's varied and addictive gameplay offers the same tantalizing siren's song that will tempt you to take "just one more turn." Fundamentally, this is a much-improved version of the same Civ games we've all been playing and desperately trying to put down for years. And that's far from a bad thing. In fact, it's an awesome thing.
It's time to get hooked all over again on the addictive Civilization formula. Get those alarm clocks ready.
If you're familiar with the Civilization series, then you're already well aware that they've traditionally been turn-based strategy games that let you play as the political leader of one of the world's nations (such as Gandhi of India or Julius Caesar of Rome) in a fictitious bid to take over the globe, starting from the Stone Age and continuing right on through to the Space Age by having a lone settler unit build your first city on the way to establishing whatever advanced society you choose to design over the course of dozens of turns. The series gives you plenty of ways to do this, such as conquering your neighbors, researching advanced technology, or, in Civilization III (and IV), creating the most cultured society on the planet. It's this great variety that helps give Civ IV the same alarmingly addictive quality its predecessors carried. And thanks to its many improvements, major and minor, and its greater emphasis on strategy over bean-counting, Civ IV isn't just as good as Civ has ever been...it's better.
Like in previous games, your political leader has two special traits that will influence his or her reign, though all the game's traits are new, such as "organized," which cuts down on maintenance costs, or "expansive," which generates bonus health in cities and helps hasten growth and expansion. And Civilization IV fundamentally offers the same goals, but in a much more evolved, more strategic, and ultimately more rewarding manner. And each of these goals comes with many more options, which should open the game up to players with busy schedules...even if it may still seem overwhelming to beginners.
The Civ series' gameplay has several components, and almost every single one of them is improved in Civ IV. For instance, the series' combat system, which pits different military units against one another based on relative unit strength and technology, has been changed to a "strength" system that seems more intuitive. Units that are greatly advanced will have a clear advantage over more-primitive ones (to avoid the commonly cited, though rare, case of a tribal spearman defeating a tank in previous games), and military units in general have many different upgrades they can earn as they receive experience points and gain power levels. In addition, artillery has been tweaked to be much more useful. It can bombard targets, such as enemy cities, to lower defenses and to deal collateral damage to large "stacks" of armies. These improvements don't make battles all that much more complicated , but they do add more depth to combat, since both attackers and defenders have more factors to consider.
Civ IV has also improved on the way diplomacy works. While you can still make nice with your neighbors (and you can even win the game with a diplomatic victory condition), you have more options than just trading goods, cities, technologies, and/or relations. You can attempt to influence your neighbors to make war or peace with other neighbors, and you can even fence everyone out of your backyard using the game's new "open borders" system. In previous games, neighboring nations could send their city-building settlers and their soldiers wandering across your nation, free to declare war on your vulnerable home cities and worker civilians unless you complained strenuously (which sometimes caused them to declare war anyway). In Civ IV, the new border system means that no units from any other country can enter yours unless you have agreed to open borders with that particular country...or unless you're at war with that particular country. This is a godsend for defensive players who prefer to hang back to develop an economic, scientific, or cultural infrastructure without fear of ambush. However, even this new addition is balanced, since keeping your borders locked up tightly and never coming to your neighbors' aid doesn't make many friends. Other nations actually remember your actions and are poorly disposed if you refuse them too many favors.
The new religion system doesn't fundamentally change the gameplay when all is said and done, but it's certainly interesting.
You can make neighboring cities more apt to like you by adopting the same religion. One of Civ IV's brand-new features is the religion system, which is an intriguing addition, even if it isn't crucial to your success. The game's new religion system adds seven new creeds to the game, each of which is tied to a specific technology and each of which can influence your cities' culture-producing temple structures and missionaries. However, aside from the facts that some religions become available earlier in the game than others (since they're tied to earlier technologies) and that different religions lead to a different unique building (more on that later), all religions are pretty similar. Your overriding goal, should you choose to pursue a religious path, is to have all your cities--and your rival nations' cities--subscribe to the same faith: yours. Religious buildings also produce a bonus to culture, which is helpful if you're pursuing a strategy of rapid expansion (since cities with high culture automatically expand to take up more of the map, just like in Civ III) or of cultural victory. But there's no religion-based victory condition, and aside from these bonuses, religion isn't a hugely influential addition to the game. And it doesn't actually need to be a part of your strategy.
User reviews
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I paid 50 bucks for a BETA.
by plutoman on November 2, 2005
Pros: Graphics are greatly improved but could be better. Civics are a lot smarter to work with than government types.
Cons: Civilopedia should have more links to other articles. Poor game navigation.
Summary: I have been a huge Civilization fan since the original. I am extremely disappointed with the fourth game in the series and Firaxis. I paid 50 bucks for a BETA. ...
