the.blog @scwleung

Publisher: Firaxis and 2K Games

Genre: Turn Based Strategy

Platform: XBox 360, Playstation3, Nintendo DS, and various others

What they say:

Lead your civilization from the dawn of man to the space age and beyond, in an all-new Civilization created exclusively for console. Go head to head with history’s greatest leaders as you wage war, conduct diplomacy, discover new technologies and build the most powerful empire the world has ever known.

What I say:

Despite the poorly worded box-back blurb, the game does live up to their marketing spiel. Civilization Revolution is a gorgeous revitalization and reimagining of one of gaming’s oldest franchises. The game got a bit of attention because this is the Civ franchise’s first step away from PC gaming, and there was some worry that a robust game like Civ won’t be properly translated onto consoles. Fortunately, the developers decided to redesign the entire game, rather than do a simple port. As such, the game is still loyal to the spirit of the franchise, despite having made a number of changes so that the gameplay and experience would work on a console.

Change 1 – The Graphics feels more mature

The graphics definitely look more polished and refined, but that’s expected from this current generation of consoles. This also isn’t what I mean by mature. I mean…have you seen Catherine the Great’s…uh…costume? Elizabeth II is pretty much the same… Your advisors have also been given much of this same mature touch-up. Be warned.

Change 2 – Compressed Tech Tree

One of their design decisions they incorporated was to compress the tech tree into a very manageable size. In my opinion, this makes the game more playable for the console, at the cost of greater depth in the game. [And really...console gaming with depth? Laughable!] Despite the compressed tree, choosing the technology to develop is still quite difficult. There is usually a lot of tech to choose from, and they present them in a very clean format.

Change 3 – Limited Options

This decision choice really annoyed me. Essentially, the game has a very limited set of options that can be tweaked for gameplay. These are the standard audio settings and such. What this means is that they essentially removed all real gameplay options [such as skip zoom on pre-programmed move units]. Missing out on real gameplay options really confine me to a generic play experience, which is a big no-no in today’s gaming standards.

Change 4 – Achievements!

Nothing new about Achievements [for XBox 360, at least], but I really liked the way they implemented it here. Achievements are worth very little here [some as low as 3AP], and these micro-achievements are scattered pretty well throughout the game. It makes me pay attention to the game a bit more. Good decision choice!

Change 5 – Control Scheme

The control scheme for this console version [XBox 360] felt natural and right. Sure, they pared down functionality so that a simple scheme can work, but it just feels so right.

Change 6 – Armies and Battles

I can’t seem to recall if Civ4 had the option of building armies, but I liked how they implemented it here, so I’ll comment on it now. In the game, you have the option of creating armies if 3 of the same type of unit is on the same square. This would give the unit significant advantage in attacks and defenses. Battles are also well implemented without the use of health bars [which I thought was always a bit annoying]. When a battle begins, the game will quickly calculate and display the strength of the attackers and defenders based on the number of units, terrain and other modifiers. This gives an indication of which side has an advantage for the battle. This is not to say that it’s an automatic victory. In fact, there are many times when the underdog is able to skillfully score a victory, and there are other times when the clearly dominant force takes on heavy casualties. The combat system was surprisingly well implemented and a welcomed change.

So, all in all, many changes I felt were good, and some that weren’t. Still, there were a number of things that they didn’t change that help keep the game robust and familiar. Some changes I wish they did implement though:

• Smarter AI for auto troop movements
• Cycling through units [or maybe I just haven't found it yet]
• Smoother transitions in general

Was it worth it?
Overall, I felt that for $54.99 [CAD], you get a very solid Civilization experience. It’s not exactly the same as the PC experience, but it feels natural. The graphics and gameplay are familiar and will make any Civ fan feel at home in this new console environment. It is totally worth it.