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Sid Meiers Civilization IV: The Complete Edition [Download]

Platform : Windows Vista, Windows, Windows XP, Windows 2000 |
4.2 out of 5 stars 740
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This product is non-returnable and non-refundable.
Note: Currently, this item is available only to customers located in the United States.
Download size: 3.1 GB
Download time: 8 minutes, 27 seconds on broadband, 5 days, 8 hours, 59 minutes, 29 seconds on dial-up
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Sid Meiers Civilization IV: The Complete Edition [Download]

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Product Description

Amazon.com

"Product only available for US distribution. Quantity limits may apply."

Manufacturer's Notice

This game includes two products:
Civilization IV Complete (which includes Beyond the Sword and Warlords expansions)
Civilization IV Colonization
* Please Note: Beyond the Sword and Warlords expansions are not provided as separate installers but included with the base Civilization IV Complete game installer.

  • Supported Operating Systems
  • Windows 2000
  • Service Pack 1 or higher WITH Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher
  • Windows XP
  • Home or Professional w/ Service Pack 1 or higher
  • Windows Vista

Multiplayer - No longer available

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
740 global ratings

Customers say

Customers like the quality of the video game, they say it's addictive and fun, with an in depth gameplay. They appreciate the setting. However, some customers have mixed opinions on performance, download speed, value, ease of use, appearance, and expansion.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

202 customers mention178 positive24 negative

Customers like the quality of the video game. They say it's phenomenal, addictive, and fun. They appreciate the in-depth gameplay, outstanding soundtrack, and variety of paces. They also say the game has enough complexity and intrigue to keep them playing for almost a decade. Customers also appreciate the user interface and general streamlining of the game.

"...Summary: the download worked perfectly, it's addictively fun (for certain personality types), there are lots of free mods that will make it extra fun..." Read more

"...'s been a lot of improvements in the user interface, and general streamlining of the game...." Read more

"This is a phenomenal game...." Read more

"This game was first released in 2005. After many years, it's still fun to play, and it still looks remarkably good...." Read more

53 customers mention37 positive16 negative

Customers are mixed about the appearance of the video game. Some mention that it has good graphics, while others say that the graphics are outdated and crude.

"...The graphics are much improved over the last revision of this game, and there's been a lot of improvements in the user interface, and general..." Read more

"...After many years, it's still fun to play, and it still looks remarkably good.It was designed by a young genius designer, full of idealism...." Read more

"...The lobby is nothing fancy to look at and if you need to reconnect to a game, yes, you have to FIND it in the list...." Read more

"...in a world, condemning me to lose no matter what, but it was rather quaint looking and it was easy for me to quickly understand where I was in the..." Read more

31 customers mention27 positive4 negative

Customers like the setting of the video game. They say it has interesting aspects, different scenarios, and a hefty variety of strategies, maps, civilizations, units, and paths of winning. They also mention that it's like every city-building or strategy game they have ever played on steroids, with many layers to the game and many choices to consider when trying to build a great nation.

"...This game will probably have good replay value; there are a hefty variety of strategies, maps, civilizations, units, etc...." Read more

"...Good tutorial.* Lots of mods available.* Random Events during a game: I found this to be a pleasant surprise.Cons:*..." Read more

"...Many new concepts are introduced. New mods, new techs, new civics, even random things can happen to you or your city...." Read more

"...It's more than just a game, it's an experience that covers history and gives those that enjoy speculative history a way to play scenarios of 'what..." Read more

84 customers mention48 positive36 negative

Customers are mixed about the performance of the video game software. Some mention that it works great on a slow computer, while others say that they have trouble getting it to work. Some customers also mention that the help web site does not work.

"...a long-time Civ fan, and the turn-by-turn playstyle works very well for my busy schedule, allowing me to sit down for a turn or two before I need to..." Read more

"...The functions to manage production are slow and only work occasionally...." Read more

"...Well its very good I missed playing this game and the upgrade is great from the previous versions...." Read more

"...I was very upset when it didn't work properly...." Read more

80 customers mention36 positive44 negative

Customers are mixed about the download speed. Some mention that the download went very smooth, while others say that it takes too long to get your advances and that the game play is pretty slow.

