Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution Review

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Game Name:	Civilization Revolution
Platforms:	iPhone, iPod Touch
Publisher(s):	2K Games
Genre(s):	Strategy
Release Date:	August 6, 2009
Version Reviewed:	1.0

Civilization series have been around for over twenty years on the PC. But now Sid Meier lets you build empires right on your iPhone. iPhone gamers will be able to take 1 of the 16 civilizations from ancient times to the modern era, building armies, expanding territories, and researching new technologies.

Fans of the series should be happy to know that Civilization Revolution for the iPhone retains much of the game play from the PC version. Players will have to manage cities for production, research, and wealth developments. Building structures to enhance these outputs is vital to the success of your empire. Culture is also an important factor in the game. Building temples, cathedrals, wonders, and great people will increase the influence that city has on its surroundings. If a city has very high culture, it can cause an enemy city to defect to your side. Like its predecessors, Civilization Revolution for the iPhone also allows the player to change governments. Each government has its distinct advantages and disadvantages. For example democracy maximizes production and research, but cripples player’s ability to wage wars.

The iPhone version also allows for four ways to win the game. Players can aim for economic victory, culture victory, technological victory, or domination victory. In an economic victory, players will accumulate as much money as possible. Building the World Bank wonder will end the game. To win with culture victory, simply build enough Great People and Wonders to unlock the Wonder United Nations. In technological victory, colonizing Alpha Centari is again an objective. In domination victory, capturing sufficient enemy palaces will make all other civilizations kneel to your rule.

Although the technology tree is not as comprehensive as its latest PC iterations, it does include sufficient technological advances and new units to allow for strategic warfare between empires. But those technology fanatics will miss some of their beloved advanced units and enhancements for their cities. Those pursuing a technology victory may also find their journey for the ultimate knowledge shorter than they’d expected.

The controls for Civilization Revolution may need a little more work. Players move units by dragging it toward its destination grid. Player can also zoom in and out on the main map. However at a certain zoom point the units disappear from view, making transporting a unit over long distances difficult. The developers could have incorporated gestures to allow optimal viewing points for the game map. There are also too much clutter at the main game map. City names and development status constantly block unit views. It would be nice if they can be turned off so it would not obstruct unit movements.

The graphics could have been better on the iPhone. The units really should have a higher pixel count. The current units look downright ugly when zoomed close. Some of the resources on the map look awful as well. Hopefully in future updates, sharper looking units will make players feel better about their armies. A bright spot is the battle sequence. The short animated battle sequence is exciting and fun. The right viewing distance make these fighting units look acceptable.

Strangely, multiplayer option is missing from the iPhone version. The Nintendo DS version of Civilization Revolution featured online support via Wi-Fi. Hopefully they will be added to future updates.

Overall, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution for the iPhone is a great strategy game. It is a rich strategy game that will easily take 4-8 hours to complete. Aside from a few interface and graphical problems, players should enjoy the classic empire building game with most of its renowned features intact.