| Sid Meier's Civilization IV | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Firaxis Games |
| Publisher(s) | 2K Games & Aspyr |
| Designer(s) | Soren Johnson |
| Series | Civilization |
| Engine | Gamebryo |
| Version | 1.74[1] (July 20, 2007) |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Mac OS X |
| Release date(s) | Microsoft Windows
June 30, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based strategy game, 4X |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | CD (2), DVD (1), download |
| System requirements
Windows 2000/XP/Vista |
|
Sid Meier's Civilization IV (also known as Civilization 4 or Civ4) is a turn-based strategy, 4X computer game released in 2005 and developed by lead designer Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and Meier's studio Firaxis Games. It is the fourth installment of the Civilization series. Civilization IV was released between October 25 and November 4, 2005 in North America, Europe, and Australia. The game's first expansion, Warlords, was released on July 24, 2006 in North America and July 28, 2006 in the European Union. A second expansion, Beyond the Sword, was released worldwide between July 18 and July 30, 2007. A remake of Sid Meier's Colonization, based on a total conversion of the Civilization IV engine, Colonization, was released on September 23, 2008. As of March 26, 2008, Civilization IV has sold 3 million copies according to Take-Two Interactive.[2] The game was re-released along with both of its expansions in 2007 in an edition entitled Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Complete; the North American version of this compilation was released on May 12, 2009 in a DRM free package that contains the core game, the two expansions, and the 2008 Colonization remake. Civilization IV was released in Chinese, Polish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Finnish and English.
Civilization IV is a turn-based game in which the player builds an empire from very limited initial resources. All standard full-length games begin in 4000 BC with a settler who builds a single city. From there, the player expands an empire while contending with rival nations, using the geography, developing infrastructure, and encouraging scientific and cultural progress. By default, players can win the game by accomplishing one of five goals: conquering all other civilizations, controlling a supermajority of the world's land and population, being the first to land a sleeper ship in the Alpha Centauri star system, increasing the Culture ratings of three different cities to "legendary" levels, or by being declared "World Leader" by winning a popularity election through the United Nations. If the game's clock runs out (by default in the year 2050 AD) with none of these goals fulfilled by any nation, the nation with the highest score is declared the winner.
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Diplomacy in Civilization generally involves the trading of goods. Specific technologies are required to trade different commodities (for instance, a civilization must possess the technology of paper to trade world maps). Players may trade technologies, resources, maps and gold. Advanced diplomacy options include the creation of trade embargoes, the promise of military aid, and the adoption of particular civics and religions. Finally, the United Nations wonder allows the passing of global resolutions (Such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) in addition to granting access to the diplomatic victory.
The reasoning behind AI diplomacy is more transparent when compared to Civilization III. The Diplomacy window now not only displays the other leader's disposition towards the human player (from friendly to furious), but why they feel that way (e.g. "-2: You refused to stop trading with our worst enemies!"). When a leader is sympathetic towards another civilization, they are more likely to accept deals without unfair bargaining.[3]
Instead of receiving generic increases in rank as in Civilization 3, the player is allowed to "promote" units with upgrades that provide bonuses in certain situations (For example +25% city defense, or +25% vs. melee units.) There are 41 different types of combat promotions. It is also possible for players to examine "combat odds" before attacking, giving the player an idea as to whether a given attack will succeed or not.[3] In addition, units in the game can be upgraded by spending a certain amount of money, and different nations have their own unique units. Leader traits can also play a part in warfare, for example a leader with the "Aggressive" trait receives melee and gunpowder land units with the promotion "Combat I" right away.
The game features 32 resources. Resources enable construction of units which require them, double the speed of construction of certain wonders of the world, accelerate city growth, or simply add happiness or health to all cities. To trade goods or to send them to other cities within one's border, they must have some form of connection between the goods and the city. In the later game, this connection can be through ocean tiles, but in the early game, it is limited to roads and rivers. Cities on the same river or same coastline are automatically connected for trading purposes.
