At the beginning of the game, players are tasked with the choice of choosing from one of sixteen historical civilisations to command, each with their own historical leader. Choices range from the ancient Aztecs through to the American civilisation as led by Abraham Lincoln. Each civilisation has a starting bonus (which can either be a technology, a Great Person, or a special ability) as well as four era bonuses which you will gain as you progress through the ages to aid you on your path to victory.
Victory comes in four different forms in Civilization: Revolution: cultural, technological, economic and everyone's favourite: domination. Each has particular conditions which need to be met before victory can be claimed, and using your civilisation-specific bonuses to tie into a particular victory condition is a good way to cultivate your path to glory. Those that seek a victory by imposing their culture on the world will be more inclined to a civilisation like the Egyptians, while military-minded players might choose the Germans and their veteran warriors in order to conquer the world by force. Like its predecessors, much of the fun from Civilization: Revolution comes through test driving each of the different civilizations to see which is better suited to your style of play. For those looking for a larger challenge, learning to adapt your own gaming style to that of a civilisation that you would not ordinarily choose in order to successfully grow your empire proves to be an equally rewarding experience.
Marching on the path to victory.
Once you have chosen which civilisation to lead, you'll be transported to your first city, the first step to sending your civilisation to glory. As you scroll around your surroundings, you'll see icons which indicate how much food, production, or trade each area currently produces. These resources are the key to your civilisation's expansion. Food adds to your population, production builds structures and units, while trade helps keep your vaults full of gold or furthers the scientific research capabilities of your civilisation - dependant on what you as a leader deem to be the more valuable commodity. As your city grows and expands out, you will be given the option of prioritising one resource over another - by giving your workers specific orders - or telling them which area they should concentrate their efforts on. Another factor to consider is that certain buildings and technologies have a great effect on your empire as they will be able to increase the amount of resources that can be stripped from each area, making every action a strategical element that will have repercussions as the game plows on.
Once you have firmly established your first city, it's time to begin the task of expanding your empire. At this point you will start building warriors to defend your city and to explore beyond the boundaries of your realm. Through your explorations you may come across a friendly village or two who are more than willing to grant you a new technology or some extra coin for your purse, or you may encounter a Barbarian force that threatens your city leaving you no option but to destroy them and pillage the loot from their rotting carcasses. Exploration can prove to be quite a rewarding adventure as you discover a natural wonder, such as a forest or desert, which also rewards your curiosity by lavishing you with a bonus of gold - not to mention the privilege of naming the newly discovered site after yourself. The 'Great Forest of PALGN,' has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Players are also able to unearth ancient artifacts which grant substantial bonuses towards your civilisation. All of these incentives make exploration of uncharted spaces a high priority of your game, by encouraging you to constantly keep looking beyond your borders for an advantage over your opponents.
As you explore uncharted lands, settle new cities and collate a large military force, you'll soon discover that you are not the only one treading this path. Eventually you will be contacted by leaders of other civilisations that share the same designs for domination as your own. Of course before any blood is spilt, these civilisations will try the diplomatic route. Some leaders will contact you in order to trade technologies, while others will try and bully you out of your hard-earned empire. Thankfully the game gives you the opportunity to push back and try your own brand of bullying tactics through the diplomacy panel. Whether you want to wage war on an entire civilisation or make peace with an enemy, the game makes these options available at the press of a button.
If war is what floats your boat, you'll be able to send your forces to duke it out with your enemy. The game's combat mechanic is simply a matter of clicking on an enemy unit's square and watching the action unfold. If your units are still standing at the end of the battle they will gain experience and they will earn special abilities - giving them an edge in battle.
Horse pwns man.
Compared to its elder PC brother, the combat of Revolutionhas been significantly streamlined, not to mention the number of units available throughout the ages has been significantly cut when compared to that of the PC iterations of the game. Thankfully, these changes to the PC formula of Civilization do not feel like glaring omissions. In fact, if anything, this streamlined process makes the title a little more welcoming to those that may have previously felt overwhelmed by a Civilization title. Though a Civ veteran may be inclined to feel otherwise.
Like all turn-based strategy titles, there is an absolute cadre of information which needs to be taken into account when playing Civilization: Revolution, though fortunately the built-in tools that are designed to help you take away much of the confusion and frustration that a first-time player would most likely suffer. Your swag of advisors will provide you with vital information about a number of things from units and buildings to your current technologies and what areas you should invest in to ensure a prosperous future for your civilisation. Unfortunately, the brilliant Civilopedia from other iterations of the game is a glaring omission from Civilization: Revolution, meaning that new players will need to take special care in listening to all of the information given to them by the tech planner of their advisors in order to piece together their intended actions. While this is what Civ vets have come to expect from the series, newcomers may be a little overwhelmed at times until they learn the ropes. For this reason, it's a good idea that new players take advantage of playing through the game's tutorial section.
Listening to your advisors is a key to the success of your empire.
Presentation wise, you'll find that Civilization Revolution isn't the prettiest thing to hit the DS as the game's interface focuses on being functional rather than overly pretty. The world of Civilization Revolution is quite symbol-heavy in its appearance, though thankfully the use of animated battle and the cartoon styled look of the game's advisors and world leaders provide the title with some graphical pretties. Thankfully the rather bland style adds to the title rather than detracting from it as helps players take in a wealth of information on a rather small space without feeling overly cluttered. At first players may find the screen to be too busy, but after a game or two, they will soon become accustomed to the game's style. That said, there are some issues to be had from Civilization making it's way onto the portable console which can detract from the overall enjoyment of the game. Players will find it difficult to decipher when there are a lot of units populating a small area of the screen or establish who is who when two civilisations of similar colour make an appearance. Detractions aside, the style works remarkably well, making it easy to navigate the game with the D pad and face buttons. More often than not, players will only find themselves turning to the stylus in order to give instructions to a particularly pesky unit that you just can't seem to select amongst the others. City management is also a breeze, and the only time you'll find yourself using the touch screen is when you need to select a particularly stubborn unit. As for aural accompaniment, the game is so chock full of average sound effects that you'll find yourself playing with the volume off more often than not.
Whether you play against AI or human opponents (if you can actually get through a Wi-Fi game without a drop out) you will quickly find yourself losing hours to the strategic fun inside of the game. While hardcore Civilization fans might be a little disappointed with the watered down gameplay that they find inside Sid Meier's Civilization: Revolution, those new to the Civilization series will find themselves wiling away many hours in this title which serves as a great entry point into the world of turn-based strategy titles.
Loading...
