Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Just Played: Civilization IV Demo
A friend of mine has been really looking forward to the release of Civilization IV (by the master of the turn-based strategy game, Side Meier). I enjoyed the first two Civilizations (and Alpha Centuri), but was never able to get into Civ III.
Having been assured that most of the problems I had with Civ III had been sorted out, I decided to check out the demo last night.
First impressions were that it was very pretty. Each of the civilizations have their own animated character done in a similar style - but better looking - to the characters in Pirates. The map itself is very nice with lots of detail, and the individual units all look really cool.
I decided to play the Indians just for something a bit different. Each civilization has it's own unique unit, and the Indians have the "Efficient Worker". This made it a bit easier to get improvements made to the lands surrounding my cities, but it was hard to judge just what impact it had (since I hadn't tried using the normal Worker).
One nifty option for a unit is "Auto Explore". When turned on, a unit will just go wondering around the map trying to reveal as much as it can. When something interesting happens, it lets you know. Otherwise, you don't have to bother moving it yourself.
One thing that kind of bugged me was the Technical Advancements Tree. I liked the idea 5 or 10 years ago, but now I find myself feeling a bit restricted by the fact that I have to get everything. What if I want to try playing a Civilization that never develops the wheel?
Unit combat was very nicely done. Each unit's image on the map is made up of a few individual people. As units fight, the people attack each other, hitting them with clubs, shooting them with arrows or just getting killed. It makes it really easy to see how evenly matched two units are, and how badly hurt a unit is after a battle.
100 turns (which is what the demo limits you to) is much to short to really get a good idea of how the game will go. After one game, I'm not feeling like I have to rush out and buy the game, but I'm certainly keen for another few goes with the demo!
Having been assured that most of the problems I had with Civ III had been sorted out, I decided to check out the demo last night.
First impressions were that it was very pretty. Each of the civilizations have their own animated character done in a similar style - but better looking - to the characters in Pirates. The map itself is very nice with lots of detail, and the individual units all look really cool.
I decided to play the Indians just for something a bit different. Each civilization has it's own unique unit, and the Indians have the "Efficient Worker". This made it a bit easier to get improvements made to the lands surrounding my cities, but it was hard to judge just what impact it had (since I hadn't tried using the normal Worker).
One nifty option for a unit is "Auto Explore". When turned on, a unit will just go wondering around the map trying to reveal as much as it can. When something interesting happens, it lets you know. Otherwise, you don't have to bother moving it yourself.
One thing that kind of bugged me was the Technical Advancements Tree. I liked the idea 5 or 10 years ago, but now I find myself feeling a bit restricted by the fact that I have to get everything. What if I want to try playing a Civilization that never develops the wheel?
Unit combat was very nicely done. Each unit's image on the map is made up of a few individual people. As units fight, the people attack each other, hitting them with clubs, shooting them with arrows or just getting killed. It makes it really easy to see how evenly matched two units are, and how badly hurt a unit is after a battle.
100 turns (which is what the demo limits you to) is much to short to really get a good idea of how the game will go. After one game, I'm not feeling like I have to rush out and buy the game, but I'm certainly keen for another few goes with the demo!
# posted by Simon Dugard @ 11:54 am 
