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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best Strategy Games of all time!!!, July 25, 2003
This review is from: Civilization II: Multiplayer (Gold Edition) (CD-ROM)
So, you just read my title line... Am I stretching the truth? No. I have played this game for YEARS. I first began to play it in 1996. First thing to note: if you have Civilization 2, the major upgrade here is the ability to play over a network (which works pretty darn well). Second: this pack also includes some quite impressive scenarios. To be honest, I was surprised at the Viking scenario, it was truly different from the standard Civ2 game. Overall, the beauty of this game is that is is deep, yet easy to learn. It is fun, but not "arcade-like". There is strategy, but it is tempered with action. You can be: diplomatic or iron-fisted, peaceful or war-like, science oriented or a land-grabber or even a money grubber. This game has nearly every facet of enjoyment that you could hope for. The most amazing thing is that you can learn something new nearly everytime you play. The key features to the game are as follows:
Build Cities and Improvements (like aqueducts, etc)
Build Wonders of the World (which give you special traits)
Build Armies
Establish trade routes
Conquer Enemies
Ally with friends
Expand your population
and finally...
Build and send a space ship to Alpha Centauri Simply put, this game is stunning. You will lose many good hours of your life into it...and never feel an iota of guilt or regret. This game works well on all PCs from a Pentium 90 and up, so if your machine is older, no worries. This is unquestionably the best strategy game I have ever played.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Strategy and just best GAME period!!, June 16, 2005
This review is from: Civilization II: Multiplayer (Gold Edition) (CD-ROM)
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.."
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strategy, September 10, 2002
This review is from: Civilization II: Multiplayer (Gold Edition) (CD-ROM)
Civ2 is about planning for the long run, while remaining viable in the present. The ultimate goal of the game is to either make it to Alpha Centauri first or wipe everyone else off the face of the planet. You have to balance scientific development, military expansion/protection, and your people's happiness. If any one of these factors falls too far behind your competitors your civilization could be in serious trouble. This is a great game, but very time intensive. It takes a while to build an army to go wipe out your neighbor or make it up the technology ladder to build a spaceship. However, the time invested is well worth it. Seeing your enemies grovel as you capture all their cites or trump them technologically is simply wonderful. There is a lot of micromanaging of cities needed as well, especially as your empire grows larger. However, once given an instruction your cities are good about following it, as long as the people stay happy. I recommend this game for all ages. It doesn't have graphic violence, and the military route isn't a must. You can win the game with peaceful intentions as long as you are prepared to defend yourself.
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