Unlike in Civilization 3, the player is no longer able to transfer all production from one project to another, but all production on an already-begun project will remain. For example, if the player is building a temple but decides to switch to a harbour, production on the harbor will start from scratch, but the temple will stay in the building queue and retain all previous progress, aside from some decay over time.[3]
The concept of religion is new to the Civilization series, where in previous games players built generic temples and cathedrals to contribute to happiness and culture. There are now seven distinct religions in the game: Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Taoism.[4] Each religion in the default game is associated with a specific technology on the tech tree; the first civilization that gains the technology founds the religion. For example, Christianity is founded by the civilization that first discovers "Theology". Custom games can link the founding of a religion to a technology but the player has his or her pick of which religion is founded. There are no special traits or bonuses associated with any particular religion.
Religion factors into a number of existing game mechanics. Civilizations that share a common state religion will find themselves more agreeable in their diplomatic dealings; conversely, civilizations with differing state religions will not be as close diplomatically. The religion's founder may also receive an economic benefit: if that civilization expends a Great Prophet at the religion's holy (founding) city, it will construct that religion's most sacred building and generate 1 gold per turn for every other city that hosts that religion. Once a player creates a missionary, he or she can send it to another city to spread that missionary's religion. Once a religion has spread to a city, there is no way it can be removed. Finally, if a civilization has adopted a religion as a state religion and owns that religion's holy city, they will receive 'line-of-sight' (fog of war is lifted) in every other city hosting that religion.[3]
When it comes to selecting a player's civic options, there are five under the "religion" category. All players start with Paganism, but later on can impose a theocracy, adopt pacifism, have freedom of worship or have an organized and integrated religious policy. These civics can provide a great incentive to spread a state religion throughout one's empire, as the best bonuses will only be applied to cities in which the religion is present.[3]
Each of the eighteen civilizations has at least one leader, and eight have two leaders. Each leader has two "personality traits" which offer bonuses to various game mechanics, as well as a distinct personality and behavior. Several historic figures not used in previous Civilization games, but included in Civ IV are: Asoka, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington, Hatshepsut, Mansa Musa, Kublai Khan, Peter the Great, Qin Shi Huang, Cyrus the Great, Saladin (though Saladin was a hidden leader in Civilization II), and Queen Victoria. Some art assets also existed in the game files for a Sumerian civilization led by Gilgamesh and they were used by the modding community to introduce the Sumerians into the game. Other unfinished art included leader head artwork for Pericles, Augustus, and Menes. Gilgamesh, Pericles and Augustus were officially added in the expansion packs later.[5]
All civilizations have some element of uniqueness and all leaders have certain traits based on their achievements in life. All civilizations also have a unique unit, which replaces a standard unit (such as Persian Immortals replacing Chariots).[3]
| Civilization | Unique Unit | Leader(s) | Capital |
| American | Navy SEAL | Washington, Roosevelt | Washington |
| Arab | Camel Archer | Saladin | Mecca |
| Aztec | Jaguar | Montezuma | Tenochtitlan |
| Chinese | Chu-Ko-Nu | Qin Shi Huang, Mao Zedong, Taizong (in the Chinese version) | Beijing |
| Egyptian | War Chariot | Hatshepsut | Thebes |
| English | Redcoat | Elizabeth I, Victoria, Winston Churchill | London |
| French | Musketeer | Louis XIV, Napoleon | Paris |
| German | Panzer | Frederick, Bismarck | Berlin |
| Greek | Phalanx | Alexander | Athens |
| Incan | Quechua | Huayna Capac | Cuzco |
| Indian | Fast Worker | Asoka, Gandhi | Delhi |
| Japanese | Samurai | Tokugawa | Kyoto |
| Malinese | Skirmisher | Mansa Musa | Timbuktu |
| Mongolian | Keshik | Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan | Karakorum |
| Persian | Immortal | Cyrus | Persepolis |
| Roman | Praetorian | Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus | Rome |
| Russian | Cossack | Peter, Catherine | Moscow |
| Spanish | Conquistador | Isabella | Madrid |
As in prior versions of Civilization, a set of technologies are arranged in a tech tree. A total of 86 are included in the game, up from 81 in Civilization III.[6] Technologies have many uses; they can be used for trade, for the construction of new terrain improvements, units, buildings and wonders, to reveal new resources, for the founding of new religions, or for the development of new forms of government. To discover a new technology, it is first necessary to discover the prerequisite technologies (for example, democracy can only be discovered after the printing press).[3]
