Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

As a huge fan of Sid Meier's Previous Titles from the origional Civilization and Colonization to the more recent ones, i just HAD to buy this!!!
Another strong point for me was it lacked Civ 4's annoying Political, Legal, and economic Warfare that in my oppinion should have been left out or at least been a toggle on/off option.

I will start with this games good points.

- Its beutifull, not quite a scratch on what the PS3 is capable off, but in comparison to the usual run-of-the mill Empire builder, Civ Revolution is stunning, unit animations, diplomatic animations, cut scenes, there all very well done!! the world map really is quite good to look at too!!

- Almost All PS3 games can be grouped into one of 3 Catagorys,
First Person Shooter, Role Play Game, or Driving Game.
Civ Rev breaks the mould and really is a unique title for the console market. a refreshing change.

- Some of the in game concepts are innovative, like the controls, the ability… more »

As a huge fan of Sid Meier's Previous Titles from the origional Civilization and Colonization to the more recent ones, i just HAD to buy this!!!
Another strong point for me was it lacked Civ 4's annoying Political, Legal, and economic Warfare that in my oppinion should have been left out or at least been a toggle on/off option.

I will start with this games good points.

- Its beutifull, not quite a scratch on what the PS3 is capable off, but in comparison to the usual run-of-the mill Empire builder, Civ Revolution is stunning, unit animations, diplomatic animations, cut scenes, there all very well done!! the world map really is quite good to look at too!!

- Almost All PS3 games can be grouped into one of 3 Catagorys,
First Person Shooter, Role Play Game, or Driving Game.
Civ Rev breaks the mould and really is a unique title for the console market. a refreshing change.

- Some of the in game concepts are innovative, like the controls, the ability to retreat, and some of the things in game are clever concepts compared to previous Civ titles.

However, Here is where the Fairy Tale ends.. This game has a lot of Bad Points. Read on in Dismay..

- Little Economic Control. You cant control your empires Taxes, What their spent on, or other aspects that you could do in other Civ Games, the only real economic control you have is through your selection of Government.

- Improving your City's You dont improve any of the surroundings around your citys any more, you simply let a unit of your population farm that square. Personally, i feel that developing your territory is half the fun! not any more, a citys radius is basicly "fire and Forget"

- Customisation of the map. - There is none! the maps are pretty small, and you have no customisation at all, for example, some people prefer big continents, others like small islands.
Its not uncommon in Civ Rev to have all players on one land mass!
the maps are simply un-interesting and have no variety.

- Tech Tree. You can quite happily go through the game selecting the first tech on the list every time.. Unless your playing the top 2 difficulty settings, theres no real need to pick and choose your technological development.

- A.I. The AI in Civ Rev is dreadfull! in previous titles each nation had its own personality and development style, in Civ Rev, there all genericly the same.. And there not really that clever, even on Emperor or Deity difficulty.

-Diplomacy. - The only diplomatic options are basicly War or Peace, Buy and Sell tech, and pay someone to attack an enemy.
The diplomacy is less involved than even the origional Civilization.
Also, after contact, its only a matter of time untill they turn on you. its predictably boring. and theres no relationships there.

- Animated charachters "Simlish" the drivvel that the animated charachters jabber endlessly quickly gets annoying and youl soon mute them.

Multiplayer and online content, The multiplayer often doesnt work, its certainly almost broken, and the "Game of the week" thing, whats that about?? seems like a random game with no explanation.

- End Game. When you, or another nation completes one of the many goals to win the game, it just ends!! no option to play on!!
This was infuriating for me the first time, as i had planned to carry on and finish my empire, build a spaceship and conquer the world.
BIG mistake leaving that out.

All in all, Civilization Revolution isnt the revolutionary next step in the series, if anything its Civilisation lite. Theres very little depth and the novelty soon wears off.. Fans of the Genre will find it Shallow and poor, take away the graphics, id expect this quality game on a mobile phone download. Poor Effort.

Well if you are like me and have been craving Keyboard/Mouse support for console Strategy Games, Is Civilization Revolution the answer? Well yes and no!

The game has had most of its guts removed (from Civilization four), which is not necessary a bad thing. However personally I found they have removed too much from the advancements they have made since Civilization two.

Don't get me wrong I am aware why they have done so, it was to allow the game to work with the controller, as you can now group soldiers/warriors into armies (nice touch), but the whole diplomacy side seems to have its guts removed too, I never thought I would say this usually playing Civilization as a War Morgerer, but it is a shame.

