Civilization II: Multiplayer (Gold Edition)

Discount Price: $39.99

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PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Civ II [Posted on 2004-01-29]
This is a great edition to your collection of games. Not the best graphics, and may not be as exciting because it is turn-based, but is very addictive. You can build cities, attack and make piece with other civilizations and it has some educational qualities. The multiplayer is fun but, it you have to wait long waits until it is your turn. If your patient it is great. I would reccomend this to anyone who likes civilization managing games should definitly add this to their collection.

Best Strategy Game Ever? [Posted on 2004-02-06]
Turn-based strategy is a kind of archaic genre. Not in the sense that it can't be great--4 of 5 of Computer Gaming World's nominees for best strategy game in 2003 were turn-based--but that it hearkens back to an earlier era, before Real Time Strategy games like "WarCraft" and "Command and Conquer" ruled the earth. There's less immediacy to a turn-based game. They favor long, drawn-out thought and elaborate moves (and, yes, micromanagement) over immediate visceral thrills. Even though RTSes were born of TBSes, they've outstripped them in terms of popularity the way football outstrips chess.

So, what do you do with a game like Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition, which wasn't even state of the art ten years ago? (This version was released about a year after the original, and is not substantially different, except for some bug fixes and lots of scenarios.)

Well, first, recognize that Civ II (before this add-on) was The Best of its time. And taken in that context, may have been the Best Strategy Game Ever. In fact, if you're still running a 60mhz Pentium with 16MB, you may as well load this up and just pretend it's 1996. It's a five-star game, hands down.

But what about now? Can you fire up Civ II like you might fire up, say, "Heroes of Might and Magic 2"? Is it still fun, once you've conquered Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and experienced the rich detail of Sid Meier's Civlization III?

Kinda. It moves at a lightning clip, relative to Civ 3. It's windowed, so you can play it at work without getting caught. (Hey, I work at home, no chance of me getting caught, but some people like to know these things.) There are some very cool aspects of Civ 2 that are missing from Civ 3, like the Wonder videos. (They don't add much to the gameplay, but they're still fun to watch.)

But mostly, Civ 1 & 2, for all their addictiveness, eventually wore out their welcome with a series of annoyances, many of which have been resolved, or at least ameliorated, in Civ 3. It's hard to go back. Civ 2 actually feels sort of shallow, easier to manipulate, almost dinky, in retrospect.

Of course, there are some people who maintain that Civ 2 is the zenith of Civ-game development. And taken in context, Civ 2 was probably a greater accomplishment =for=the=time=. But it's hard going back.

My recommendation: Unless you haven't played Civ III, or you have a historical interest in Civ games, it's too late to appreciate how good this game was when it was released.

Great Game!!!! [Posted on 2004-03-03]
Hours of fun, will be played for many years!

Best Strategy and just best GAME period!! [Posted on 2005-06-17]
I have been a big fan of the Civilization series from the first time I played the first one on a bunch of floppy disks for a computer not even made any more. I've played every Civilization game made from the first one all the way to the various expansions of Civilization III and this game STILL holds the mark of excellence to what a great strategy and over all fun game are supposed to be. I remember when this game came out. It was the ultimate edition of Civilization. Everything the first was but so much more. Everything was fine tuned and perfected. Great sound effects and music as well as some nice little extras. Plus lots of additions never before seen in the Civilization series. Where as Civilization III took away a lot that made the series a lot of fun, this added so much more then the first had and truly made for an enjoyable experience that is still as much fun to this day. Far superior to anything else to ever hold the Civilization name and easily is still the top of the top as far as Turn Based games go.

You start out as one of many historic civilizations from Earths past and present. You can choose to be the Americans, Aztecs, Germans, Japanese, Zulu, Vikings and many more from all points of the globe. You start out with just a lone settler in the middle of an unknown area. You build one simple city and from there you just mold it in the path you want your civilization to go.