Summary: I have been a huge Civilization fan since the original. I am extremely disappointed with the fourth game in the series and Firaxis. I paid 50 bucks for a BETA. It is the buggiest commercial software I have ever experienced. It also feels very incomplete. Almost all of the advisors are useless. [Couldn't the City Advisor at least let you open a city from the list?] With the exception of the Science Advisor (which is essentially unchanged from Civ3) none of the advisor screens made much sense. The manual offers no help in explaining how to use them. The are a lot of buttons to click on that don't do anything. [Why is there a Spaceship screen with a drawing that never changes as you make progress on your spaceship build?]
No matter what type of game I played in Single Player mode, after about 5 turns or so, the game would crash -- sometimes even locking up my Windows XP operating system. I haven't had to reboot from a "game crash" since Windows 98!! If I were Sid Meier, I would be embarrassed.Updated
After the few patches that have come out and the expansion I am changing my opinion of the game. It has now become a powerful player in the Civ series. I am seriously looking forward to the next expansion due out soon. I give this game a 9.5.Updated
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh13 out of 15 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Laptop Users BEWARE!!!!!
by mmichaels on November 21, 2005
Pros: Historically a great line of games
Cons: Many people can't get it to run correctly...including me
Summary: One look at the technical support forum at http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=159 should give you a clue as to what you're in for.
I'm ...Summary: One look at the technical support forum at http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=159 should give you a clue as to what you're in for.
I'm one of the many in this forum that have complained of crashes, BSOD's, choppy video, the "cheshire cat" (explained later).
If you own a laptop with an NVIDIA or ATI graphics card, you will be most at risk. There are numerous references to 3rd party video drivers you can attempt on your system. I've spent about 12 hours trying to get this to work.
Once you encounter these problems, you've obviously opened up the CD's, therefore you're going to have trouble when you go to ask for your money back.
People at the forums are screaming for an immediate service pack. The word I heard is that a beta of the service pack was submitted on Monday 11/21 and will be out "soon".
I'm a big Civilization fan. I waited so long for this release only to be disappointed. I love the originals so much, I was willing to try for 12 hours to get it to work.
I'm not giving up on the game until the service pack comes out. Then I'll cross my fingers. Chances are, I'll have to find another computer to play the game on.
Issues specific to my system are:
1) Cheshire Cat: The pictures of the leaders only show their teeth, eyebrows, hat, and tie....no face.
2) Midnight map: The main map is totally black so you can't view terrain..you can see resources and cities, but no terrain.
3) Game frequently freezes when starting it up.
4) Experimenting with display drivers result in BSOD's (blue screens of death).
5) Game will start up, look like it's about to run, then shut down with no error message.
I'd wait until the service pack comes out, and monitor the board reference above to see if people are any happier.
-marc michaels
macedonia, ohioUpdated
After installing service pack 1.09, everything seems to be in order...at least for me.
The tech board seems to have calmed down a bit, but you can still see that many people continue to have problems with the software.
The process of waiting for the service pack was a fun one. Firaxis briefly released, then recalled, version 1.08. Those of us who couldn't play version 1.00 at all, were able to find bootleg copies of 1.08, which helped us begin playing. 1.09 came out within the next day or two though.
My game still crashes, but only after hours of play. The game autosaves frequently, so I don't lose much if it crashes. The times I DO play now are even more addicting than previous versions.10 out of 11 users found this user opinion helpful.
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One giant step backward
by dukky on November 19, 2005
Pros: Automated workers "just get it done" without a lot of management
Cons: Startup time is long, Nimoy voiceovers are tedious, graphics are choppy and slow, game crashes regularly on XP
Summary: This game needs a service pack--fast. Game play on a new PC is not good: it's slow to start up, the interface and rules are just dissimilar enough to ...
Summary: This game needs a service pack--fast. Game play on a new PC is not good: it's slow to start up, the interface and rules are just dissimilar enough to be annoying to loyal Civ 3 fans looking for an extension of that lovely game, and the graphics are choppy and slow to repaint at 1024x768 even on a new PC (XP Home SP2, Athlon 64-bit 3000+, 1GB PC3200 RAM, GeForce PCX 5300 video). The kicker? Repeated crashes to the desktop without warning. I loved Civ 3 and played it for many hours at a go. I've played Civ 4 for two hours and I'm regretting the $60 CDN I spent. A dark day for Firaxis. Are you listening? As for Andrew Park's review, I don't think he actually installed or played it for any time -- or knows anything about what came before Civ 4. Please, Andrew, write about what you know, not about what you glean from a corporate media package.
