Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution

A revolution in RTS’ for your 360

Posted 4 years ago By LuxDraconis - William Bobola

Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution is a real time strategy (RTS) game for your 360… That doesn’t even come close to describing this game. Mr. Meier’s I would like to thank you for building this game from the ground up just for the consoles. At the same time I think Firaxis and 2K games wanted to make sure they created a vacuum, well, Black hole may describe it better. But don’t be scared, this black hole of time is fun to get sucked into.


Game play
This is going to be fun to describe, and to be honest I’m not sure where to start, there is just a lot this game has to offer. Most RTS games tend to intimidate casual gamers ( To much micro managing) Good news, this game has a perfect entry level for the casual gamer. It also has a ton to offer the hardcore gamer that is a true veteran of the RTS games. Civilization Revolution (Civ Rev) is a game about building and growing your civilization big enough to crush your enemies. There are four ways to do this, Which are; Military domination, cultural, financial, or technological dominance.

Capturing all other enemy capitals in the match gets you a military domination. Cultural victory is accomplished by collecting 20 of the great people, wonders, or converting enemy cities to your civilization. Then you have to build the United Nations wonder. Economic victory is a little harder to do, you have to save 20,000in gold and build the World Bank wonder. But by far, my favorite way to win is to get a technological victory. To get a techno victory you have to learn all the technologies to build a space ship and launch it’s individual parts into space to assemble your space ship. Once your space ship is built, you have to launch it. The ship needs to reach Alpha Centauri in order to complete the victory.


BUT! Before you get to the end, you have to start at the beginning (I told you I didn’t know where to start) You start the game by picking your leader and civilization, there are 16 to choose from. Each civilization has its strengths and weaknesses through the eras. For example, the German’s have; new warriors are veterans, in the next era they get extra production from forests regions. There are more perks for every era you get to. Build your civilization starts slowly (Rome wasn’t built in a day…Right?) but as you get more resources it does speed up.

OK! Now on to the online part of the game, online, multi player and a mode that is sort of “co-op”. This is the sore spot for me, for the most part the multi player “online” part plays like the single player game….Except for one thing, LAG. Not just lag, sometimes the game just freezes up. You can hear the other players talking, you can even hear the troops moving around, but you can’t do a thing but say “Umm, I think I have to reboot” which the answer is always “ No! Not now!”. It becomes more frustrating your playing in the “teams” mode, once your teammate drops out of the game the AI takes over their civilization. Any strategy one had worked with your teammate is GONE right out the window.(Grrrr). Thankfully this doesn’t happen to often, but, it will happen. Since I’m talking about the “teams” mode, I understand why they don’t call it co-op. It can be Co-op if it’s just you and a friend. If you have more than one friend, then your force to play against them and the AI. I think it would have been nice to see a four player Co-op RTS. So, in all, the multi player is good, I’m hoping to see a patch to fix the lag and freezing problems. I doubt I’ll see four player co-op patch….I’ll take a freezing patch over anything else.


Graphics
Civ Rev isn’t going to win any awards for the graphics of this game, but, they’re not bad. The frame rate is nice and smooth, even when you have an epic tank and fighter battles. Civ Rev looks like it has been going towards a more cartoony look, which looks to be a good fit. The animation of your building and wonders being built from the ground up is fun to watch(If your not being attacked by an enemy at the time) and is satisfying to see completed. The colors are easy on the eyes, that’s a good thing cause you’re going to spend a lot of time looking at them. The in game menu is real easy to use, which is another plus for the casual gamer looking to try a real time strategy game for the first time.

Audio
The sounds in the game are simple and enough to get the point across ( a la the Sims). I have to admit I was hoping for more of a space theme symphony when you finally get to space. The cannon and tank sound effects do sound alike too; I guess it’s not going for real life sounds if your characters look “cartoony”.

Value
Civ Rev has tons of replay value in the single player and in the multi player. No two games will ever be the same.

Bottom line
This is a must have for casual and hardcore gamers alike, It’s easy to pick up and play, and can also deliver a challenge to anyone.

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