Review: Civilization Revolution

Civilisation Revolution is available on Xbox360, PS3 & Nintendo DS. Check out what one of our users, Tel, thinks about the latest installment of Sid Meiers series.

If you’re a fan of past Civ games, you will enjoy this game, but there will be times were a missing level of detail will nag at you. You’ll find yourself surprised and delighted by the additions, but your long-term enjoyment will hinge on your ability to overlook its flaws.

Check out the full review after the jump.

I first played Civilisation on our family’s XT PC in the early nineties - you had the option of playing it in 16-colour EGA or 256-Colour VGA; and it ruled a significant part of my childhood. This is not an uncommon scenario and since then the franchise has sold over eight million copies. And that’s not including the ‘Call to Power’ series, the spin-off series, numerous clones and uncounted pirated copies.
In that whole time, Civilization Revolution is the first Civilisation game to actually make it to a console. It’s mare development managed to incite anger in PC enthusiasts around the world, worried that Civilisation Revolution may herald a new shiny, but ultimately dumbed down, future for their beloved PC franchise. I’m not so sure that they should have worried.

I find it hard to believe that there is any gamer out there that isn’t aware of the Civilisation, but just in case, in Civilisation starts you off with a single stone-age settler and tasks you with building a mighty empire. Utilising a mixture of science, economics, cultural improvement and military might you must drive your enemies before you, and hear the lamentations of their woman.
Building various buildings to improve your cities is vital to boost scientific, cultural and economic growth - but neglect your military and you become easy pray for the other Civilisations who will be more then happy to take your hard work and make it their own.
Everything you loved about the series is still here, albeit streamlined, prettied up and given a fresh coat of pain.

That said that, they probably should have renamed Civilisation Revolution as Civilisation ‘Everybody Hates You’. The lack of some of the usual diplomacy options is one of the first things you notice when you start playing.
To start with the bad, there are a few things that are missing from this version of Civilisation that really hurt the title. The first is that diplomacy options are greatly reduced from previous versions. This is particularly irksome for me, because I prefer to build a strong home territory and then focus on scientific advancement. That’s a lot harder when you can’t form permanent alliances with other nations.
The next strike against Civilisation Revolution it is related to the first complaint, and it’s that the AI is murderous. Forget alliances or pacts, that’s all gone in favour of a system that’s even more limited then the system in the 1991 original. It doesn’t matter how nice you’ve been to them in the past, the moment you’re weak they will get you. And you don’t even have to be weak - a computer controlled Gandhi was demanding I hand over my cash, and he only had two cities defended by pikeman while I had tanks.
The last major issue I had was that the game lacks the pre-game options of the previous titles. You can’t alter the world size, the environment or the type of landmasses that you will encounter. Instead you’ll encounter the same type each time. That’s a shame, because a game played over continents and a game played over islands both play very differently, and it’s removal is fairly needless.

So this isn’t your papa’s Civilisation, but for all its faults it’s still a great game. Civilisation Revolution was obviously created with a different mindset. It’s militarily aggressive AI, more uniform play areas and streamlined interface are an obvious attempt to provide shorter playtimes (older Civilisation games could run for ten to twenty hours) and a viable playfield for on-line play. A normal game of Civilisation Revolution lasts for three to five hours, and the lack of diplomatic options is an obvious attempt to prevent stalemate situations when playing with friends.
Many of the things that have been streamlined are not really missed at all. Individual tile improvements are gone, as is pollution and terraforming. Roads are built from city menus and are as essential as always. While the ability to terraform is missed, the lack of tile improvements to manage does speed up the game a lot. And I never liked the idea of having to discover irrigation, only to then build all the irrigation systems myself anyway. Seriously, that’s something the farmers can take care of for themselves.
Another thing that’s gone is the morale system, and unhappy workers. In its place is the ‘culture’ system, which provides the same kind of game play mechanic without bogging the game down with riots. Building libraries, churches and other buildings of cultural significance will boost the range of your empires influence, and can convince other cities to desert their rulers and turn to you for leadership. Low morale won’t create unhappy civilians, but it will increase the risk of your cities defecting to a rival civilisation.
Speaking of civilians, managing workers within cities is handled much better now. You can still micromanage them yourself if you want, but you can use presets to configure a city for manufacturing, gold production or research - and it tends to work out really well.
Trade routes are gone, although trading still exists. Now it’s a once off cash payout, rather then an ongoing source of income. While no longer as rewarding as previous titles, trade can still be a vital part of your civilisation’s strategy - particularly if you’re aiming for an economic victory.

Everything in this game is big and bold. And that’s how it’s been balanced. Even when perusing a economic or scientific victory, you are going to have to play very aggressively.
Instead of trying to give each civilisation subtle differences, Civilisation makes every civilisation joyously unbalanced. Some start with a wonder, or a great person, or some vital technology - all giving them a glaring advantage. And the same brashness of design flows over to other aspects of the game.
Units who have won battles get special abilities. Being the first to research a scientific advance give you a free building or unit. Stockpiling gold to different levels will provide free upgrades.
You might think that this would ruin the Civilisation game, but instead it gives Civilisation a sense style and another level of strategy then it’s forerunners - albeit a different, more aggressive, kind of strategy.

So, should you buy it? If you have tried Civ in the past, but found it too slow or overly fiddly - this game was made for you. I’m sure both of you will enjoy it.
If you are a die-hard console gamer who generally dislikes strategy games, this one isn’t going to make you change your mind. But try the demo and you may surprise yourself.
If you’re a fan of past Civ games, you will enjoy this game, but there will be times were a missing level of detail will nag at you. You’ll find yourself surprised and delighted by the additions, but your long-term enjoyment will hinge on your ability to overlook its flaws.

So check out the demo on your console and let us know what you think.