(P)REVIEWS
Civilization IV Review by Yin26
| Author Profile |
| Yin26
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A long-time "on" and "off" poster on Apolyton Civilization Site's forums and strategy gamer, he has been notably vocal and critical in the past of Alpha Centauri, Civilization: Call to Power and more recently Civilization III.
The 34-year-old lives in New Haven, Connecticut with his wife and two young daughters. He is working on funding for university students to study East Asian languages in China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
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Review by 'yin26'
CivIV tries to do more with less (fewer units, fewer cities, etc.) -– and often succeeds, at least through an engaging early game. New twists, such as Great People and battlefield promotions, also allow for some wonderfully fresh strategic possibilities, even if these take some time to learn and appreciate. This approach solves many old Civ problems while introducing some novel gameplay, and any serious Civer should try CivIV just to see these elements in action.
But an overly rapid progression up the tech tree and what seems to be a shallow menu of available units (again, in part, because the tech progression is too fast?) quickly pushes aside the wonderful early game and the subtle nuance, giving way to a late game bogged down in the repetitive tedium that many Civ fans have long hoped would be put to bed. Not helping the situation is an interface that hinders more than inspires and a host of performance issues that threaten to push some players to relegate CivIV to the shelf until help arrives. In short, CivIV is best approached as a promising work in progress.
That said, higher difficulty levels and aggressive Artificial Intelligence (AI) settings (coupled with Raging Barbarians, if you really want your ego tested) guarantee all but the Civ Gods among us a good challenge, certainly enough challenge to last through the first expansion pack by which point [developer] Firaxis [Games] should have polished the game much further.
 PART 1: CivIV by the Numbers (1/3)
PART 1: CivIV by the Numbers (2/3)
PART 1: CivIV by the Numbers (3/3)
PART 2: CivIV According to Soren (1/3)
PART 2: CivIV According to Soren (2/3)
PART 2: CivIV According to Soren (3/3)
PART 3: CivIV According to Yin (1/5)
PART 3: CivIV According to Yin (2/5)
PART 3: CivIV According to Yin (3/5)
PART 3: CivIV According to Yin (4/5)
PART 3: CivIV According to Yin (5/5)
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