Sid Meier's Civilization II (Jewel Case)

by Atari

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004VXAZ
• Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,541 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Civilization II

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite possibly the world's most perfect game..., December 5, 2001

By 

uffda_bill (Minnesota) - See all my reviews

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

So, you just read my title line...

Am I stetching the truth? No.

I have played this game for YEARS. I first began to play it in 1996.

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 Armys
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 machince is older, no worries.

This is unquestionably the best game I have ever played.

I realize Civ3 is out now and that game may be better (I have heard great things), but (for the price) you cannot do better than this game.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly classic game, November 16, 2000

By 

"sixtymilesmile" - See all my reviews

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

Newer strategy titles may have more advanced graphics, and the newer versions of this advance on it, but for sheer depth of gameplay and attention to detail this is unsurpassed at this price. With everything in 6000 years of a civilization at yoiur disposal, you'll be addicted for ages if you can get into it.

The great thing here is that tehre are so many different gameplay elements and they all intertwine so well. The scientific developmetn sees your tribe evolve from the early stages, where the only weapons you can have are chariots, phalanxes and the like, and all you can build in your cities are things like granaries and basic barracks, through to the latter stages where you can build dominant Howitzers and Nuclear Weapons, or begin constructing spaceships. The chain of scientific advances, as you decide which developments your society needs, the international diplomacy (sometimes the pen is mightier than the sword) and money management all add elements to the game. The way every single minute decision has so many consequences is great, like the butterfly phenomenon. The advisors also add some good light relief as well as useful advice.

Overall this type of game is much more engrossing than the COmmand & Conquer type titles. Here you can think through every move in as much detail as you like. The whole thing has much more depth, and I'd advise players used to those types of games to check this out as well. A true classic. Now I've reviewed this I feel like digging it out and playing it.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite version of Civ...or, Rome on 64KB a day., January 17, 2004

By 

Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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

Sid Meier's Civilization II may, perhaps, go down in history as the late and much lamented MicroProse's most popular and best computer game. (MicroProse, which also produced the F-15 Strike Eagle series of flight sims and the World War II submarine simulation, Silent Service II, changed hands several times, having been bought out by Activision, then Hasbro, then Atari before disappearing.)

SId Meier himself went on to design other, equally admirable games such as "Sid Meier's Gettysburg," but Civilization (and its sequels) will be remembered by gamers for decades. The first version of Civ (in 3.5 in. diskettes) was released over 12 years ago; this was the first version I ever played and drew me into its addictive web of military strategy, cultural development and technological advances.

Civilization II, released on the more versatile and multi-faceted CD-ROM format in 1996, is a vast improvement over the original Sid Meier-Bruce Shelley Civilization 1.0. The concept is the same: you are the long-lived leader of a major civilization (Rome, Greece, Egypt, just to name a few), equipped with one, sometimes two settler units, a few civilization advances (usually Irrigation, Road Building, and a randomly chosen one such as Alphabet or Bronze Working). Using terrain and resources on the mapboard (and usually the map is a sea of black except for the spaces your units are on), you find a suitable place to found your first city, then you start a 6,000 year process to create an empire that will either attempt to conquer the world or, for more points and a tougher challenge, win the game by gaining technological advances through research, building up a huge treasury via trade and taxation, and racing the other civilizations to be the first to reach Alpha Centauri before the scoring period ends in 2010 AD.

The 1996 version (since supplanted by Civilization II: The Test of Time and Civilization III) is a single-player edition, but even without multiplayer options it is still quite a challenge even in the basic Chieftain level. It still has those pesky barbarian tribes that old hands at Civ grew to hate in the first edition, but the graphics are way better -- even 8 years later they still hold up. New (at least in '96) features include one additional civilization per color group (Spanish, Sioux, Celts, Cartaginian, etc.), your choice of gender during leader selection (women like to play sims, too, and Civ 1 only had male leaders and titles), 3-D heralds to announce communications from the AI civilizations, multimedia presentations of Wonders of the World (with new Wonders added and new or revised Wonder-benefits), and new military units (Helicopter, Paratrooper).

To get the most out of Civilization II's features, particularly a stunning title sequence (by '96 standards) and multimedia presentations, it's best to play the game with the CD-ROM in the appropriate drive. You don't need to play the basic game with the disc, but you'll miss seeing and hearing the film clips that pop up when you build a Wonder or, if you are lucky, reach Alpha Centauri before the AI civilizations.