Civilization Revolution Review

BY Rabie Hassoun | POSTED: 23 July 2008

The popular PC strategy game is now on consoles. Worth it?



Civilization was never meant to be a game you play for a couple of hours and move on. On the PC, gamers spent countless hours and days playing the game, conquering their friends offline and online.  The challenge issued to the developers (Firaxis Games) and publishers (2K games) is to create the exact same Civilization atmosphere to accommodate consoles gamers while in the comfort of their sofas. The game had to become less complicated, more user friendly but still manage to feel and play like the same old Civilization PC series. Well let us just say that the developers succeeded in reaching their goal. The game is in fact a whole lot simpler in order to attract the casual console gamer. Is the game deep enough to appeal to the veteran Civilization fan though? Well, not really.

The best part about the game on the PC is how addictive the game can get.  You have so many ways to go. You can conquer with power or brains. You can even win by beating your opponent to new technologies such as the space race and internet. This aspect is a big part of Civilization Revolution too. Domination, Technology, Economic or Cultural victories are four styles you can follow to win a game in CR. Each path of securing victory is unique in its own way and style. You can go nuts destroying your enemies’ empires to the floor to achieve domination. Other styles might require a bit more patience and even some sneaky planning from your side. If you plan on using either technology, economic or cultural victory you might want to use the diplomacy screen to make sure the enemy is at bay while you plan world domination. The Diplomacy factors in the game are a whole lot less more complicated this time around. You can choose which leader you want to contact and from there decide if you want to offer peace, declare war or discuss other world leaders. Discussing other world leaders is a smart choice to make especially right before going to war. You will find out some very valuable information about the enemy from other leaders.

Each game in Civilization usually took many hours, if not days, on the PC. At average you will spend 2 hours max with CR for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The adventure will start slow, one village on a lonely island. The game will pickup pace rather quickly however. More cities will be built and all the other empires will start appearing on the map. Let us just say that the game develops way too fast for its own good. You will be finishing a whole game in one sit at times. Something you would have never achieved in the PC version of the game.

 With all the PC and console compression going on in this review, it is important to note that this version of Civilization is not a port of a PC game. It is actually a brand new game made with console gamers specifically on mind. When you start a new game you will have some advisers giving you game tips on what to do next.  You even have an army adviser to let you know if you should respond aggressively or agreeably to a war treat by another empire. The advisers will appear as some large characters on the screen, taking up to half the screen at a time. That will surely slow down the game at times, especially when you have a ton of action going on deep into a game.

You can either play alone or with up to 4 friend’s offline or online (in Civilization that is). The single player modes sadly do not deliver the depth you might expect from the series. You will not be able to specifically choose a map or map size before the game. The game will choose that automatically for you. Most of the maps we have played so far in the game are island oriented maps that involve less strategy than ever. PC gaming fans might argue that even the most powerful computers struggle with a Civilization game played on the maximum settings (Extra large maps with the max number of players)The mode you will be spending most your time with here is the scenario mode. Each scenario will offer a challenge with different options and settings. While the challenges are not massively different, they are a whole lot of fun to beat. New scenarios will be released soon as downloads on the PSN and Xbox Live.

Another factor that was taken into consideration when shrinking the game to the consoles was the controls. How will the developers be able to simplify the usage of a mouse and keyboard to just a few buttons on a control pad? Well let us just that we are pleasantly surprised with the result.  The controls come to you so swiftly that you will not even notice the transformation from mouse to joystick. Even with all the elements that had to go during the development cycle, the game is still pretty detailed compared to some other console games. Most of the work will be done using both the analogue sticks. One will be used to move around, and the other to give orders to the unit on hand. If there is more than one unit on a terrain you will be able to toggle around the choices using the classical D-pad. Other buttons are used to choose an attack, upgrade a unit and access the diplomacy screen. 

The game does support some real nice graphics. All of the action taking place on the screen will be displayed with a 3D touch. Even the advisors popping up on to the screen every now and then look decent and quiet interactive. The game does start slowing down and lagging as the action heats up though. We cannot really compare the game on the PS3 and XBOX 360 to the PC game. After all it is a completely different game with a completely different segment of gamers in mind.

The game’s music and sound effects are just okay. You will not get any detailed sound effects here. Actually we have noticed how the developers intentionally made the sound effects simpler and kind of cuter. The sounds are out of sync at times but still offer enough quality, adding a unique element to the game. Do not expect any major music tracks; some personal playlists played in the background is your only way out here.

This game is a dream come true for console gamers who enjoyed the series on the PC so much. It is simple, very easy to access and offer almost everything the PC game had to offer in a simple casual form. The only way you will find out if you will enjoy this game or not is by playing it yourself. If you loved the series for its detailed options and classical controls, than loving CR might not come by easily. If you just want the same Civilization atmosphere presented in a less complicated fashion than this game is made for you