Civilization Revolutions

It’s Civ, Jim, but not as we know it – not as we know it.

There are some combinations that seem made in heaven. Coffees and cream; Bogart and Bacall; crack addiction and nasty sores. If ever any creationist wanted to make a case for Intelligent Design, this is where they should be starting. Another of those classic and perfect combinations would have to any Civilisation game and the PC. Right?

Well, once upon a time, maybe, but Civilization Revolutions is making a good case that Civ may well match up perfectly with – of all things – the Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo DS.

Yes, I’m sure that, as we just printed those words, a tumult of Alderaanian proportions just cried out in one anguished voice. And yet, our hands cramping from a couple of mammoth Civ sessions, we’re very pleased to say that the naysayers may well be quite wrong. CivRev is classic Civ given new, albeit cartoon-ey life.

At first glance, it really does feel just like Civ on a PC. You’ve got 16 cultures to choose from, each with their own exaggerated and most ‘typical’ leader, such as Abe Lincoln for America and Cleopatra for the Egyptians. You start each normal game with one Warrior unit and a Settler unit, which is more or less in the best spot to start a city anyway. From there, it’s classic stuff all the way. Expend your nation, conquer Barbarians, negotiate or open hostilities with other nations, and research away on the tech tree.

If you’ve ever played any of the previous games, you’ll be able to settle down to CivRev and get stuck right in, but even newcomers should be able to pick up the game quite quickly thanks to some very important differences.

For one thing, a lot of the micromanagement that used to plague PC users, such as unrest, pollution and so on (I will not miss those civil uprisings one bit –ed), is gone. This streamlines play immensely, and it’s not something that even a veteran player will miss. Similarly, most of the maps are far smaller, and the average game in this version is designed to play out over hours, not days. That might leave a few purists grumbling, but the heart of Civ gameplay is intact.

The biggest change to the series is in the remarkably cartoony presentation. Cities are bright with colours and exaggerated angles, advisors caper around the screen sprouting gobbledygook that would make a telly-tubby look smart, and everything just seems that much... cheerier.

We’ve not yet gotten to nuke a neighbour, so we can’t wait to see how they turn atomic holocaust into a charming laugh-fest.

This exterior mood may well turn a lot of people off, and it does at times make it difficult to achieve that old state of Civ nirvana, where you lived and breathed with the pulse of your chosen nation. Pay closer attention, however, and you’ll notice that while you may not be able to look up all the usual level of detail on the older PC version, the overblown style of the art in the game actually allows game details to be translated visually.



When a unit dings up to Veteran status, it goes from looking like a grunt to looking like a hardcore soldier. Similarly, the posture and behaviour of your neighbours is a good indicator as to their own confidence and status.

Plus, watching your own advisors push each other off-screen as they fight over what upgrade is best for your empire is a guilty kind of pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.

Multiplayer is of course still up in the air, but we can presume that with good Xbox Live support there’s no reason that CivRev’s online play will not be any less engrossing as Civ4’s, which has eaten more than a day or five of our life as it is.

If you can ignore – or even better, embrace! – the new look of the game, Civilzation Revolutions has a lot of offer stalwart fans and neophytes alike. In fact, we expect that it will serve as an excellent bridge for people who have been playing since Civ 1 to bring a whole new generation of generals into the fray. And we have to ask, can you ever really get tired of burning Washington to the ground?