Civilization II

In my own personal estimation the higher echelons of PC gaming are dominated by those that have a profound effect on our senses. Deus Ex, Half Life, Championship Manager and more recently The Movies captivated me profoundly, but only Civilisation II had me truly astonished. How can a game with such limited graphics resources, outdated textures and slightly annoying sound effects still be so easily re-playable after nearly ten years of it's release? (Not to mention at least three follow ups!) Simple - charm and depth.

As the god of your empire, you must build up your cities, explore strange new lands and discover new technology. You start the game with a settler (or two). They can either form a new city, or develop land to help existing ones. You can choose what kind of empire you would like to lead, be it a violent militaristic expansionist (like the Romans) or a peaceful idealist (the Indians). Certain city improvements will give you different advantages. For example, if your goal is to build up an army, building barracks and units will aid your war exploits. However, if your goal is financial or scientific you may want to build markets or libraries.

You can conquer other empires by capturing or plundering all of their cities. This isn't easy - it requires a large amount of units and trained mercenaries. As you explore you may find small tribes that offer you gifts. Sometimes it's scrolls of science, other times it's units or money. Be careful though, you might yourself having to fend of hostile barbarians. The bigger your empire the more demanding your people become. The ideology of your government can effect your empire too. If you're a monarchy the freedoms of the people are quite restricted, thus not producing much trade. However running a democracy allows the citizens of your empire more allowance and thus creates larger cash flow. The problem here is that with more freedom comes more responsibility. People won't be afraid to start riots in a democracy. All forms of government range from the religious fundamentalism to the senate-run republic.

In light of Civilisation IV's release it's probably not the same playing #2. To have survived as long as it has is testament to it's durability. It's fantastic and in my opinion one of the greatest games ever made.

Civilization is a turn based strategy game in which the object is to raise a civilization from a lowly settler in 4000 BC to a mighty power that conquers the world or alternatively sends a Space Ship to Alpha Centauri! You absolutely must buy this game...

This game is THE most addictive game you will ever play, and why not? None of the sequels can come close. This was a big improvement over the original as well, like going from a Geo Metro to a Mercedes. What happened to nice games like these?

This is one of my favorite games of all times. Very playable. My husband and I sit down and play hot seat 2 player games on the Multiplayer version of the game on a regular basis and it is a pretty old game now.

The major thing I love, is how many scenarios from history, although not completely accurate are playable from everyside.

A little tid-bit for anyone in the metro DC area. The military adviser in this game is played by Brad Howard, otherwise known as Capt. Fletcher Moon of the Musical/Reenactment group The Pyrates Royale, who are most commonly known from the Maryland Renfest.

Happy playing!

Another Great Sid Meier game. Civ 2and for that matter any other Civ game gives you the opportunity to develop or evolutionary a whole civilization from it's simple birth up to a glorious Space exploration by going to the planet Alpha Century. Along the way you have to battle other civilizations for supremacy or at least a lasting co-existence and develop technologies such as the wheel, electricity, communism among others that give you the ability to build city improvements such as Banks, Temples and supermarkets and units such as Settlers, Mech. Infantry and caravans, along the way you also gets the opportunity to build wonders such the Colossus and the Hanging Gardens.

This is indeed a very addicting game with very few drawbacks and those only very minor (floods and barbarians can at times be annoying), I have found myself still playing this game a couple (at least) of hours after I first said "This turn and then....".

Graphics and sounds arn't spectacular but sufficient and the High Consult, Throne Room and view city features becomes boring quickly as a result. The game is easy to get into but hard to master fully (the manual isn't much help unless you got a hour or so to spare, it's a heavy tome!) but the last-ability is extremely high so the game gets a 9 out of 10.