One of the great allures of gaming is the desire to control the destiny of a single people through time. To build great cities and discover new lands, to control the land and stave off rival nations while advancing your chosen people into a glorious future. For many years there has been a game system that allowed players to do exactly that, the game being Civilization. The latest version of this famous franchise is called Civilization Revolution, and it is, sort of a revolution in the changes made from previous versions..

Civilization Revolution (CR for short from here on in) is not a PC game, as were all its previous versions. This game is different as it was designed for the console market and was made much simpler then other versions as a way to introduce a new audience to this game system. As a result they have simplified the game considerably from the PC games.

Rather then making this article a comparison to previous versions I will review the game as it is, a fresh design and not an expansion of previous games. I feel it would be unfair to compare it to what has come before since the idea of this game was not to be Civ 5, but to branch out into the console market and introduce new players to this system..

CR is a quick and simple turn based builder game where players take on the role of the god king of a civilization and guide it from the distant past into the current time period. Players must decide what to build and what to research to accomplish their set goals for winning the game. There is flexibility here as to what victory condition a player is trying for. The game allows for different ways to win. Players found cities, build improvements in those cities, roads and great wonders on the road to final victory in the game.

The first thing in the game is to select the civilization you wish to play. There are 16 different ones to choose from and each has special units and benefits in the game. CR is sub divided by epochs in which different bonuses apply to the various civs in the game. As each turn passes a timer by year is displayed to track the passage of the ages. The look of the units and advisors changes to match whatever epoch you are currently in.

The game is played on a world map that is hidden except for the area around your capital. At first all you can build is settlers, ships if you are on water, warriors and settlers. Settlers are limited by the size of a city as they use up population size to produce. The first order of business is to take a warrior and start exploring the map.

As you move about you will see various terrain types and in many places if you are the first there you can name your discoveries. You will also discover barbarian towns which if you defeat their garrisons give you money, ships and information about legendary items and other civilizations. These hidden treasures are extremely valuable as they are techs and great people who will help you in game.

Each game was five civilizations in it per game and the map is scaled to support this. The maps are random but the size and number always stay fixed. This means that no matter what path you take to victory in the game it will only take a few hours to play it through. The game has replay value so it won’t become dull to fast but I found that most civs generally play the same.

The first victory condition is conquest which means if you capture and hold for a turn all four enemy capitals you win. You don’t have to take every city, just the capitals. This path is usually the fastest way to go in the game as the map usually places all the civilizations on the same continent or at least nearby. The AI is also extremely aggressive and will constantly declare war no matter what forces they or you have so this condition becomes very easy to meet.

The second is a cultural win which comes if you build the UN after you have accumulated 20 or more great people. Great people appear with certain milestones and techs are reached in the game as well as randomly. They appear as units in the game and depending on the type can be located in cities to lower building costs, increase gold or science, add to military ability and even convert rival cities. They are a very valuable commodity and the AI often will demand one in exchange for peace. I don’t give in as the peace is short lived and they will attack at some point anyway.

The third is an economic win. This is possible after you accumulate 20,000 gold and build the wonder called the World Bank. The game has a number of wonders but they take so long to build and the game moves so quickly you might as well skip building them till after you have the factory technology. Putting together the money for me has always taken longer then the previous two types of victory conditions so it is more of a challenge.

The final victory condition is a science win. Players must research and build a space ship, launch it and when it safely arrives at Alpha century you win. This takes a very long time and any surviving civilizations will try to stop you by war from getting this. But this type of win has some really nice graphics of ship launches and building the actual transport. The downside is it takes the longest to carry out as you have to max out the tech tree..

The game itself is easy to play and has a number of tutorial hints to help you play it as you go along. The graphics for it are somewhat campy and cartoonish but that doesn’t distract from game play at all. It is a fun game that moves right along and should be a hit with most gamers. It’s a nice game and worth your time. The music is excellent and features songs from many previous firaxis games.
This review is of the Xbox 360 version
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