Civilization 4

[LiNuX]

Civilization is one of the best strategy games I have ever played. Civilization is a pretty old game and it has gotten famous all over the world because of dedicated players. Civilization has come far with 4 installments and strategy lovers just can?t get enough of the game. The latest game is called Civilization IV and I have had the pleasure of playing the game a few months back and I have to say, compared to the graphics from Civilization III, it is 10 times greater, 10 times hotter, and 10 times better.

If you do not know what Civilization is all about, here is a brief preview of the game. Well first you get to select your own civilization. The game usually contains all of the greatest civilizations to live such as the Aztecs, Iroquois, Spain, England, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, and of course, America. These are just a few of them and the game has a few dozen. Civilization 4 has a few more civilizations to choose from.

You start out with just a settler and a worker. The settler?s job is to settle down, what else? The settler just makes a whole city for you in one square of the whole map. It has a line around the city which stands for culture. The more work done on the city and the happier its citizens are, the more the culture will grow and the more land you will claim. The worker is used to build roads, rail roads, chop down trees for wood, build gold and silver mines, and form irrigation routs. The worker has countless numbers of activities he can do and as your civilization advances with new technology and new research, the worker gets more abilities.

The city can produce more settlers so you can expand your borders. You can produce more workers to make it more efficient around the city. And of course, you can produce soldiers. The first soldier you should product is the Warrior and then the Spearman. The Spearman has good defense so just leave him on your city in defense mode. This is just a little tip from having your city ravaged by barbarians or even taken over by another civilization. Use the warrior to expand and look at what is in your surrounding land. As time goes by you will be able to produce more advanced soldiers and some even more powerful such as the Nuclear Bomb.

Each civilization has its own Special unit that they can create once they reach a certain threshold. The Germans can build the German Panzer which is just a really powerful and strong tank. All other civilizations can build a regular tank but the Panzer is stronger, has more defense, and it is faster. The Americans have the F15 which is a fighter jet. You can ravage the land of your enemies from the sky and show them who is the boss.

At the end you can build a space ship which you can launch into space and that is just one way of winning the game. Some other ways include annihilating your surrounding civilizations so you are the only one left or just making them all surrender. There are also several other ways but these are the two best ones to aim for.

As I mentioned before you can build the Nuclear Bomb and bomb your opponents. Well here is a picture of exactly what it looks like. It is pretty realistic and just look at the effects. Pretty amazing and pretty cool.

Each civilization also has the ability and skills to produce some of the great wonders of the world and claim it to be theirs. You know that in real history, the Egyptians built the great pyramids but here even if you are the Indian civilization, you can start the pyramids and build it before your opponents to claim that you are the sole creator of it. Other wonders you can build include the United Nations, the Coliseum, and the Great Lighthouse. Each wonder gives your whole civilization something extra over your opponents because each gives you power.

This is an image of what the great pyramids would look like being completed:

As you have probably figured out from my review, this game is a great game. Although Civilization IV has a lot of same concepts as Civilization III, it is still great and it is still fun to play, especially with the great amazing graphics and extra civilizations you can test out. This also means you can create more different soldiers and show everyone that you are fit to run your own Civilization.

Some of my ratings:

Game Play: 7 out of 10 ? Although it is a great game to play, compared to its previous versions, it could have done much better.

Graphics: 9 out of 10 ? This game has some great graphics for a strategy game, not many others can compare.

Price: 9 out of 10 ? This game is now $39.99 everywhere and it is cheap compared to many other games on the net.

Overall: 8.5 out of 10 ? This is a great game for any one of any age, especially if you love power.

This game is highly recommended to any strategy game lover. If you are thinking about getting the game, you may be making a smart decision.

Enjoy!

LiNuX