User Review : Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

Britjadg's CivRev review

As Eurogamer put it: "Civilization is all about tribalism. It begins with the most barbaric aspect of that (quite literally, hairy blokes with wooden clubs hitting other hairy blokes with wooden clubs) and ends with its other extreme - asserting your tribe's dominance over others through technology, culture, commerce or military might. In other words, you pick a nation and progress it from cave-dwellers all the way to factories and tanks."

I must admit, Civ has never really been my thing. I've played most of Sid Meiers previous efforts, and found the sheer size of the game difficult to comprehend. Ironically, I now find the game too small as you will see later in this article. The game is ultimately a turn based strategy which requires some thought as to what your opponents are likely to do in their go, to undermine your success. This is pretty universal for all turn-based strategy games, but with Civ there are several "win" conditions, making that prediction all the more difficult.

Despite this, I've still got a decent feel for Civ and ultimately its put together by a team who have had several incarnations prior to this effort to refine and hone the game mechanics.

Visually: it's good looking, albeit a little cartoonish and crazy. The visuals are not revolutionary, or even evolutionary, but it at least doesn't make you want to tear your own eyes out. Civ looks exceptionally crisp and clear, and includes in game animations for new city constructions and Unit movement/clashes. Again, these animations are by no means spectacular, but they do at least provide some visual entertainment from the monotony that can stem from simply building up your cities. I should probably add that for the most part, the visuals remain strong throughout the game, but when a lot is happening on screen there can be some quite horrific drops in frame rate and the occasional screen jerk.

Sound: There are a lot of great sound affects in-game but the music can get a little tedious (i found myself putting on a CD in the background and turning music off completely). When meeting other leaders, the speech is just a "blurb" and honestly sounds like Victor Meldrew mumbling for a couple minutes. i don’t know why voice actors haven't been utilised, but this aspect of the game came pretty close to spoiling the whole experience for me.

The Gameplay has been substantially sped up for the console and 5000BC to 2050AD will take a mere 3-4 hours with an emphasis placed on combat over trade/negotiation. The game also includes several scenarios to play should you not be in the mood for taking your Civ through all era's. I find it disappointing that there are no options for the player to control this. The player is also unable to choose map size, type and number of opponents (there are always 5) and long term Civ fans, I'm sure, will be vastly disappointed with this oversight.

Variety in Civ Rev is also a little disappointing. Unit types have been significantly reduced, although this is offset by a new feature which allows you to "combine" armies (3 of the same unit joined together). Alas, the disappointment with variety is not just limited to units and cuts have been made across the board, including: research, buildings and wonders. These cuts obviously makes the game a lot quicker, but it also makes Civ a lot less "fuller" and while I love the new "dumbed down" version it just feels small and incomplete. As other reviews have said - its not to small in comparison to Civ 4, its just too small.

Interface/Controls: the interface is simple and you actually cant go wrong with it. i feel i should put to rest anybody's fears about using a ps3 controller for what is essentially a mouse and keyboard game. Sixaxis works fine, and the controls are almost intuitive - with the triggers able to move you easily from city to city, or unit to unit depending on your initial choice of "highlight was." I don’t know if Dualshock 3 works, as the controller is yet to be released in the UK, so if anyone knows the answer to this, by all means PM me.

Online: As well as online leader boards, Civ also boasts an online multiplayer feature. The game ultimately plays the same as single player, but the good "human" players online will nail you within the first 15-30 turns, which can come as a bit of shock if your still looking around the map.

All in all, Civ Rev is a decent start for the series making its debut on next gen consoles. Die-hard Civ fans will enjoy the game, but will feel left unchallenged and empty during a standard single player game (even on the highest difficulties.) I genuinely do enjoy this game - the visuals are crazy and the grin on my face as battalions of tanks role over archers and horsemen, was almost ear to ear. The Sound, for me, was the big disappointment and really quite tedious. With in game XMB on the way for PS3, I honestly hope its utilized in this title, if only to drown out the quite terrible music and Voice “Blurbing” mentioned earlier in this review.