Overview:

At first I was a little hesitant to buy this game because I have unfortunately never played a Civilization game. I didn’t know if I would be able to get into it or not because I have a problem with turn-based strategy games like that. However, after I tinkered around for a while and got used to it, I started to understand the game’s mechanics and how to play it effectively.

Review:

There really isn’t an actual story to the game. The game is characterized by the basic theme of world domination. You can either choose a scenario such as Attack of the Huns, or simply play a random map. You can choose from 16 civilizations which are all from different time periods, but each is well known none the less.

The game has a pretty basic setup for a turn based strategy game, although for a mobile game especially, on the iPhone, this is the first time I did not feel like I was playing just a mobile, game but something more. For example, a basic game starts by selecting a map or a scenario, then a difficulty, which has a generous selection of 6, followed by the civilization you want to play as. Each of the 16 different leaders that you can choose and their corresponding civilization has its own benefits of choosing. Your Civilization starts out pretty primitive but eventually grows to the point where you can build units of war, buildings, wonders, or roads to other cities.

The look of the game is displayed with a map and pictures representing the different cities or people. Your civilization starts out around 4000 B.C. and you make your decisions quickly in the beginning of the game. Each turn represents 100 years until you start to reach a more recent time era and then turns start to represent 50 years, and then 30, and so on. Further into the game you have many more decisions to make and each turn takes a lot longer to complete, especially when you start to take over cities and have many military units to guide.

A higher difficulty will require more decisions, the A.I. is more aggresive, and there are more turns allowed. I played on the easiest difficulty which starts at 2000 B.C. and ends at 2100 A.D. Luckily I won a cultural victory at around year 2098 A.D..

There are 4 different ways to achieve victory other than running out of turns and being in the lead. In the more difficult games it’s easier to focus on one whereas an easier game you will most likely lead in every area.

• Technological Victory: Be the first to reach Alpha Centauri, which requires research for all 47 techs before someone else wins victory and builds a spaceport and launches a mission to space.
• Domination Victory: Capture 4 enemy Capitals out of the 5 civilizations you face. You don’t even have to eradicate them, just capture their capitol.
• Economic Victory: Build up an amount of 20,000 gold and build the world bank before some else defeats you.
• Cultural Victory: Build 20 Wonders (i.e The Great Wall) or attract Great people (i.e. Karl Marx). Great people will come to your cities if your culture is flourishing, or you can steal them from other cities. Great people also add benifits such as 50% increase in science as an example for Albert Einstein.

Final Words:

The game succeeds as more than just a mobile phone game, and it really pushes the iPhones as more than just a phone. I was sucked right into the game once I got more familiar with the franchise which I regret not playing in the past.

Pros

• A lot of versatility
• Really fun
• Rule the world
• Easy to understand

Cons

• Can freeze or crash occasionally
• Sprites disappear from play field when scrolling

Score:

Overall: 9.0/10 (Outstanding)