Hmm, study for a test or play Civ IV? Play Civ IV, of course. A ten-page paper due in two days? Duh, play more Civ IV. Have a stack of other games and books to review? It’s a no-brainer, play more Civ IV. Ran out of clothes to wear because you haven’t done the laundry in two weeks? Haven’t you been paying attention? Wear dirty clothes (by now you smell, anyway) and play more Civ IV!

As you can tell, I’m just a tad bit obsessed with Civilization IV. The fact that I’ve also recently gone back to school full-time after a hiatus of ten years, and am trying to simultaneously keep up with all my church activities, family schedules and review responsibilities is only slightly problematic. Sleep is over-rated, anyway.

I’m one of those people that always reads the manual before beginning the job at hand. So yes, I always play the tutorial in any game, whether I’m familiar with the series or not. Some of these tutorials are good, and some are wretched. But this is the first time one gives me the warm fuzzies all over just thinking about it.

Sid Meier is the original creator of the Civilization series. While different companies have designed and published the different installments of the series, the series itself has retained the basic gameplay features, largely due to Mr. Meier’s continuing involvement. Civilization III was an excellent game, but offered an emotionally detached experience. While engaging, it just wasn’t as addictive as Heroes of Might and Magic and Caesar III. However, when I began the tutorial in Civilization IV and was immediately greeted by an image of Sid himself with the words: “Hi, I’m Sid. Welcome to Civilization IV,” I sensed that this game was going to be different. Sure enough, by the end of the tutorial, I felt like dear old Sid was a member of my family.

This tutorial is hands down the best-designed computer game tutorial, as of this writing. It should be required for all game designers to examine and learn from it. People who have never played an empire building game in their life will be able to successfully play this one. How can they not, when Sid tells them to: “Click on the settler by placing the cursor over the settler and pressing the left mouse button.” Can’t get any plainer than that. And don’t let this fool you into thinking that this tutorial is simple or patronizing, it isn’t. Coupled with the direct language is plenty of prime meat to satisfy anyone’s taste. This tutorial really demonstrates each basic concept of the game, along with a great, step-by-step menu item description. It could have explained a bit more about the relationship between earning money, commerce and production on the area tiles, but this is a tiny quibble.

This is a revamped edition of the Civ series. Don’t worry, the essential features of Civilization are still present, but many aspects have been changed and improved, providing a much more streamlined and smooth playing experience. The biggest changes have to do with the control players have over their own gaming experience. Now, players have more choices over the game’s length, spread and difficulty. The sandbox mode offers an incredibly wide range of choices for those compulsive “tinkerers” out there, with a WorldBuilder editor for people who want instant in-game control over their worlds, changeable XML files for people who can edit simple text source files, and Python files to add special terrain tile effects for those can manage simple scripting. And, sometime in early 2006, Firaxis will be adding an SDK feature that will allow gamers to actually play with the computer’s AI. Cool!

The interface has also been changed into a much more intuitive menu with more of an RTS flavor. Information and menu choices are instantly available by either scrolling over units and buildings with the mouse, or by hot-keys. Retrieving different types of informational displays is very easy with menu choices at the top and bottom of the screen. The menu icons are logical representations of their functions, and are quite attractively drawn, as well.

I especially like the “The Big Picture” option available after a unit or research technology has been completed, allowing players to instantly see how the improvement fits into other choices now available. This is helpful, considering that with so many items being built at the same time over many turns, it’s easy to forget just what the ultimate goal was originally. The resource productions of the tiles could have better information and explanation, though. It’s more difficult to get an overall sense of production coming in vs production going out than it could be, even with the advisor screens. These screens could be more informative than they are.

Technology options have been tweaked, mainly to allow for alternative choices for various paths, instead of the rigidity in the previous versions. Now, players can choose one of two techs to lead to a specific tech one step further, instead of having to research both to access the later tech. The technology is no longer so tightly tied to the era concept, either.

Different game modes are available at first start-up: Single player, which includes Play Now and Scenario options, and Multiplayer. The Play Now is the traditional campaign mode of strategy games, where players begin in the dawn of time and march forward through history until they win against the computer players. Scenarios offer specific games wherein players have existing worlds with different challenges to meet. The multiplayer mode offers a multiplicity of choices: play over a LAN or Internet connection, play a “hot-seat” game on the same computer, or even play by email! I’m definitely intrigued by the email option, as I for one don’t have time to sit down and play a game for an extended block of time, but could send emails at various times. I really enjoyed playing the Hasbro email games from several years ago.

