Sid Meier's Civilization II

by MicroProse

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00002S8AV
• Item Weight: 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,374 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Build a powerful civilization that will thrive and dominate, then travel to new worlds to continue your epic journey of conquest into the unknown. Civilization II: Test of Time takes you where no civilization game has ever ventured, and the challenge awaits those who dare to reshape history, legend, and the future. Build, conquer, and defend. Lead the world through clever diplomacy and ruthless strength! This civilization includes three epic games covering 10 worlds with all-new civilization adventure, strategy, and game play.

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pity My Wife, the Civ II Widow, February 22, 2001

By 

Sir Charles Panther "Life is hard. It's hard... (Alexandria, Virginny, USandA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civilization II (CD-ROM)

Satanically addictive, this is the Big Kahuna, the Be-All-End-All of the God games. I strongly recommend this game for the PC gamer who is more of a thinker, plotter, a closeted tyrant than the ubiquitous kill-'em-all shooter. I caveat this hearty recommendation with the very serious warning that if you take to this game, it will alter your time management and your approach to your free time. No, I don't live to get home and hit the Civ II, but my playing of this game has been a significant part of my free time since I picked it up in 1995.

The basic concept is to explore the world, develop your civilization, undertake and endure challenges, and eventually either conquer the world or successfully escape to Alpha Centauri. This is how you "win" the game.

The game itself is somewhat complicated, despite the tutorial and available pop-up helpful hints. Sit down and read the manual a couple of times before you get seriously into the game. The manual itself is a bit rambling, and to my mind poorly organized. Both the table of contents and index do not lend themselves to quickly finding comprehensive answers to questions that arise as you play the game. There is also a large-format fold-out poster describing units, terrain, and civilization advances. This poster is helpful, but only once you have really begun to understand the more esoteric workings of the game.

There are some surprisingly sophisticated nuances to the game, such as submarines being able to carry cruise missiles, and the ability of spies to bribe units/cities, and to repel the espionage attempts of enemy diplomats and spies. To my mind, the capabilties of settlers and engineers are a bit limited, especially in terms of capabilities to modify terrain, but this is certainly not a reason to reject the game.

The graphics are very good, but there are no serious action bits to wow you. The characters/units move in rather unspectacular fashion, and the battle engagements are characterized by the units moving together and then being obscured by "dust" as they duke it out. The audio is quite good, with various bits punctuating events, such as crowds cheering for the building of certain city improvements. Here's some extremely esoteric trivia about Civ II audio: the game's sound of the ancient battle engagement is a modified recording of the battle sounds from the fight between the Black Knight and King Arthur in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Listen to the audio, then check the movie, and you'll instantly see the connection.

The rewards for achieving the various Wonders of the World (The Colossus, Eiffel Tower, Hoover Dam, the Manhattan Project, etc.) are excellently developed full-motion video clips, complete with original music. The "Leonardo DaVinci's Workshop" is a personal favorite.

The beauty of this game is that it is always different, and always challenging. There are a number of difficulty levels which allow you either to be seriously challenged (that is, see your civilization wiped out very, very quickly) or so ridiculously unchallenged that you conquer the world in no time at all. You can modify the rules and a number of parameters to vary the game, as well as play live online. There are also a number of add-ons and a toolkit which allow you to seriously modify the games you put together.

This is a fantastic game for the thinker, the schemer, the planner. If you enjoy Risk, chess, or other strategy games, this one will very much make you happy.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The II in "Civilization II" Does mean twice as good., November 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civilization II (CD-ROM)

If you have played Civilization and loved it like I did you will not be able to stop playing this! There are so many more options and strategies to do. When you get this you have to try the different scenarios like "After the Apocalypse" and "Atlantis". There are about 26 different scenarios. There are now many more Wonders of the Worlds. You have to try this one.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only strategy game that ever mattered., January 3, 2001

By 

Shawn J McKirgan (Pleasant Hill, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sid Meier's Civilization II (CD-ROM)

This is THE word in strategy gaming. I find it hard to believe that anyone who has been playing war games for very long has missed this one. In my opinion, this is the best game ever made, for any platform. Civilization is based on the original game "Empire" by interstel. In "Empire" you controlled armies that invaded foreign lands - discovering as you conquered. In Civilizations I and II, you build an empire from the ground up. Political, economic, scientific, military, and social issues abound. If I were to encounter an alien who did not understand anything about human culture, I would give him/her a copy of Civ II with a Pentium 300 and check back with them in 3 months.

Unfortunately they would probably have taken over the world by then....

Shawn