It is like - Lets make peace, the Civs go "Yea!!! Have a little dance" all the time, no negotiation.

There is also no leader traits from Civilization Four, for example if you were trying to make a treaty with Neapolitan you knew eventually he would attack you as… more »

Well if you are like me and have been craving Keyboard/Mouse support for console Strategy Games, Is Civilization Revolution the answer? Well yes and no!

The game has had most of its guts removed (from Civilization four), which is not necessary a bad thing. However personally I found they have removed too much from the advancements they have made since Civilization two.

Don't get me wrong I am aware why they have done so, it was to allow the game to work with the controller, as you can now group soldiers/warriors into armies (nice touch), but the whole diplomacy side seems to have its guts removed too, I never thought I would say this usually playing Civilization as a War Morgerer, but it is a shame.

It is like - Lets make peace, the Civs go "Yea!!! Have a little dance" all the time, no negotiation.

There is also no leader traits from Civilization Four, for example if you were trying to make a treaty with Neapolitan you knew eventually he would attack you as that is what his character is like.

Do I like the Game? Well I love all the last Civilization titles, so yes! But I do wish they would have retained more of the guts.

It is commonly known that they removed the guts and made the game easy to finish in 3 to 6 hours, because it was built for 360 and Wii with no Hard Drive - so no saves, shame whem the PS3 has hard drive as standard!. They should have had two sections to the game one for epic battles (saves) and quick game (no saves) .... You won't have your Epic 60+ hour PC battles here..... Shame!.

Giving it 5 stars as it is easy to control and still very very enjoyable title.

Okay, this game really is generating a lot of debate 'is it worth of the title Civ' - 'is it Civ-lite or Diet Civ' - 'what market is this game for?', etc. etc.

I think what you have to remember is that although it is Civ, it's a new direction, a new franchise and therefore should not be compared directly to Civ4 - as that was a totally different beast. Yes it's a game set in the Civ universe, but this is geared towards a more action-orientated player and also for people that don't have 50+ to spend playing a single campaign (that'll be me!)

Yes it has Civilsation in the title, I think that's where the comparisons should end (controversial opinion, but I think fair)

Right, now for the actual game...

Bad points

- size of the maps (yes they are a bit small, but not prohibitively so, in fact when you have about 10 cities on the go, it's nice not to be scrolling endlessly across the globe!)

- little customisation (hopefully remedied in a patch, it would… more »

Okay, this game really is generating a lot of debate 'is it worth of the title Civ' - 'is it Civ-lite or Diet Civ' - 'what market is this game for?', etc. etc.

I think what you have to remember is that although it is Civ, it's a new direction, a new franchise and therefore should not be compared directly to Civ4 - as that was a totally different beast. Yes it's a game set in the Civ universe, but this is geared towards a more action-orientated player and also for people that don't have 50+ to spend playing a single campaign (that'll be me!)

Yes it has Civilsation in the title, I think that's where the comparisons should end (controversial opinion, but I think fair)

Right, now for the actual game...

Bad points

- size of the maps (yes they are a bit small, but not prohibitively so, in fact when you have about 10 cities on the go, it's nice not to be scrolling endlessly across the globe!)

- little customisation (hopefully remedied in a patch, it would be nice to generate your own maps, change the size of maps, how many turns you are allowed, win conditions, terraform, etc.)

- focus on military (yes, it does seem you are producing endless archers, catapults and riflemen to defend your cities, but you can still win with culture or technology if you're sneaky enough, human opponents should take care of this)

- online (doesn't currently appear to be working, have not been able to connect to an online game yet, but I'm sure this is being worked on!)

Good Points

- 1080p bold, colourful, detailed graphics, with some excellent battle animations and the advisors / leaders are humourous and well animated

- music and fx are chunky and effective, and nice touches like the Civ 4 theme thrown in also adds to the fun

- humour really prevents the game from being too 'stuffy' ranging from little response you give to other leaders to funny animations, all assist with the 'fun' aspect

- playability (the most important factor) 4 ways to win, loads of scenarios, game of the week, a potential endless online multiplayer community, so many ways to play in-game - and you really can lose hours to this game - the 'one more turn' is now replaced with 'one more game'

- controls - it's clear how much time has gone into this, managing cities and armies is effortless

So there you go! The demo is available on both Xbox Live and PSN - so you can try before you buy, however, I think once you have had a go of the demo, you'll be buying it in no time!

An essential purchase.