Updated
I put this piece of trash on eBay and managed to get $45 for it. I lost a bit of money, but at least I don't have three Civ IV coasters sitting around my home. Seriously: if you're a fan of earlier Civ games, give Civ IV a wide bearth until you see a real effort from Firaxis with regard to the bugs. If you're looking to jump in and play using your Civ III knowledge, fugetaboutit. It's very different, and not for the better.7 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Huge disappointment
by reggaekarl on January 12, 2006
Pros: none - the game doesnot run on my system that meets min req
Cons: $50 down the drain
Summary: The Civilization series of computer games are the only games I have bought for my PC over the past 5-6years. I was very anxious to try the latest version when ...
Summary: The Civilization series of computer games are the only games I have bought for my PC over the past 5-6years. I was very anxious to try the latest version when I saw at Circuit City and read the great reviews online. Unfortunately, despite having more than the min requirements was not good enough to run this game on my laptop.
I have been unable to play. Initially I had a game screen that was black.
I did not realize that there were so many issues with the game until I went online to seek help. To my horror it appeared as though I had wasted my money. I downloaded a patch from the developers website (v1.52). Now when I try to run the software I get a notice "System Does Not Meet Minimum System Requirements" despite me having 1.8ghz processor(1.2ghz min), 512mb ram (256mb min) etc.
If I had read the horror stories online before I would not have bought the game as yet. I am sure the game is great when it does run but unfortunately not for me. I am such a civ fanatic I will probably purchase a new computer just so that I can play this game. But if you haven't purchased it as yet, hold of until they have worked out all the bugs.3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great promise UN-fulfilled...
by elboran on November 11, 2005
Pros: Looks & feels great until last 100 turns
Cons: Crash & reboot - fest
Summary: Seems like they couldn't get the bugs out of the game before it had to be shipped. With a PC well beyond the recommended specs, it constantly crashes and ...
Summary: Seems like they couldn't get the bugs out of the game before it had to be shipped. With a PC well beyond the recommended specs, it constantly crashes and reboots the mashine. I can get one turn in - reboot - load - one more turn - reboot...PAINFUL!!
I did get my initial game through with the easiest settings, but with higher difficulty i.e. more activity among the AI players, it is just about the most frustrating thing I've ever seen.
Like most other people, I'm shelving this one until the patch comes out...Updated
They released a patch (v1.52) a couple of days before Christmas, and it takes care of absolutely every problem I had. No more crashes, no slow-downs. I didn't change any setting on the computer, just loaded the update from inside the game, and now it works great. The patch is huge: ~45M. I played through a game with 12 AI players at Noble setting and the performance remained the same from beginning to end.
I'd give the game a rating of ~9 now.3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Automating CIV3, unit RPG, and the wonder movies are back!
by jcaliman on November 6, 2005
Pros: Star Trek Original fans will love Spock's voice. Animated map objects makes the scenery more life like. Music score is very moving.
Cons: high overhead, even the recommended reqs take a long load time, and I found 1 bug and had 1 crash in 15 hours of play.
Summary: CIV 4 is beautiful, but has some minor problems plagued it from the perfect 10. Other than that, buy it.
Production - 9 of 10
Starting with the box, I ...Summary: CIV 4 is beautiful, but has some minor problems plagued it from the perfect 10. Other than that, buy it.
Production - 9 of 10
Starting with the box, I got the special edition and loved the packaging (looks like a book) and the extra music CD, but failed to recall enough high-school French to read the tech tree (Anglais substitution est `a civ4 website, http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/techtree_support.htm)
At least all the same information is in the game in English. The installation was an easy 2 disc without any errors, but the play disc is incorrectly labeled as the 2nd disc. To play the game, you must have the 1st disc labeled "Install" in the CD-ROM.
Application/Infrastructure - 8 of 10
I meet or exceed the minimum requirement yet, I feel the game is too slow to start up.
I have a 2.13 GHz/333MHz FSB, 128MB Radeon, 512 DDR2 SDRam, 30 Gig. HD 5400rpm, 54X CD-Rom, Windows XP Pro. Yet load time takes 1 minute 30 seconds for the new XML format-ed upload, and 1 minute and 30 seconds for a new Huge world to be created or for a reload. This feels so slow compared to the 4 seconds load-times of CIV3.
Gameplay - 10 of 10
I have played CIV1, CIV2, Alpha Centauri, CIV3, and even the CIV boardgame. I love how Civ4 brings together all the good parts of every predecessors. From Civ1, the movies. From CIV2, the ability to move eras along a single tech path. From Alpha Centauri, CIV4 now has a balancing act for government styles. From Civ3, the culture expansion effects. From the boardgame, the first change is Settlers move 2 spaces and do not detract from the population. There are more, but I leave that for your surprise.
ONSCREEN QUEUE AUTOMATION is the best addition to the CIV4. Before, in CIV3, the beginning of the turn was when you have to modify things (like choosing a new tech or converting government styles). While it was fine and dandy to have everything change at the beginning of turn, You could not ignore this part of the turn taking your attention away. Now in Civ4, when something needs your attention, it will flash an icon on the right part of the screen and wait (so you can concentrate on a battel per say), until your are ready to pay attention.
