Civilization Revolution

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Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
Developer(s)	Firaxis
Publisher(s)	2K Games
Designer(s)	Sid Meier
Series	Civilization
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release date(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360[1][2] PAL June 13, 2008 NA July 8, 2008 Nintendo DS[3] NA July 8, 2008 EU September 5, 2008 AUS September 11, 2008
Genre(s)	Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	BBFC: PG ESRB: E10+ OFLC: PG
Input methods	Gamepad (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), touch screen (Nintendo DS)

Civilization Revolution (full title: Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution) is a 2008 iteration of Civilization developed by Firaxis with Sid Meier as designer for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. A Wii version was originally expected but was put on indefinite hold. The lack of a PlayStation Portable version was attributed to a lack of development manpower.^[4]

Sid Meier was enthusiastic about this installment, being quoted in both the press release and trailer as saying, "This is the game I've always wanted to make."^[5]

A demo was released on Xbox Live Marketplace and the North American PlayStation Store on June 5, 2008. The demo allows players to play until 1250 AD on a fixed map as Cleopatra or Julius Caesar, and also allows multiplayer play.^[6]

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Victory conditions 3 Civilizations featured in the game 4 Multiplayer 5 Downloadable content 6 Reception 6.1 Awards 7 Wii edition 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Civilization Revolution is a turn based strategy game. In past installments the player had more control over the rules of the game and often the game could last for more than ten hours. In Civilization Revolution the games for the most part can be finished within three hours. For the console version, the gameplay has been streamlined and simplified to make the game easier to play.

[edit] Victory conditions

A victory can be achieved in four different ways. Unless specified/defined in a scenario all four victory conditions are open to be used. Different civilizations have distinct advantages over others depending on their "bonuses".

• Domination: One must capture all other civilizations' capital cities, but they do not need to destroy/capture every city.
• Culture: Obtain a total of 20 great persons, wonders, and/or converted cities in any combination, and build the United Nations wonder.
• Economic: Acquire 20,000 gold and build the World Bank wonder.
• Technological: Research all technologies necessary to build and launch a space ship, and be the first to reach Alpha Centauri.

If the player's civilization is nearing one of the above mentioned victory conditions, all other civilizations will declare war on them in an attempt to delay or stop them from winning. The construction of the World Bank, the construction of the United Nations, and the launching of the ship to Alpha Centauri can all be stopped by capturing the enemy's capital/palace.

[edit] Civilizations featured in the game

Players can control one of 16 different civilizations, each with a different leader. Each civilization starts the game with a different special bonus that can be either a technology, a Great Person, or a special ability. As the game progresses through time, the civilizations also obtain new abilities when they reach a specific number of technology. In a given game each civilization can have up to four bonuses that vary from civilization to civilization. Many of the civilizations have specific specialized units that only they can build but unlike previous installments, these are for looks only. Special units do not possess abilities beyond the normal unit but may have varying stats.

Civilization	Leader	Emblem	Special Units
Arabs	Saladin	Star and crescent	None
Aztec	Montezuma II		Jaguar Warrior
China	Mao Zedong	Chinese Dragon	None
Egypt	Cleopatra	Eye of Horus	None
England	Queen Elizabeth I		Longbow Archer, Lancaster Bomber, Spitfire Fighter
France	Napoleon Bonaparte	Fleur-de-Lis	Trebuchet, Howitzer
Germany	Otto von Bismarck	Coat of Arms of Germany	Panzer Tank, 85mm Gun, Heinkel Bomber, ME109 Fighter
Greece	Alexander the Great	Vergina Star	Hoplite, Trireme
India	Mohandas Gandhi	Lion Capital of Ashoka	None
Japan	Tokugawa Ieyasu	Imperial Seal of Japan	Samurai Knight, Ashigaru Pikeman, Val Bomber, Zero Fighter
Mongolia	Genghis Khan		Keshik Horsemen
Rome	Julius Caesar	Roman Helmet	Cataphract
Russia	Catherine II	Romanov Coat of Arms	Cossack Horsemen, T34 Tank
Spain	Isabella of Castille	Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of León	Conquistador
America	Abraham Lincoln	Seal of the United States of America	Sherman Tank, Mustang Fighter, Flying Fortress
Zulu	Shaka		Impi Warrior

There are also NPC barbarians who will wage war with all civilizations in the game until the globe is conquered with all civilizations being destroyed. Compared to the PC versions^{[clarification needed]}, barbarians now live in villages and will attack from them. Also the level of barbarian activity cannot be adjusted as in previous installments, though the level of barbarian activity changes in certain scenarios.

[edit] Multiplayer

Civilization Revolution features multiplayer options, including match making and ranked games for up to four players (in free-for-all, one-on-one, and two-on-two team battle modes), as well as leaderboards and support for voice and video chat.^[7] Although many critics and players agree that the multiplayer is slow, there is an option to turn on a turn timer such as in chess to attempt to make the game go faster and one can also use the diplomacy panel and the city screen during other players' turns. Split screen multiplayer is not supported.

[edit] Downloadable content

For the Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 3 versions, each week a new Firaxis created scenario will become available to players for download. Players compete to earn the best Civilization Revolution leaderboard score for that scenario during that week. Firaxis has also released DLC for PS3 and Xbox 360 which includes wonders, relics, and even specific maps such as deserts, continent look-alikes and several others; new wonders include the Tower of Babel, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and several others which can be utilized in game like any other wonder.^[8][9]

[edit] Reception

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (April 2009)

The game received mostly positive reviews by critics. As of October 30, Metacritic lists Civilization Revolution at 85% for the PS3, 84% for the Xbox 360,^[10][11] and 81% for the Nintendo DS.^[12]

GameInformer magazine gave the game a 9/10, stating that the controls work very well on the consoles, and, while the game is simpler than Civilization IV, the faster playability is very enjoyable.

GameSpot gave the 360 and PS3 versions a 9.0/10 and an editor's choice award, praising its gameplay and visual design but found the multiplayer to be slow.

Official Xbox Magazine gave the 360 version a 9.0/10 as well as an editor's choice award. It also won Strategy Game of the Year from OXM for 2008.

IGN gave it an 8.8/10.

Game Revolution gave it a B-.

PlayStation: The Official Magazine gave the PS3 version a 4/5.

[edit] Awards

• IGN Best of 2008:
  • Best Xbox 360 Strategy Game

• British Academy Video Games Awards 2009

[edit] Wii edition

On February 4, 2008 2K Games and Firaxis announced that the Wii version of Civilization Revolution was put on indefinite hold due to lack of manpower and no PlayStation 2 or PlayStation Portable editions of the game to share assets with. Firaxis programmer Scott Lewis explained, "CivRev was originally a Xbox 360/PS3 project and was in development for over a year before the Wii/DS platforms were added. The result was that the time and effort it would have taken to remake a game built for higher-end hardware from the ground up would simply have been too costly."^[13] On June 10, 2008, Sid Meier reaffirmed plans to develop a Wii version, stating that Firaxis had "no intentions of turning backs on the Wii version."^[14]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Firaxis game page

v • d • e Sid Meier's Civilization series Official series Civilization (CivNet) · Civilization II (Test of Time) · Civilization III (Play the World · Conquests) · Civilization IV (Warlords · Beyond the Sword · Colonization) · Civilization Revolution Related games Sid Meier's Colonization · Master of Magic  · Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (Alien Crossfire) Other games Civilization: Call to Power · Call to Power II · Freeciv · FreeCol · C-evo · CivCity: Rome · Sid Meier's Pirates! · Sid Meier's Railroads!