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Published by Activision
Review by Shawn "Jazz" Pence

 

Requirements:
Processor You could run this on a 133, as the box says, but I couldn't even imagine how slow it would run when the maps get really "busy". Don't waste your time on less than a Pentium 233.
RAM 32MB at least. Of course, you should be running that anyway.
Video Support Doesn't need much in the video department, though the better your video, the better this game will look. Also, the larger resolutions provide easier access to more of the map.
Misc This game supports some interesting Multiplayer games, and you'll need a modem and an email account for Play-By-Email
Max install Size 320MB for the install files and 80MB for the game's temporary files while running.

 

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Of all of the strategy games ever created for the personal computer, the original Civilization, known lovingly as "Civ" to its loyal supporters, by Sid Meier (Microprose, 1980 something)was by far the best. In one release, Mr. Meier created and perfected a whole new genre of gaming that has lasted until this day. Several other iterations of Civilization were released: Civilization/Net, Civilization II and Civilization II Gold, along with numerous scenarios and add-ons, however, despite what seems like a very long line of games, each of these games only seemed like updates to the original classic. The graphics were better, gameplay slightly enhanced, gamer suggestions implemented, sure...but the game was still basically the same. If you could play the original, you could play Civilization II, the only real change to get used to was the change from an overhead view to a view know as isometric, which is a fancy way of saying at an angle to your eye.

I'm sure the folks at Microprose, and maybe even Sid Meier himself, thought to themselves "Why mess with a winning formula?" The series was a huge success, enjoyed and revered by strategy gamers everywhere and is still among one of the best and highest selling PC series of all time.

Unfortunately, Activision disagrees with Mr. Meier and his associates.

Civilization: Call to Power (CTP) is not a bad game, mind you. It simply does not live up to the ease of play and enjoyability that the other Civilization games have always contained. I can remember easily killing 7 hours playing a Civilization (or Civ II) game. I have yet to force myself through an entire game in this version, and I've owned it for well over a month. The graphics for the game are it's primary selling point, as they are absolutely gorgeous for a strategy game. Each of the units is actually a small 3D model that turns and carries out a series of actions. The detail on the models is impressive and obviously a lot of thought went into their creation. The cut-scenes are not bad, simply nothing to write home about. They are creative and well done, but I have seen better use of the cutscene.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Civilization universe, here's a quick primer:

You are the sole emperor, dictator, president, whatever for a civilization of your choosing. It is your job to raise the civilization from the dawn of man through to the far future. You manage each city and it's resources, as well as create and maintain the political, scientific and military ends of your government and manage the development of the lands and roads surrounding your cities. Yes that's right, I say political as you will have to communicate and maintain relations with the other civilizations budding on your world, each of them struggling to take absolute power over the whole world. Some are blood-thirsty warriors and others are more reserved and interested in scientific research... though it seems that they mostly want your blood.

So much for the primer...

This game's shining weakness is it's gameplay. in an attempt to make things easier, Activision has made the game far less intuitive than it's older brothers. In

the previous games, if you wanted to move a piece, you used the arrow keys, if you wanted to work on a city's "guts" (i.e. it's production and citizens) you double-clicked the city and you were "inside" and able to make your changes. No more such simple pleasures with Civilization: CTP. The movement is typically done with the mouse. "Typically" means that it seems as though they WANT you to use the mouse to move. This makes it really easy to set waypoints for use later in the game, but in the beginning, when you want to move a square at a time, it makes for a very cumbersome environment. Sure, you can move using the arrow keys, but I've been playing these games for my entire life and it took me a while to get the game to respond.

Note to Activision: Counter-intuitive=less enjoyable.

City and unit management is done through a series of tabbed folders at the bottom center of your screen. If you want to manage production, click on the production tab, but make sure you've clicked on the city first. That's too much movement when a simple double-click on the city would've sufficed nicely as it had in all of the other Civilization games. Often you need to navigate your way through a couple windows under these tabs to get where you'd like to go and it is often confusing knowing exactly where you are inside these windows.

Note to Activision: The complexity of a game should be in the GAME, not in using the software.

There are some welcome additions in the particular Civilization, despite the game's obvious weaknesses. First off is the introduction of "production points" limiting how many improvements you can make to the terrains at one time. This gives the game an added layer of reality, which is imperative to making a game like this well. Also present in this title is the very, VERY cool ability, at later phases in the game, to build both space and underwater cities, something all of the other Civilization games lacked. The gaming environment splits into 3 layers at this point and you manage the colonies just as you would a normal city. This adds a very unique dimension to this game and, had the game been better designed, it would've given this Civ an edge over the existing titles.

The artificial intelligence in Civ: CTP is not as diplomatic as in previous incarnations. It seems far more interested in conquest than in establishing diplomatic relations. That's great if all you want to do is fight a war, but annoying as hell if you want to play a strategy game.

The game and it's install engine both seem very solid. There are minor bugs bugs in the gameplay, but they can be resolved with the latest patch, available here. The install was smooth and the total size for the install is pretty chunky for a strategy game at close to 400 megabytes. Mind you, it's not the near 3 gigabytes that Baldur's Gate takes up, but it's certainly no slouch.

All in all, Civilization 2: Call to Power is a very well constructed game. It unfortunately sacrifices some truly great gameplay. While this game is not a must buy title for everyone, it is still one that every Civilization fanatic, much like myself, should own.

There is hope on the horizon, however, as the company that originally released Civilization, Microprose, has just released Civilization II: Test of Time. Look forward to a review of this title as soon as I can get my nicotine stained hands on it.