Unlike previous versions, technology development is flexible: certain technologies can be discovered by following more than just one path, and others (all six starting technologies, for example hunting) are not linked to any technology and must be found from scratch. The game's technology tree displays all the techs in the game and their relation with one another, and allows the player to queue any number of technologies for research. If multiple paths lead to the target technology, the AI will pick the shortest. The final technology in the game, as in previous versions, is called "Future Tech", followed by a number; each iteration of it imparts a happiness and health bonus to that nation's cities. In previous Civ games, Future tech gave a score bonus, but no gameplay advantages.[3]
The discovery of each technology is announced by the game's narrator, Leonard Nimoy. In the single-player game, he reads off a famous quotation pertaining to the technology; the sources of the quotations range from the Buddha, Charles Darwin and the Bible to Lonnie Donegan, Steve Wozniak, Dan Quayle, and a monotonic "Beep. Beep. Beep." attributed to the Sputnik space probe. In multi-player games, Nimoy simply declares, "You have discovered [Name of Technology]."[3]
World Wonders bestow various advantages to the cities and civilizations that build them. Many World Wonders from earlier versions of Civilization have been tweaked to reduce their overall effects. For example, in prior versions, the Pyramids (granary in every city) and Sistine Chapel (cathedral in every city) could dramatically alter the balance of gameplay. In Civilization IV, many of the World Wonders provide a temporary boost to money and science and a permanent boost to culture. A Wonder can only be built (completed) once, but multiple civilizations can work on building it simultaneously in competition to complete it.[3] Certain technologies make certain
Wonders obsolete; though the Wonder's base effects to the city (culture and great person points) remain, its special effects are removed, to show how modern technology eliminates the influence or use of older wonders.
National Wonders can be built once by each civilization. They give city-specific and other bonuses and often have particular prerequisite gameplay conditions to permit construction in addition to a required technology. Only two National Wonders can be built in any one city; this encourages players to think strategically about where to build them.[3]
Score is based on a number of factors, including military growth and success, population size and attitude, technological advancement, construction of wonders and economic growth. At the end of a game, the leadership skills of players are compared to a subjective list of twenty of the best or worst leaders in history, similar to the list in the first Civilization game.
The released version of the game abandoned Civilization III's graded scale. In Civ3, a spectacular victory on the easiest difficulty would provide the player with only a middling score, and the best titles were only awarded to players attempting the hardest difficulties. The original Civilization, as well as Civilization IV, on the other hand, allows the player to obtain any score on any difficulty level. As of the v1.61 patch, the grading system has returned to the curved-by-difficulty scale.[3]
Many aspects of Civilization IV are new to the series. These include, but are not limited to:
Sid Meier's Civilization IV included some bonus content, released with mainly the purpose of showing modding capabilities:
Civilization IV is much more open to modification than its predecessors. Game data and rules are stored in XML files, and a Software Development Kit was released in April 2006 to allow AI customization. Major parts of the interface, map generation, and scripted events are written entirely in Python and can be customized.
The World Builder allows a player to create a map from scratch or to use an in-game situation as a starting point for a new scenario. The user can modify the map by placing and modifying rivers, landmasses, mountains, resources, units and cities. For example, it is possible to adjust a city's population or culture. Additionally, each civilization's technological progress as well as its diplomatic and military ties to other civilizations can be edited. The world builder can also be used during the middle of a campaign to change anything from names of cities to giving yourself more units making it a quite useful in game cheat device. The World Builder for Civilization IV is in-game, in contrast to previous Civilization games where the Map Editor was an external application.[12]
More game attributes are stored in XML files, which must be edited with an external text editor or application. Barry Caudill, a senior producer at Firaxis Games, said in September:[13]
| “ | Editing these files will allow players to tweak simple game rules and change or add content. For instance, they can add new unit or building types, change the cost of wonders, or add new civilizations. Players can also change the sounds played at certain times or edit the play list for your soundtrack. | ” |
At the current time the XML processing in Windows is permissive of errors, whereas the Mac OS X version is not. As a result, some XML files which will work on the Windows version of the game may need correcting before they function correctly on the Macintosh version.[14]
The game uses boost.python to allow the Python programming language access to many parts of the game (including the style and content of all interface screens). Python can also be used to modify random map generation and to add complex scripted events.
