bongdong

This game had the most friendly community for online play. I am not sure if the game itself promoted such behavior. Or the people back then were with different mind set than today. I will never know. It all starts like a joke - joining a lobby with a Serbian, American and a guy from Germany. And it ends with the sun rising without even noticing. Anyone up for one quick shoppa?

I am never playing another game by this company, before everyone involved in the creation of this abomination is fired, and you can quote me on this. To have so many loyal fans, and instead of giving them the same thing they already love, to give them the finger? How can you mess this up that bad? If someone gives me infinite time and money, and tell me: "Do your worst". Well, I will end up doing this game. Enough said.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This game is not for everyone. It has the graphics of something made 30 years ago, and you will not hear great music or see flashing video effects. But the gameplay... It is like trying to make a Lego tower, solving a logical puzzle and doing a math test, while trying to shoot the Zerg running at you and balancing a spoon on your nose. Hated every second playing it. Will do it again. 10/10.

I first got the demo version of this game on a CD that came with a magazine. I played the same map over and over again. And one day when I got the full game, and when I realized that each tile is separate map, with so so many different guns and clips, and you could actually choose your mercenaries... My mind was blown. I was also quite surprised that there is a whole story going on, and I am not shooting bad guys just for sport. Many people will consider the graphics outdated. But I cannot name one modern title that can compare to this game. Still opening it every now and then, playing the 1.13 mod. And still fun after 1/4 century.

One cannot call this game Sid Meier's Civilization. This name was always a guarantee that you are buying high quality piece of art. And I cannot say that I felt the same about each release. For example, I liked 6 more than 5, 5 less than 4, and 4 about the same as 3. I always had something positive to say about each release. But this one offers absolutely nothing. I do not like the interface. The combat/army is weird. The economy and city building feels wrong. And the "strategy" is next to non-existent. Which is not okay, considering they were trying to make a strategy game. And I hate the music. And the diplomacy too. I cannot give anything above 0. It says "Overwhelming Dislike" and I think it fits very well. And do not think even for a second that I am some sort of hater of Sid Meier's Civ. I have thousands of hours in some of the versions. And god knows how many in all of them combined. I would really like to think that all those "9 of 10" ratings are coming from new players, that never played older versions before, and are not some paid critics copy/pasting AI generated texts. I do not see how this will be true. And the worst part of all - I do not see how any of this will be "fixed" by future versions or adding DLC to the game. I want to be wrong. I want this to be like a nightmare and we would wake up with game, that is good enough to carry this name. But I do not see it happening.