A Review: Civilization II, PC 1996
Civilization II is a turn-based 4X strategy game developed and self-published by MicroProse for MS-DOS computer systems. The game was later ported to the PlayStation One by Activision in 1996. Play is mostly unchanged from the first game and again requires the player to lead a civilization from the primitive age all the way up to the modern age. With an emphasis on management and grand strategy tactics, the player must balance the needs of their nation with the need to expand and conquer the world. The game can be finished in a variety of ways, from cultural and military dominance all the way to winning the space race and settling on a distant world.
For me, this is a markedly better game than the first one; it still suffers from the same issues, but they are much less obstructive to play than they were in the first. The issue of whether primitive units can beat advanced units is still a problem I found. Having an enemy spearman or horse archer destroy a mechanised infantry is wholly frustrating. I still don't understand this problem, as it doesn't seem to go in the other direction. Several times I had an obsolete unit hidden away in a city that was attacked, and no matter my city defence bonus, they always failed to hold. However, when I attacked the computer holding a city with a pikeman, several of my tanks were destroyed. I just didn't understand this issue at all. I will say that I really liked the new features of this game, such as the trading, diplomacy, and the extra resources, and thought that they were a nice touch that added a lot to the overall gameplay. The computer AI was generally improved and seemed to make decisions that were less random; wars and surprise attacks were better this time around too. It was more about stopping you from expanding than it was about just being a randomly triggered event. I really liked the space race; having a solid end goal gives the player a nice target that means something rather than just taking over the planet or playing to the end turn limit. I did find that some of the difficulties were a little too easy and the harder ones were just punishing, but overall, the balance improved from the first game. The tech tree was expanded, and you could field a more varied army with the new units that could be built. I liked that. The death spiral was less of an issue, but the computer would still punish you for taking too long to advance or for choosing a different technology than was advised. Speaking of advice, I liked the new advisors and thought that they were very helpful for those that were new to the game, and I liked that there was more micromanaging available than the first. Being able to transport food and other resources manually helped bring more control into the players hands.
The graphics for this game also got a major overhaul, and that really showed during play. Gone is the top-down perspective, and in is a sort of partial 3D, slanted view. This gave the world much better visual depth, and the improved tile sets helped to really bring the world and environments to life. There were more biome tiles and many more new resource tiles that looked fantastic. The user interface, menus, and various screens also improved noticeably from the first game. The city screen was so much better, and the 'city views' were almost 3D and were a very nice visual touch. The 3D computer-generated throne room screen was a really nice touch too, and I loved that you could choose the aesthetic that you wanted and upgrade towards that. The cities, settlements, and camps were clearly visually portrayed and changed and grew with your city's sizes, which was a great improvement over the first games much more basic styling. Being able to choose what type of visual style you wanted for your civilization's settlements was brilliant, in my opinion, and really helped to give the player the feeling of having a completely customisable game each and every time. The little FMV sequences for the various wonders were also a very nice touch that I loved when playing, and I thought that the audio was also so much better this time around.
Overall, I spent so many hours playing this game across both the PlayStation One and PC that I honestly lost count. This was a very fun game that I honestly enjoyed, and it is a marked improvement over the first game in almost all ways.
7/10 – Nearly There!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
For me, this is a markedly better game than the first one; it still suffers from the same issues, but they are much less obstructive to play than they were in the first. The issue of whether primitive units can beat advanced units is still a problem I found. Having an enemy spearman or horse archer destroy a mechanised infantry is wholly frustrating. I still don't understand this problem, as it doesn't seem to go in the other direction. Several times I had an obsolete unit hidden away in a city that was attacked, and no matter my city defence bonus, they always failed to hold. However, when I attacked the computer holding a city with a pikeman, several of my tanks were destroyed. I just didn't understand this issue at all. I will say that I really liked the new features of this game, such as the trading, diplomacy, and the extra resources, and thought that they were a nice touch that added a lot to the overall gameplay. The computer AI was generally improved and seemed to make decisions that were less random; wars and surprise attacks were better this time around too. It was more about stopping you from expanding than it was about just being a randomly triggered event. I really liked the space race; having a solid end goal gives the player a nice target that means something rather than just taking over the planet or playing to the end turn limit. I did find that some of the difficulties were a little too easy and the harder ones were just punishing, but overall, the balance improved from the first game. The tech tree was expanded, and you could field a more varied army with the new units that could be built. I liked that. The death spiral was less of an issue, but the computer would still punish you for taking too long to advance or for choosing a different technology than was advised. Speaking of advice, I liked the new advisors and thought that they were very helpful for those that were new to the game, and I liked that there was more micromanaging available than the first. Being able to transport food and other resources manually helped bring more control into the players hands.
The graphics for this game also got a major overhaul, and that really showed during play. Gone is the top-down perspective, and in is a sort of partial 3D, slanted view. This gave the world much better visual depth, and the improved tile sets helped to really bring the world and environments to life. There were more biome tiles and many more new resource tiles that looked fantastic. The user interface, menus, and various screens also improved noticeably from the first game. The city screen was so much better, and the 'city views' were almost 3D and were a very nice visual touch. The 3D computer-generated throne room screen was a really nice touch too, and I loved that you could choose the aesthetic that you wanted and upgrade towards that. The cities, settlements, and camps were clearly visually portrayed and changed and grew with your city's sizes, which was a great improvement over the first games much more basic styling. Being able to choose what type of visual style you wanted for your civilization's settlements was brilliant, in my opinion, and really helped to give the player the feeling of having a completely customisable game each and every time. The little FMV sequences for the various wonders were also a very nice touch that I loved when playing, and I thought that the audio was also so much better this time around.
Overall, I spent so many hours playing this game across both the PlayStation One and PC that I honestly lost count. This was a very fun game that I honestly enjoyed, and it is a marked improvement over the first game in almost all ways.
7/10 – Nearly There!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
Comments
Post a Comment