"...Minor Nits:* The modern era of the game feels fairly rushed...." Read more

"...Summary: the download worked perfectly, it's addictively fun (for certain personality types), there are lots of free mods that will make it extra fun..." Read more

"...Out of curiosity, I decided to give the steam version a try. Long download, but no patch to mess with for civilization iv...." Read more

"...The graphics are nice, the gameplay is smooth ad you can setup the game to play it how you want...." Read more

77 customers mention51 positive26 negative

Customers are mixed about the value of the video game software. Some mention it's worth the money, has good replay value, and is an excellent buy. Others say that it'll completely waste their money and borders on being idiotic.

"...This game will probably have good replay value; there are a hefty variety of strategies, maps, civilizations, units, etc...." Read more

"...Pros:* High re-play value.* Good tutorial.* Lots of mods available.*..." Read more

"...and it let us do like 5 turns before giving it to us again. It was absurd. After 20 or so OOS errors in our face, we gave up with that game...." Read more

"...Now it is back and is still fun to play.The game is well worth buying." Read more

75 customers mention41 positive34 negative

Customers are mixed about the ease of use of the physical video game software. Some mention that it's easy to use, playable, and understand where they are in the game at any time. The installation is painless, and the setup runs smoothly. However, others say that they had issues with the game's installation, and that the installation was a big pain.

"...the last revision of this game, and there's been a lot of improvements in the user interface, and general streamlining of the game...." Read more

"...The AI could use a little work, but I think the game-play is better...." Read more

"...IV complete on my desktop and laptop and have so far had no hassle playing on either system...." Read more

"I too had issues with the game's installation. It seemed to have only downloaded the Colonization expansion, or so I thought...." Read more

31 customers mention18 positive13 negative

Customers are mixed about the expansion. Some mention that the new expansions kick ass, and the game is great. They say the expansion packs add more depth to an already deep game, and add some enjoyable features. However, some customers say that the game would only load Warlords and Colonization.

"...You get a whole new tech tree, new civs, new units, and can colonize star systems...." Read more

"...2nd - it is very difficult to manage large empires - there is no "go to X city" function any longer...." Read more

"...This game also has several expansions. The Colonization game is also included. I played this game back in the MS-DOS days and had missed it...." Read more

"...At first it went fine but then I found out that I was unable to access each individual game from the complete edition and well who wants to pay for..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

H
5.0 out of 5 stars I'm glad I got this
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2011
Platform For Display: PC DownloadEdition: StandardVerified Purchase
So I was playing Age of Empires with my wife who has been extra open minded and trying things I like recently, and while she had fun, she said that she mainly enjoyed the part of the game where you build things, but not the war aspect. After searching for the best option on the internet, it seemed like the Civilization series would allow us both to play to our strengths while working together/coexisting.

I chose Civ 4 over Civ 5 after reading how Civ 5 is a more streamlined and has a greater focus on combat, but Civ 4 has superior gameplay as far as diplomacy and cultural development go. I liked how it was possible to win with just a few very culturally advanced and peaceful cities as opposed to continuous warmongering. When I bought Civ 4 (2 days ago) it cost $16, and now it's up to $24 while the price of Civ 5 seems to be dropping over time (from $40ish to $30 now). Keeping in mind that Civ 4 comes with expansions and has a plethora of modifications available from a very dedicated community, it seems to be a superior bargain.

With that in mind, I was excited to play, and I wanted to play that very day. It was awesome to find it available for download here on Amazon, but several of the negative reviews made it seem like it was super risky; apparently they only received portions of the game and its expansions, but not all? In my opinion, the complaints are strange because when you download a file, the download window indicates how large the file is. If the file downloaded was NOT 3.07 GB, then that's definitely the seller's fault for distributing an incomplete product...if the unhappy buyers' computers did download all 3.07 GB, then this product probably received some unfair reviews. For me, using Windows XP and cheap-ish comcast internet in Connecticut, the download worked perfectly and took roughly 2 hours total to download Civ 4 and its expansions.

