(P)REVIEWS - Civilization IV Preview by Solver
1/3 Old, 1/3 Improved, and 1/3 New
I am very lucky to have been playing CivIV for some time now. We've heard the idea that CivIV would be 1/3 old, 1/3 improved and 1/3 new. The simple truth is that the outcome is better. While the core concepts in CivIV remain the same as always, there is hardly an element of gameplay that hasn’t changed since CivIII: how you build Settlers, improving tiles, the combat system, culture, diplomacy, resources, even the traditional spaceship victory. All of these concepts have changed, some more, some less.
The main concepts that are really new are: the combat system along with promotions, Great People (which are in no way the same as CivIII), religion, civics, flexible tech tree, modding capabilities (naturally), and, strange as it may sound, diplomacy. By that I mean that diplomacy is so different and exciting this time around that I really want to call it a new feature – but more on that later. The mentioned things are, however, not all that is newsworthy.
Before we move on, let me list some of the things I didn't like about CivIII: the 100 Workers problem, unimportant navies, bombard-until-1HP-and-conquer-with-no-casualties strategy, Artificial Intelligences (AIs) you could bribe at any time, technology whoring, spaceships that could be built very early in the Modern Age, and Infinite City Sprawl (ICS). Now, in CivIV, each of those problems has been given due attention and no longer exist.
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