In Civilization Revolution (Civ Rev), you will play as the leader of a country. Whether you're the President, Queen, or Pharaoh. You will start with a city builder, each city builder may found a new city. You will be playing on a map of different terrain, including hills, ocean, mountains, etc.. The map is split into squares, and each square holds its own set of recourses. Civ Rev is a turn based game, and units may only move a certain number of squares. Once you build your first city, you will build your first unit. In time you will build a building, or a world wonder (like the great pyramids). Your civilization will grow from the Ancient Era in BC, all the way to beyond today. Throughout this time, you will progress through the many sciences and their advantages to your civilization. Civ Rev is a game of balance, it is important to balance your science, as well as your production of armies. If you're not careful, other countries will take advantage of either your lack of soldiers, or your backwards civlization.
There are 4 different ways to win a round of Civ Rev. The first is a science victory, you will achieve this victory through becoming the first civilization to reach space travel. Or, you may want to achieve a economic victory, once your funds reach a certain level, you will be able to build the world bank. There is also a cultural victory, if your people are sophisticated enough you will be able to build the United Nations. The last way to achieve victory is total domination, obtained by capturing all of your opponent civilization capitols. All four victory types are unique, and challenging they will each require a carefully thoughtout strategy.


You can choose your difficulty level in Civ Rev, and trust me your first time, you'll want to play on easy. It's not the easiest game to pick up, although some argue that the console version has been 'dumbed down'. Even so, for every game and each of the 16 different civilizations you may choose from, you'll need your own strategy. Will you choose the Aztecs and go for a domination victory? Or will you choose the Spanish and go for the economic victory? It's interesting how there are so many different strategies and approaches to each and every game. Each game should last you anywhere between 2-4 hours, much shorter than the PC versions ever took. This is not a bad thing, it just simply takes you less time to move onto the next era because you don't need to research as much as the PC versions required.

The graphics in Civ Rev are great. It is not the intention of the game developers to be a realistic looking game, but it is easy to see the vision that the developers had. The graphics may be described as 'smooth' . There are no rough edges that ruin the fluidity of Civ Rev. Cannons will shoot round blows of smoke, and will be launched back an inch on your screen from each shot. Once an archer wins a victory some of them will shoot their arrows in the sky and they will turn into fireworks. It's the simple things that make the graphics so great in Civ Rev.


Gameplay is like I said before, arguable 'dumbed down' from the PC version of Civlilization. You can still do a lot of the cool things such as change government type from Communism to Democracy or Republic, or Monarchy, or etc. You can still declare war, and you can still trade knowledge for money. Even so, you unfortunately cannot access some of the convenient diplomacy options that the PC version offered. Features such as right of passage, this would give your troops the ability to pass through another civilizations land, unfortunately without this feature your units might get cut off from your land, and may become trapped. You also might feel that civilizations only go to war with you. Other civilizations don't attack eachother, making it easy to feel like it is 4 on 1. There is no option for you to persuade a civilization to go to war with another civilization with you. Even though some of the diplomacy options are limited, the rest of the games features are very easy to manage. Accessing units and buildings is very easy, and the turn based system gives you plenty of time to perfect each turn to its fullest. There are a lot of ups and downs to the gameplay in Civ Rev, because the game is simple it makes it very managable on the console, but also can become frustrating.

In Civ Rev you will be able to form armies with units, if you obtain 3 of the same units, put them on the same square, you can form an army which is much more powerful than attacking/defending with one at a time, a very helpful feature. Your units will have 2 different stats, attack and defense. Some units will be better at attacking, others at defending. Each city will be able to build 1 production at a time, whether it's a building or a unit, they will all cost different amounts of production.


The sounds in Civ Rev are funny, warriors sound like grunts, and the occasional 'woohoo' after a victory makes you feel warm inside. Things like moving through water, or moving an army of troops sound convincing, as well as the sound of clashing metal. Throughout the game you will have 'advisors' who will give you advice on what to do next or keep you updated on your civilizations status. Although they won't say any real words, they sound like the Sims, which adds some more humor to the game.

Civ Rev is fun, but doesn't last very long. The games are short, which makes it a little tedius to start over and over and over. It was nicer in the PC when games took you more than 3 sittings. You couldn't sit down and finish a game. The longevity was disrupted a little bit because you lose your connection to your civilization. But, it is amazing that Civ Rev can be so mesmorizing that you will want to sit down for 2-4 hours to play out your civilization, the game is very addicting. If you're on the fence of buying or renting this game, rent it first.

Civ Rev is an awesome game, you'll be sucked right into the gameplay, and become addicted to it's unique turn based sty.le Civ Rev is a game that everyone should try simply because you're put in the position of controlling nations, sometimes when I play America I think I could do a better job than the guy sleeping in the White House. You'll love the simplicity of Civ Rev, but may also become frustrated with the limitations. If you've ever played the PC versions of Civilization, I would definitely not box out the console version: Civilization Revolution.

8.4