Perhaps you want to become a warmongering civilization and take over the rest of the world and put Napoleon and Ghengis Khan to shame. Or you want to be a peaceful civilization and make Ghandi look power hungry in comparison. The fun of this game is you really can take it in any path you want and build your civilizations as you see fit.

With hundreds of things to build there is rarely any time in the game where you don't have something you can add to your cities and civilization. Maybe you want to go for the Wonders of the World where only one Civilization can get very special buildings that give you abilities that will have you with a huge advantage over everyone else. Or you want to build great defense in each city so that no one will be able to break through and take over your cities. If you want to be a war mongering civ there are many great units for that too. From simple pikemen all the way up to nuclear missiles. Truly a test of time in every sense. A voyage that will take you from the begining of civilization all the way to the mid 2000's.

There are two ways to win the game. One is to take over the world and be the last civilization standing. The other for the non war monger is the spaceship path. Be the first to build a space ship and reach Alpha Centrui and you win. There is also the run out of time and have the highest score victory if all else fails and you reach the last year. There are 5 different difficulities so there are many options for how tough you want the computer opponents to be. You can either manhandle em or be humbled, either way it still is fun.

Some of the most thrilling parts of this game are just the little extras. Like when a Wonder of the World is built by your civilization you get a little avi movie that will suddenly load and it will show you a real life movie represenation of what is being built with an explanation of what it does. It's really cool to see the Statue of Libery wonder movie for instance and you see all the people arriving from over seas happy to see the Statue of Liberty before they show a few pics of it in the sun set. Also they have actual advisors that will talk to when you ask to speak to your council. There are five of these (Military, Science, Trade, Foreign and Entertainment) each of them portrayed by a real life actor who will tell you how you are doing in each area. So you may get the military guy yelling at you for not having city walls or the science guy calling you Einstien for being #1 in science advancements when compared to the rest of the civilizations. Every unit and building built has it's own sound effects too. Its truly a very complete and overall FUN game.

The gold edition also has a lot of extras. Like multiplayer ability where you can play against others on line or in a hot seat situation (where you keep on switching off turns on the same computer) has loads of scenario packs that were released some time after CivII was to add some more extras. So you can visit some futuristic worlds or relive some old battles from the Earth's past. Some of the scenarios have totaly new unique units giving you a whole new playing experience but still keeping to the same Civilization II familiarity so you can jump right into it as if you were reliving a famous battle once fought in our history.

I hope with Civilizatin IV they reutrn to what made the game so much fun and complete. This game truly had everything that any strategy game could ever want. Everyone could play it as it catered to every level of ablility and the extra bells and whistles really put it over the top even to todays games that seem to be more graphicly based then fun based. Civilization III cut out a lot of the things that were in this game and while it's still fun I still find myself playing this one more often as it is still just as good every time. Sometimes you just can't beat the classics and if there a classic that still stands the test of time. This is it.

You will not be sorry adding this version of Civilization to your collections. The gold edition has every expansion included with it and you can jump right into it as if you had always known how to play it. There will always be more games to join the market that will try and out do this game, but I am yet to find one that has yet to out do this. Find out for yourself why taking over the world is so much fun and be prepared to lose lots of sleep wanting to just do "One more turn.."

Simple, Works Well, Mod-able [Posted on 2008-01-20]
Civ II contains most if not all of the crucial elements in building a civlization, if such things can be "built". Thus, its simplicity is not much of a drawback for me, although today's games can be more realistic because of their more powerful game engines.

One of the winning attributes of Civ II is the extent to which it can be modified. By making changes to the existence of certain political ideologies, the connectivity and contents of the technology tree, the distribution of various natural resources (food vs industrial vs trade), and the general & special attributes of different units, the game can be made both more historic and less tedious. You can consequently influence how well different strategies would work out, or introduce new dynamics to the play. Even the game's looks can be altered, so don't forget to try out some of the more extensive mods made by fans.

I recommend Civ II to players who appreciate individuality, casual fun, and can overlook its lack in some respects.

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