Pity My Wife, the Civ II Widow, Again
See my original Civilization II review from way back in 2001, after having played the game for close to five years.
I bought Civ III and again Civ IV within days of their release, ran all the way home with them clutched to my chest, and dropped them right into the PC, so eager to get the latest, most awesomely updated, so incredibly tweakified versions up and running. In both instances I was disappointed, and my play on both of these has dropped off to just about none in the last couple of years. But disappointed why? I'm not too sure. For both updated versions, the AI was better, play faster and more varied, the icons and graphics better, the options for all aspects so much better; they were improvements in every respect. But they didn't do it for me like Civ II does.
I don't really know what it is, but it is Civ II that snagged me in 1997, and has never let go. My parents have a couple of old PCs at their home, and as soon as I visit, I'm straight to those dinosaurs to play Civ II, whether for an hour or two, or for an entire weekend. I've tried to update my Civ II for my XP machines, but have never been able to make it work (with due credit to the Civ Fanatics Forum; I'm not geek enough to make it all work). Civ II is the version I fell in love with, and it's the only one I want to play.
And last night, about 9:45, I loaded it up. (I got it in the mail earlier that day, and the only reason I didn't go straight to the PC was a number of events that I just could not get out of.) It loaded quickly and easily, and I clicked that Civ II logo. And after years of deafening silence in my dark PC man-cave, that single opening note sounded on the intro, and I got that thumbnail video with its distinctive soundtrack; I was home.
Next thing I knew it was close to 1:00 a.m. and my wife was asking me what the hell I was doing, since I get up for work at five. I mumbled agreement, played for another 30 minutes, and then went reluctantly to sleep, thinking of my coming moves against the Carthaginians and the Sioux threatening my two new towns on one of the southern islands, and how I was going to retake Zappatown from the barbarians.
Regardless of which Civ version makes your geek flag fly, this package has got it all, in one single space, and tons of goodies. There's a DVD all about Sid Meier and his Civ achievements. You get the original Civ, plus II, III and IV, with just about all of the bells and whistles. You get a ton of expansion with Civ II (Multiplayer Gold ), to include Fantastic Worlds, Conflicts in Civilization and Test of Time. With Civ III you get Play the World and Conquests. You get the Civ advancement charts for all four games, and even a Civ card game. You get all of this for less than $30, which is an amazing price.
The single best thing about this package is that you get the original Civ and Civ II in formats that will install and run on Win 95, 98, XP and Vista.
Bottom line: Here is the god game that started it all, and the one that continues to be the benchmark for all others. Here are its origins--new Windows OS-compatible original games for the retro crowd--and a ton of interesting and cool extras, all for a staggeringly good price. If you're new to Civ, start at the first and eventually choose your favorite version. If you're a Civ veteran, you'll know which one works for you best, and you can get straight to it, enjoying its subtleties with all of the bells and whistles that your late-model Win OS and updated hardware offer. Buy it now, buy it often. Give it to friends, and bring them into the ever-improving world that is Civilization.
Thanks, Sid, Firaxis, 2K, and everyone else who ever played a role in making this game a reality.
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Update, 28 August 08:
After playing this--just the Civ II game--for a few weeks now, I notice a couple of interesting quirks.
First, the instances of the mysterious "wacky spots" on the grid, where a unit will go off-course and maneuver randomly on its own, is very high, with me having to resort to single-space movement in very many spots.
Second, sometimes when I'm playing, all units' movement via mouse control goes away. The game itself continues to run fine. All other functions of the game via the mouse, and the mouse function in general remains unaffected, but I can't move units with the mouse, no "go" arrow. Using the keyboard for movement still works fine. The only way to fix this is to restart the entire PC; closing Civ and bringing it back up is insufficient.
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