Publisher: 2K games

Developer: Firaxis

Genre: Turn based Strategy

Civilization 4 is the best game in the series, go buy it now! I was thinking of just writing that line and ending the review there. But for those of you who have played any of the previous CIV games, don’t think that this game is like any of its predecessors.

The first thing you will realize is that the graphics has had a complete facelift. The unit’s animation, the cities and resources are all improved to such a degree that they cannot be compared with any of the other CIV games.

However, the graphics are the smallest alteration that was made in CIV 4. The game strategy has also had some very positive changes.

For example, the annoying problem of corruption in large cities will no longer have a negative impact on your production, instead it will add higher maintenance costs to your property.

Resources on the land will no longer be automatically linked to your city, you have to find methods of maintaining them. For example, if there was oil available on the land, you have to build oil wells.

When going into details about cities, some realistic changes have been made. Like the fact that cities no longer become unproductive when the occupants are unhappy; only the people who are unhappy refuse to work. City health is very important too, building airports, factories and other buildings that pollute the environment, will make the people living in surrounding areas sick. And you have to build hospitals, supermarkets, and try to get food like meat and rice to boost the health of the city.

Interestingly one of the anticipated improvements was in the United Nations. Once you build it, it triggers global elections on the post of UN secretary general, and on other topics like having a single currency, and a nuclear non-proficiency treaty.

The only flaw I can see in the game is the music; when your at you’re primitive age, the same 5 songs keep playing over and over. Or the fact when you start the game at 4000BC, there’s no music for the next 20 minutes. But still, the game allows you to play your own music files.

While the graphics have been improved there are a few people who are complaining online on how the game doesn’t run properly on their machines. Faced with a similar problem, I downloaded an update for my graphics card, and the problem was solved. A must buy for the fans of the Sid Meier games. With its few flaws that can be overlooked it’s the best game in the series.

The Score 9.5 (out of ten)