6) "UNDERSTANDING GAME CONCEPTS [0] I do not expect to understand everything all at once, but between the manual, forum discussions, and feedback from Firaxis, I hope eventually to understand everything in detail.”

The Civilopedia is botched (no alphabetical listing of items, no keyword search, everything is icon based and confusing, key concepts like health or even railroads seem to be missing – is an index taboo at Firaxis or something?), which maybe explains why the game doesn't hyperlink to it like it should!

But where CivIV comes back strong in this category is on the diplomacy rating you have with each civ. Knowing, for example, that refusing to help a civ in its time of war has dropped our relationship score by -1 really adds a sense of control and understanding to this important part of the game. Thanks to such clearly explained help, I have become a better player of the game, a player more capable of enjoying the game because I understand how it is designed to work. The clear battle odds also add tremendously in this regard.

So while I could understand some gamers going with a [-1], I'm sticking with [0] and hope that we'll see a lot better use of in-game help for the player to explain concepts and game mechanics (it's too late, I guess, to get this in the manual, unless we get an updated PDF version).

7) "AI [0] I like an AI that presses its advantage only when its chances of success are high.”

I originally rated higher on this until I learned that the AI is just too timid (at least on Noble). I know about the Aggressive AI setting, but that's not quite what I'm after, either. The AI should want to win as much as the player does, yet a warmonger game is too easy to pull off, especially if you engage in what Stan Karpinski (more on him later) calls Infinite Attack Sleaze – IAS. Via IAS, you pound hard on one AI at a time from the earliest moment of the game. Defeat one AI, rinse and repeat. Stacks of Death help here greatly, even if collateral damage is supposedly meant to stop this phenomenon (more on that later, too).

With IAS, your score jumps dramatically, you get gold from conquering a city (which pays for the increased city maintenance costs at least until the cities start producing for you), and unit maintenance costs are relatively low, particularly with access to the right civics options. IAS is the new ICS. NOTE: Higher difficulty levels radically change this formula for the better.

At the same time, I don't like games to devolve mindlessly to 9 v 1s (AI v Human) simply to make the end game somehow more challenging. To the contrary, I find that approach a game killer, too, because it's scripted and dull. There are better approaches to this, and I'll talk about some later.

8) "BUGS [0] While I'm patient, I don't tolerate broken games, either. The game needs to be very playable with only the occasional issue.”

If I had the ATI problem or any of the crashes some players are plagued with, I'd certainly go [-1] here. I do believe that the various problems are being taken seriously and will be addressed. Call me lucky if you will, but I've been pretty happy regarding bugs but do see an urgent need to improve.

9) "MULTIPLAYER and EDITOR [0] Give me most of what is promised and I'll wait to some reasonable degree for things to get sorted out.”

I only tried one MP game and was (un)fortunate enough to find myself on a Duel map against Krill. Krill, it turns out, is great at MP! I was crushed like an empty beer can against him. Sure, it was my first MP game in Civ, I had never played simultaneous turns, etc. Lots of excuses. Fact is, MP is worlds away from SP in terms of turn-by-turn strategy, and I can see why many players might prefer it to SP.

Of course, the Gamespy lobby is horribly flawed still (just TRY to click on the game you are trying to join!), and promised features like Pit Boss aren't here. Perhaps more importantly to some, the Software Developers Kit (SDK) has been delayed, and this might signal some kind of larger problem. Hard to say.

So although I am not a big MP player, nor do I plan to use the SDK, I think the MP and mod communities are key to CivIV's future. I also think Firaxis is sincere in providing great MP and modding tools.

“10) SERIES INNOVATION [0] I don't expect Firaxis to reinvent the wheel, but I expect a few radical departures from the formula by now.”

By the end of my review, I will offer Firaxis some encouragement to go further than it has already in innovating within the series. But let's face it: CivIV now requires strategic growth and things like battle field promotions, religion and civics offer just enough innovation for the series that we are likely to be talking about various strategies for months and months to come. Of course, I see these strengths mainly in the early to mid game. Really it's the mid to late game where the game loses steam.

I'll tip my hand here a bit, though, and express deep disappointment in not having stacked combat, nor do I think using workers for tile improvements adds anything but tedium and CPU drain (not to mention screen clutter). Despite all this, I am inclined to have faith in the patching/feature addition process this time around because Firaxis embraced a horde of great beta testers and, by all accounts, acted upon their feedback. I don't see Soren closing down this feedback loop any time soon or giving any less credence to player reports and requests.

MY SCORE:

TOTAL -4 = [-5 to -1]: The negatives currently outweigh the positives, and while you'll find the game pretty fun in the first several weeks, you know only some solid patching will keep you playing in the future. You'll have to be patient but have reasonable hope for something much better thanks to patching. CivIV might have to cool off a while on your shelf, though, until things get sorted out.

NOTE: I basically agree with this general statement except to say that at higher difficulty levels I found myself rethinking (re-enjoying) many of the game elements that were becoming rather dull on Noble level. None of that, of course, fixes the UI, tech pacing, system performance problems, etc.   ... Previous Page

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