By Ned Jordan
If there are two games that I don't really want to know how much time I've
spent playing, they are World of Warcraft and the Civilization series of games.
Because of this I sat down to play Civilization: Revolution for the first time
with a sense of trepidation. My first fear was that in transitioning one of my
favorite PC series to a console system the developers may have broken the game
and lost the aspects that made the series so much fun to play in the first
place. Of course my other fear was that they got it right and that I'd soon be
adding large chunks of time to my lifetime Civilization gameplay totals. After
spending some time with the game, well, a lot of time with the game I can tell
you that while Revolution is a simplified version of the PC game it is a lot of
fun, and quite an enjoyable game in its own right.
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I realize that a lot of Xbox 360 gamers probably don't have any experience
with a Civilization game, so I'll start with the basics of the game in its
current incarnations. Fear not - I'll also touch on what's been dropped in the
move to consoles for you Civilization veterans out there.
In Revolution, you begin as the leader of a tribe at the dawn of civilization
- the time when your people have given up on a nomadic lifestyle and decided
that it would be a good idea to live in a city. From this humble beginning you
must lead your people though the ages until they succeed in becoming the
greatest civilization on earth. To do this you must achieve dominance over the
other civilizations of the world through conquest, culture, wealth, or
technology. There are 16 civilizations to choose from in the game, each based on
an ancient civilization or a modern nation. each has its own unique set of
bonuses, so you can choose one that matches well with your style of play or vary
the challenge a bit for variety's sake.
Cities in the game serve as the source of everything produced by your
civilization. Your citizens will take resources from the surrounding land and
with that you can create armies, expand your city, found new cities, or expand
your civilization's knowledge or culture. The game is turn-based and during your
turn you'll be able to move all of your armies and manage the build queues in
your cities. If you've played a Civilization game before, you'll find that a lot
of this work has been streamlined an many of the things that you needed to worry
about or manage before is either taken care of for you or has been abstracted to
the point where it essentially takes care of itself. While some of you veterans
may cry foul at this, the abstractions are well-chosen for a game that will be
played on a console instead of a PC. The focus of the game is now directly on
the elements of Civilization that really made it different than other games and
that made it such a compelling game in the first place. Revolution manages to
maintain the series' "just one more turn" magic that turns short play sessions
into unintentional marathons that keep you up way past your bedtime.
City management is an exercise in utilizing your limited resources to achieve
your short and long term goals. Concentrating on food production will grow
your population, but focusing on resource production will allow you to create
units and structures, all of which provide some sort of bonus such as improved
defense or a boost to scientific research.
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