The inherent tedium of turn-based strategy games was, and probably always will be, the reason that some gamers simply can’t handle the genre. But with Civilization Revolution, the first ever console iteration of the smashingly successful PC strategy series, the “turn-based tedium” becomes accessible and fun, as matches no longer last a ludicrously long amount of time. Chances are high that within two to three hours haters and newcomers alike will have finished and fully enjoyed their first bout of turn-taking warfare.
With the same concept it has always retained, CivRev pits players and AI controlled world-leaders (such as Abe Lincoln, Ghandi and Cleopatra, each with a separate set of bonuses) against each other in a competition for world domination. Inevitably, peace treaties will be broken, offered and broken again as violent war sheds the blood of countless creatable and upgradable attack units across the small, randomly generated maps.
War, however, isn’t the only means of victory. Sacking cities and destroying the French army sure works as a means of victory, but by increasing economy, society and technology with various structures and scientific Wonders, players can sneak a win that doesn’t require total genocide.
It’s this kind of variety that makes CivRev more accessible than ever. There are so many ways to win, and since it doesn’t take long to rack up the required gold to win, or launch a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri if the path of least resistance is your player-preference. Using a control pad to do all of this is surprisingly intuitive, with grid movement tied to the analog sticks and shuffling through cities and research is as easy as bumper/trigger presses.
If you ever find yourself at a loss of what to do, or don’t know why Plato is hanging out in your city, the ever helpful Civilopedia is available at the tap of a button and will likely assist you in finding whatever info you’re looking for.
Despite how simple I’m making it seem, there’s still an extreme amount of strategy needed to rock at Civ. You won’t walk all over the super-smart computer players, and they’ll often gang up on you to kick your ass back to your hometown while you amass an army or twenty to siege critical cities for later bargaining.
There will be plenty of back and forth battles; some of which will confuse you (why did my super-duper tanks get slaughtered by age-old medieval knights?) and some will glitch (why are my horses sliding across the sea?!) but these minor flaws are far outweighed by the ease of entry to CivRev‘s entertaining and stylishly rendered fun-fest that is worth consideration from even the biggest skeptics and PC snobs who scoff at the idea of a Civ game on consoles.
[Rating: 4/5]
My biggest gripe with the Civ series is exactly what you described in the review; “why did my super-duper tanks get slaughtered by age-old medieval knights?”. All logic tells you that a steel tank would be able to at least stand up against medieval knights, no doubt killing many if not all. Yet somehow they take my tank out? Frustrating. But i’ve heard great things about Civ Revolution and i really enjoyed the demo, hopefully the game is on sale soon.