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First Impressions: Civilization IV

	Author: Chris Massey Article Type: PC Game Review Publication Date: 12/7/2005 Developer: Firaxis Games Publisher: 2K Games Related Categories: Turn-based, Strategic

First Impressions

Ah, yes, Civilization…how I have loved thee. Your first iteration plagued my Navy days, keeping me awake long nights, late for muster, bleary-eyed…and your next in line, the honorable Civilization II, was one of the last games I was actually able to do an all-nighter with, before I got too old and in need of just a bit o’ sleep. Civilization III, how I enjoyed sneaking onto the old computer in our back bedroom, away from the wife’s prying eyes, and staying up until 1 a.m. when I should have been spending some time with the better half…

Of course I was looking forward to your successor, the shiny new Civilization IV. I paid in full my reserve on your Civilization IV Pre-Order Edition because, well, it didn’t cost anything more, and there was the sexy promise of a ring-bound manual. Who could resist!?

So, there I was, on the day of release, with you in my hand, my winter doom, my cold, cold addiction. I brought you back to my computer, almost reverently, unpacked you and installed both discs of you, and then I fired you up for the very first time…

Okay, okay, that’s too much, even for me, [Me, too. – Ed.] but I have been a huge fan of the series, and I was very much looking forward to Civilization IV, probably more than any other PC release this year. First impressions of such a large, complex, dense game are of course hard to pen, but I’ll do my best to at least give players an idea of what they’re in for, and what I think of it so far.

Upon first firing up Civilization IV, it was easy to see that the presentation and the menus had been improved. With the massive globe under spinning cloud cover in the background, and the beautiful chanting, tribal main score playing, I knew that I might just be in for something really special.

A vunderful opening menu.

Navigating the menus was simple. Never before had setting up a variety of planets been so easy, or hopping online so painless. Well, to be fair, the online play through GameSpy was initially plagued by a nasty bug that made it almost impossible to scroll through the list of available games, not to mention a propensity to crash at random times if you were in the main lobby. Thankfully, the first patch fixed this, and finding games online nowadays is much less a chore.

My first foray into the world of Civ IV was not online, however. I chose the Play Now! option, set up a fairly standard continent world with a goodly number of AI to run over, cranked the difficulty down to the lowest setting in order to take my time and learn the game, and I was off!

Warriors and a settler with the world before them.