The attack units get experience points and attain levels which allows them to up their stats. For example, a basic warrior is 1/1/1. At the next level, you can give him
a) +10% attack
b) +20% attack in forest/jungle
c) +20% attack to city
My personal early favorite is chariot at level 3 can extend their vision by 1 more, so that I can explore quicker and get to those precious villages. And get those villages as they can give, like in CIV 2, new technology past the first era.
Lastly, I should warn you that the roving barbarians also attack you with newer technology, so becareful not to research swordsman if you can not defend against them. However, you might not be able to help your research if you suddenly get "rewarded" by a village with a new tech; evil Sid, grin!
EXTRAS - 9 of 10
As I heard Leonard Nimoy voice and listened to the Native-American/African chanting, I was wowed by the amount of attention (and money) Sid must have put into this release. Suffice to say, I was impressed.
BUGS -
I know I gave a 10 of 10 in gameplay even though I ran into a bug. I found something most people would not do normally so I did not reduce the perfect score beyond 9.5 so I rounded up.
The bug itself was when I walked a Settler into a Village and get another Settler. When I did that, the map pulled way back creating streaking lines in the sky and left them there. Suddenly, for that entire area, I could not zoom back and look at the units and cities.
I suffered 1 crash when I converted Moses into a super specialist (provides city 2 production and 5 gold).3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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No problems, fun game
by ubrikkean on December 24, 2005
Pros: Fun for gamers of any genre, not just(turn-based) strategy
Cons: er.... annoying tutorial, but its not required anyway, and i found it easy to play without completing
Summary: sorry about the pros/cons section, its hard to describe... its just a fun game, and i agree with cnet on their review. i got the game today, and i ...
Summary: sorry about the pros/cons section, its hard to describe... its just a fun game, and i agree with cnet on their review. i got the game today, and i have had no problems running it, probably because i patched it before playing. its already on version 1.52 so i can understand how their might have been problems before, but now, unless there are unfixed problems that arent happening on my particular system, theres no reason the game deserves a 4.7 user rating; of course it cant be changed though. anyway, i would say for anyone this game is worth playing... im not even a strategy game fan normally, but this one is great.
2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Poorly coded
by NoCalSwede on May 1, 2006
Pros: Great game!
Cons: Bogs down quickly
Summary: I am very disappointed in the the speed of the game. I have a 256 meg video card and 1 gig of ram on a 2 ghrz chip and up ...
Summary: I am very disappointed in the the speed of the game. I have a 256 meg video card and 1 gig of ram on a 2 ghrz chip and up to date mainboard. The game bogs down in huge map mode just by processing the graphics of moving around the map. The graphics appear to be the problem, even though they do not appear that demanding. After setting my video options to low, the game still did not improve noticeably. Other processing tasks, such as the computer taking its turn, go by very quickly.
The game itself is beautiful. The AI appears consistent with CIV III in that my strategies work as well in the new game as they did in CIV III. There are however new options to take advantage of that I'd love...if I could play the darn thing.
Given that I've run complex game's in the past, with graphics that blow CIV IV's away, I can only guess the thing was poorly coded. For me, its unplayable, and I'll sell mine on eBay. CIV III gives much the same strategy rush, with a playable interface. When I see the user reviews start to come up, I'll buy CIV IV again.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Very Addicting
by Carldlr on November 12, 2005
Pros: Best of the 4, its in 3d and alot more fun
Cons: Bugs!! Couldn't even play it after installing it had to mess with drivers
Summary: But over all Pros really out weigh the cons
Summary: But over all Pros really out weigh the cons
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Rushed out the door full of bugs...
by mfrankis on January 4, 2006
Pros: Amazing complex strategy game.
Cons: Bugs make it very frustrating
Summary: They clearly rushed it out the door without needed debugging. Support phone number are disconnected and they have not responded to support emails.
Summary: They clearly rushed it out the door without needed debugging. Support phone number are disconnected and they have not responded to support emails.
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
- Part number: 21712
- Bottom Line: Features gameplay enhancements and a redesigned interface.
Product Basic Spec
- Platform PC
- ESRB rating Everyone 10 and older -
- Genre Strategy
- Number of players 1-12 Players
- Connectivity Local Area Network,Online
- Difficulty Medium
- Learning curve About 1 and a half hours
- DirectX version v9.0c
- Offline modes Cooperative,Competitive,Team Oriented
- Online modes Competitive,Team Oriented,Cooperative
Game
- Developer Firaxis Games
- ESRB Everyone 10 and older
Manufacturer info
- Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.take2games.com/
- Address:
575 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
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