Each civilization leader has two traits available, as in previous games, but these traits are new. Traits include: Creative (+2 culture per turn/city), Industrious (+50% wonder production), Expansive (+2 health/city), and Organized (-50% civic upkeep cost), among others. These traits also allow for ½ production cost for certain buildings.

Diplomacy has a more natural feel to it, with decisions more directly affecting how the neighbors perceive you. A new Open Borders option is available, where players can choose whether to allow free access to their areas. This affects trade and diplomatic relationships. Players can also try to influence neighbors in relations with other nations. Combat has been improved with more emphasis on RPG elements of upgrades and experience points. Units’ strengths and weaknesses have also been more logically tied in with specific civilization levels. The upgrades and experience points are fun features, although to be honest, I’m more of a diplomacy gal than a fighter.

Cities can now be built to focus on specific goals, such as increased resources and production values, plus increased research and culture points. Resources have been aligned with buildings to increase production; for example, building a farm on a wheat resource will increase the farm’s production value, over just placing it on a plain terrain tile. This allows cities to be built near specific groupings of resources like animals, silk, ocean products and more. This in turn leads to cities that can specialize in commerce, military units and also specialists, for those cities with increased population points. Population can be converted into specialists, who increase a city’s production, culture and research by just existing. They also increase the chance of getting a Great Person, which is a one-use unit that can be converted into a sort of “power-up” for a city.

Gameplay can be as easy or as difficult as desired. New players can play the tutorial, and then begin at the easiest difficulty level in a short game. The manual has excellent advice for basic games, which details the first items that players may want to build, such as warriors, workers and farms. The game itself will also highlight terrain tiles that it considers important to build on, during a turn. The Advanced section of the manual explains in more detail the various components of the units, the civilizations and the victory conditions. Players, don’t forget to build roads, which I often did at the beginning; a tile is not productive unless it’s in the city’s sphere of influence or attached to the city by a road.

The game’s 3D graphic engine makes for a very pretty game. The units, buildings and backgrounds are crisply drawn, with a great amount of detail. The animations are neat, with little puffs of smoke coming out of the mines, jewels sparkling at some mines, and animals moving around on the husbandry and hunting tiles. The water is animated, the boats move around, and the people work at their various tasks. It’s all anyone could wish for in the graphics department.

The musical score is also exceptional. I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed in-game music more, especially the introductory music. The sound effects are numerous and varied, and players will enjoy the ambient sounds.

This is a huge game. Even with the wonderful tutorial, the incredibly thick manual (a real one, not the online version companies opt for these days), and the pop-up tip windows, it’s easy to get lost in this game, due to the sheer vastness. Many tasks have been revamped into more of an automatic, behind-the-scenes type of maintenance work, which helps somewhat, but the game is just so big that new players may still feel somewhat overwhelmed at first. However, re-starting an initial single-player game at the easy level a few times will help reinforce certain necessary jobs and tasks that are needed to be successful. Experienced players will be able to jump right in and just enjoy, as the intuitive interface takes a lot of the guesswork out, and helps keep everything on track.

I can’t find anything I don’t like in this game. While there are a few things I would like to see improved or added, like better advisor windows and maybe an added objective aspect to the Play Now mode, these are mainly from my own personal preferences. The game looks great, plays great, and with so many different modes of play, will last a long time. The ability to get into the code and really play with it is too cool. The tutorial is awesome, and having a real manual is a definite plus, unless you’re one of those people who never bother with them.

This is a must-have game for any strategy enthusiast, even if he or she is a die-hard RTS player. The game offers a deep, rich and fulfilling play experience that will last for many months. Besides all the things to do in the game, it looks and sounds wonderful, too. And above all, it’s fun and addictive. A superb achievement from the team at Firaxis.

Gameplay: 10
It’s incredibly fun to play, and that is the point of making a PC game.

Graphics: 9.0
The graphics were very nice and detailed, plus the animations were fun to watch. However, the animations could have had more things going on at the same time to be perfect.

Sound: 9.5
Love the music! It reminds me somewhat of The Lion King.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Even the easy levels are challenging, because the game is just so big. But once learned, the game becomes easier, and with turn-based gameplay, it’s not a punishing game.

Concept: 9.0
While the main things have been done before in previous Civilization editions, this latest game has so many new features, plus new takes on the old, that it has almost reinvented itself.

Multiplayer: 9.0
The multiplayer mode has been made a whole lot easier, and has a ton of different ways to play with all these people.

Overall: 9.6
This is hands-down the best turn-based strategy game of the year. It is emotionally satisfying and addictive. For myself, it ranks right up there with Heroes of Might and Magic II and Caesar III for obsessive gameplay. Heroes of Might and Magic V is coming out next year and it will be interesting to see how the two will compare, but for now, Civilization IV is the one.