This game bundle has about everything you need to conquer the world!!
Ok, enough hype. This game will allow you to play as one of 54 leaders of one of 34 civilizations, with the not-so-basic goal of dominating the world (on the regular game mode). You made do it by one or several different paths:
-Overall dominance: Measured by your score, you will win this way if no other victory goal is reached by any civilization at the end of the game.
-Conquest: get rid of your rivals.
-Dominance: Establish your civilization to be half the world or more.
-Culture: crush your opponents with the power of art and world prestige, by building wonders, developing into golden ages, giving birth to great people...
-Diplomacy: Prove your civilization to be worthy of being acknowledged as the human race's leader, in a civilized way...
-Technological/Space Race: by discovering most technologies, get prepared to be the first country to be in two planets at once.
In order to achieve this goals, you must make use of some of the following stuff:
-Cities: Civilization is about a society built around cities, so this is the thread holding the beads.
-Armies: "If you want peace, be prepared for war". Most civilizations are still quite warlike, so don't hesitate on having enough bodyguards for your country.
-Resources: If you don't have them, your cities would be stinky, angry, primitive, starving mobs restraining your progress. Your armies would pretty much be the same.
-Wealth: needed to pay your research, government expenses, armies, commerce, espionage and sometimes culture.
-City and countryside improvements: they will allow and boost your resource, wealth, & defense benefits, as well as your citizens' well being.
-Culture: achievable by wonders, cultural buildings, religion and specialists, it will help you to expand your world influence.
-Diplomacy: as long as you're not being invaded by half the world, you're well enough. So don't be too bad or nice to them.
-Technology: this knowledge gives you power to improve in every other area.
-Population: how are you supposed to make big efforts without help!?
-Transportation networks: needed for your military and economical machinery to run smoothly, they're a big deal.
In specific scenarios, the need to achieve this goals are varied. Sometimes war waging is the only way, others include economy as the sole purpose, and so on. Some scenarios even have exclusive and specific goals. Most scenarios are historical or history-like, while some others are future fiction or the game upside down. If the regular game starts getting dull, I would recommend you the "Rhye's and Fall of Civilization" scenario/mod, or the "Next War" (BTS)mod (if you want to play the same game with more stuff for the late eras.
For those who don't want to go through the hassle of starting from zero, there's always the Advanced Start mode, which is kinda like a limited, fair World Builder.
For those itching to create or to cheat, the World Builder will allow you to do so (only on single player). You can edit the game's scenarios (but not as deeply as hacking), you can create your own, or you can modify the game map if it doesn't pleases you enough (that's my case most of the times).
If beating the AI on Deity difficulty is getting boring, you may enjoy one of many great multiplayer experiences so far, along with other supreme emperors to rivalize with. If you're having trouble against the AI, it might as well suit you.
About graphics, the 3-D engine is far from delivering the mos shocking ones, yet it makes a huge leap in this area. Almost all leaders look just as they are (compare the with portraits, sculptures, icons, coins...found in History books). Yet the best visuals hail from the cinematic cutscenes (mainly wonder videos).
The soundtrack is well made, although too western. If it doesn't pleases you, you may mix in (by accessing the computer installation files) your favorite songs in a custom folder, or you can import your own.
If I were to talk about problems in this game, I would say that the RAM needed for the world management is somewhat high for many (when I bought my current computer, I wanted it to run Civ IV smoothly). This is especially annoying on game files of huge worlds crowded with civilizations.
Another important problem may be that the units are too effectively countered, giving an enormous advantage to the defender, most noticeably in the classic and medieval eras.
Even considering the flaws, this game is much better made than its predececssors, and better as well as most current 4x turn-based strategy games.
My final warning for any future supreme emperor: make sure you have enough willpower to stop playing when it's been too much (the embedded game's alarm can help).