The version of Python present in the Windows version of the game differs from the version in Mac OS X up to and including version 10.4.7, and as a result, while most Python files for the Windows version will work on the Macintosh version, not all will. The reverse is also true.[14]
The Civilization IV software development kit was released on April 13, 2006 to coincide with the release of the v1.61 patch. The kit allows players to view, modify, or completely re-write the game's DLL source code, enabling the modification of the game's AI and other integral parts of the game.[15]
As of the first official patch for the Macintosh version (v1.61 Revision A), there is no SDK for the Macintosh version of the game. In fact the Macintosh version lacks the separate library of game related code which the PC version uses, but instead includes the code compiled into the main executable. There is as of yet no indication of whether this will change in a future patch.[14]
The release of Civilization IV reportedly included some technical, production and shipping problems. The most common packaging errors have been French and German technology charts in English-language boxes[16] and the erroneous packing of two of the same CD-ROM, rendering the game unplayable.[17] 2K Games replaced such shipments. Other copies have mislabeled disks; since this does not affect gameplay, users are asked to just use the right CD-ROM when applicable.[18] There have also been some cases in which the game manual has pages situated in the wrong place (e.g.: page one is the very last page of the manual). There are also many typographical errors in the Dutch manual.
Civilization IV is available for Windows (PC) and Mac OS X. The Mac OS X version is published by Aspyr and was released in June 2006. A Mac digital version was released January 2010 on gameagent.com.[19] Though it lacks some of the customization features which were added to the PC version in v1.61, it is otherwise identical to v.1.61 of the PC version. The game was released as a Universal binary, running natively on both PPC- and x86-based Macintoshes. Mac OS X users may also, in addition to the cross-platform GameSpy service (although Revision B is required for GameSpy), use GameRanger to play multiplayer games.
Civilization IV and its expansions are also available via Steam and Turner Broadcasting System's GameTap subscription service.[20] Multiplayer games involving both game platforms work, but require the use of one of the multiplayer options other than "Internet Play" due to the incompatible formats employed.
A re-make of Sid Meier's original (1994) Colonization built with Civilization IV's game engine, Civilization IV: Colonization, was released for Mac and PC. It is a standalone game, playable without the original Civilization IV.
Recently Oasys Mobile published various arcade games under the brand name of Sid Meier's Civilization IV like Civilization IV: War of Two Cities, a catapult game, and Civilization IV: Defenders of the Gates, which is a tower-defense game.[21]
Two expansion packs have been published for Civilization IV. The first one, entitled Civilization IV: Warlords, was released in the United States on July 24, 2006 and in Europe two days later, on July 26, 2006.
The second expansion pack, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, was released on July 18, 2007 in the United States and on July 20, 2007 in Europe. The expansion focuses on adding content to the in-game time periods following the invention of gunpowder, and includes more general content such as 11 new scenarios, 10 new civilizations, and 16 new leaders. It also expands the technology tree.
| Reception | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | 94/100[22] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Eurogamer | 9/10[23] |
| Game Revolution | A-[24] |
| GameSpot | 9.4/10[25] |
| GameSpy | [26] |
| IGN | 9.4/10[27] |
| PC Gamer US | 94% |
Civilization IV was exceptionally well-received by video game critics, with an aggregated review score of 94 on Metacritic.[22] The game was generally praised for its depth in strategy and for competent AI opponents, with several critics calling the game "addictive" and "infinitely replayable". At the same time, many critics appreciated the more streamlined and intuitive interface as well as the visual and sound design, describing them as more welcoming of newcomers to the series.[22]
Civilization IV won multiple awards at various events and gaming websites.[28] IGN chose the game as the PC Game of the Year in 2005 over F.E.A.R. and Guild Wars,[29] and also as the Best Strategy Game (both overall[30] and on PC[31]) and Best Online Game of 2005 on PC.[32] In 2007, IGN also ranked the game at #2 on Top 25 PC games of all time.[33] GameSpot awarded the game Best PC Game[34] and Best Strategy Game of 2005,[35] and nominated it for Game of the Year.[36] GameSpy named the game Game of the Year,[37] PC Game of the Year,[38] and Best Turn-Based Strategy Game of 2005.[39]
At the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Civilization IV won Strategy Game of the Year and was nominated for Overall Game of the Year (lost to God of War) and Computer Game of the Year (lost to Battlefield 2).[40]
In the 2010 Grammy Awards, the Civ IV theme, Baba Yetu, won in the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist category.[41][42] This is the first Grammy Award nomination and win for any video game theme.
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