I am pretty sure I would not love so much Civ if I started with any other game of the series.
Although Civilization II may be graphically old, it has many good points that make it a very nice game to play. The tutorial gives you a general overview of what you must do not to have a terrible first game, but it’s not indispensable at all. The first time you play the game you’ll do so many mistakes that you’ll get surprised how you managed to get so far in the game, in fact it’s one of the best things in the game for beginners, the easy level is really easy and lets you feel you are not a beginner.
When you get used to the game and its "secrets" (which are explained by the splendid Civilopedia, which also has descriptions to all the technologies, wonders and etc.) you will find out that the wonders are one of the most important aspects of the game, if not the most important one. Wonders give you special abilities, like letting you upgrade your armies for free, but some of them expire when you or your rivals reach a certain technology. The different levels of difficult also makes the AI of the computer variable; in lower difficulties your rivals will try to become your ally when you are the most powerful nation, and in higher levels they will stick together in order to destroy you! The game has a weak point; your territory is determined by your cities, and all of them have the same area, even if they have different sizes, this allow other players to build cities right inside your empire, which doesn’t happen in newer Civilizations.
The game also lets you create you own scenario, which may make you spend lots of time creating everything to play later, even though creating modern worlds is very boring. The game is hard to get bored with, once you can advance easily in the game, making you want to play it again to expand your civilization a bit more, and as you expand and become technologically advanced more time is spent playing each turn. The game can also be played many times, once you may want to see some differences between civilizations (and there are some, which are represented by the leader’s personality), e.g., the Mongols always tend to be more aggressive at the early game, creating lots of cities, while other civilizations will develop a few cities.
There are few bugs in this game, and none of them make it impossible to play. Civilization II was a wonderful experience, and is recommended to everyone, specially now that the game is very cheap, once newer versions have been released.
---Velociguardian---