If any future buyers are interested, there is a modification available to the game that leaves gameplay unchanged, but replaces the maps with beautiful maps from the NASA Blue Marble Imagery project, gives each civilization's units unique appearances, and some other adjustments that seem worthwhile for an EXTRA satisfying experience.

Here's a link to the download:
[...]

Overall in the first two days I've played Civ 4 for roughly 10 hours. It's quite difficult to win which is a plus for me, and the AI is impressive. Civ 4 is VERY slow paced; if you're used to Age of Empires and Starcraft, Civ 4 has a completely different flavor. This game will probably have good replay value; there are a hefty variety of strategies, maps, civilizations, units, etc. Although each game takes 3-5 hours, it is turn based and easy to stop and continue later if something comes up.

Summary: the download worked perfectly, it's addictively fun (for certain personality types), there are lots of free mods that will make it extra fun...this purchase was an excellent value for the $
8 people found this helpful
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Yicheng Li
4.0 out of 5 stars Good classic game
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2011
Platform For Display: PCEdition: StandardVerified Purchase
Overall, it's a very good game. I've been a long-time Civ fan, and the turn-by-turn playstyle works very well for my busy schedule, allowing me to sit down for a turn or two before I need to run off. In the era of MMO's, RTS's, and FPS's, I'm not aware of any other turn-by-turn franchise that has as large and as loyal a following. The graphics are much improved over the last revision of this game, and there's been a lot of improvements in the user interface, and general streamlining of the game. There is supposed to be a multi-player option, but I haven't touched it. Honestly, if I want to do multiplayer, I'd just play Starcraft 2 or fire up the Xbox.

Pros:
* High re-play value.
* Good tutorial.
* Lots of mods available.
* Random Events during a game: I found this to be a pleasant surprise.

Cons:
* The installer left a lot to be desired. No shortcuts were added to my Start Menu, and I had to search the Program Files folders before finding an executable to be actually able to run the game. Hint: run the one in Beyond the Sword, not the one in vanilla.
* The AI's in the Civilization games, for whatever reason, are dumb as a box of bricks. You may think that cranking up the difficulty fixes that, but the AI just ends up cheating (creating units out of the blue, boosted techs, knowing where all your units are, etc) and stacking the odds against you, rather than actually playing smarter. One-on-one and given equal units, any decent human player will trounce an AI to the ground.

Minor Nits:
* The modern era of the game feels fairly rushed. I usually end up steam-rolling my neighbor's cities with stacks of Modern-armors and Gunships while I'm bombing their land-tiles with stealth bombers, all the while researching Future Tech. It's a bit of a slog, and by the time I'm actually done, I usually end up with dozens of Future Techs. It felt like the later techs could have been weighted more, or maybe the game could have given me more advanced and futurist units to play with.
* While the addition of religions and corporations was interesting, I think their effects were ultimately very weak. Religions do have some added impact, with certain mid-game civics, as a diplomatic device, and as a culture generator, but they are interchangeable for the most part. Because of how they're tied to certain techs, human players will almost always end up converting to Judaism. Similarly, by the time they come into play, Corporations will have very little impact on the game, besides a few bonuses here and there. A couple Corporations give you the ability to access resources like Aluminum or Oil, but as I said, at this point in the game if you actually needed those resources: 1) you're in bad shape already, and 2) if you were able, it's probably just as well to build and army and invade someone else to acquire them.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Ed
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it
Reviewed in Canada on October 10, 2019
Platform For Display: PCEdition: StandardVerified Purchase
Awesome
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on March 4, 2016
Platform For Display: PCEdition: StandardVerified Purchase
Good deal mint condition brand new '. Glad I broke my old disc almost
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Peter S
1.0 out of 5 stars Won't install on 64-bit operating systems.
Reviewed in Canada on December 24, 2020
Platform For Display: PCEdition: StandardVerified Purchase
Actually bought this for the old game Colonization that was bundled. Was enormously disappointed when the operating system wouldn't allow installation.
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Dan G
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on February 23, 2016
Platform For Display: PCEdition: StandardVerified Purchase
Good job
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