The SNES version of Sid Meier's Civilization is a classic for a reason! While the graphics are obviously dated, the core gameplay of building an empire, researching tech, and conquering the world is still incredibly addictive. It lacks some features of the PC original, and the AI can be frustratingly predictable, but it's a surprisingly deep strategy experience for a console port. If you love turn-based strategy and don't mind the older feel, this one's a must-play.
I was fresh out of High School, it was late 1993, and my mother purchased a Packard Bell desktop computer. I picked up Civilization on the way out, as I had seen a review and I loved strategy games.
This was either a mistake, or one of the best casual decisions of my life.
Civilization puts you in charge of a culture (Roman, Egyptian, Zulu, Indian, American, a few others) or you can name your own. You start at the literal dawn of civilization, with a tech tree that starts with things like "The Wheel" and "Writing". You settle cities, and build them up, build military units and non-military units, spreading your culture across the globe.
You encounter other cultures, plus primitive tribes that may grant you small bonuses. You can interact with those other Civ's via trade, or warfare.
I have played every version of Civilization ever since, and it is still a go-to for me. The depth of what you can do, with multiple paths to go for a win condition, the personalities of the leaders, the now famous and intentional sudden reversal of Ghandi from a peace loving pacifist to a nuclear armed Warlord.... all of it changed the way I interact with games in genera, and set me on a path of 4X games that I am still on 30 years later.
This was either a mistake, or one of the best casual decisions of my life.
Civilization puts you in charge of a culture (Roman, Egyptian, Zulu, Indian, American, a few others) or you can name your own. You start at the literal dawn of civilization, with a tech tree that starts with things like "The Wheel" and "Writing". You settle cities, and build them up, build military units and non-military units, spreading your culture across the globe.
You encounter other cultures, plus primitive tribes that may grant you small bonuses. You can interact with those other Civ's via trade, or warfare.
I have played every version of Civilization ever since, and it is still a go-to for me. The depth of what you can do, with multiple paths to go for a win condition, the personalities of the leaders, the now famous and intentional sudden reversal of Ghandi from a peace loving pacifist to a nuclear armed Warlord.... all of it changed the way I interact with games in genera, and set me on a path of 4X games that I am still on 30 years later.
One of the first games I got for my first PC. Brought it home from the shops on Saturday morning, loaded it up, and the next thing I knew I launched for Alpha Centauri, it was Sunday afternoon, and I suddenly felt very tired.
Seminal start to a genre-defining series and amazing for its time.
Seminal start to a genre-defining series and amazing for its time.
Civ marked another milestone in Gaming History. The concept and success of round based building games is more or less founded on games like Civilization. Ok at a point it became odd, when u had nukes while your neighbour civ just invented the muskets....but hey...life is not always fair :D :D :D
Civilization lag einer der allerersten Gamestar-Ausgaben als Vollversion (Civilization for Network oder kurz CivNet) bei. Und wenn ich nicht diesen einen besten Freund gehabt hätte, der sich ein ganzen Wochenende lang in dieses Spiel eingearbeitet hat und mir hinterher gezeigt hat, wie das Spiel funktioniert, wäre ich wahrscheinlich erst sehr viel später dem Hype von Civilization verfallen. Bis heute ist es eine meiner Lieblingsreihen, was Turn-based-Strategy betrifft, wobei die späteren Teile mich allesamt leider nicht mehr so begeistern konnten wie die frühen Ableger der Reihe.
Wieviele Stunden, Tage wir im Hot Seat Multiplayer von Civ verbracht haben. Jede Fraktion wurde ausprobiert. Civ 1 hat schon von Anfang an die Formel gefunden und festgezurrt, und tatsächlich auch fand ich es besser als den Nachfolger, der für viele andere ja als der Civ-Meilenstein gilt. Aber mir gefällt auch einfach die simple Top-Down-Ansicht.
Wieviele Stunden, Tage wir im Hot Seat Multiplayer von Civ verbracht haben. Jede Fraktion wurde ausprobiert. Civ 1 hat schon von Anfang an die Formel gefunden und festgezurrt, und tatsächlich auch fand ich es besser als den Nachfolger, der für viele andere ja als der Civ-Meilenstein gilt. Aber mir gefällt auch einfach die simple Top-Down-Ansicht.
Good to know my man Hammurabi has been going HAMmurabi since the first game
Why yes, I did play a turn based strategy game on the super nintendo, and had more fun than I should've
Did anyone actually play the first Civilization? Did it ever even exist? I’m not convinced.
The ideas in this game are definitely held back by the power and game design principles of 1991.
Extremely innovative, but the controls, menus, and mechanics take a fair bit of adjustment if you're familiar with modern strategy games (Civ or others)
Extremely innovative, but the controls, menus, and mechanics take a fair bit of adjustment if you're familiar with modern strategy games (Civ or others)
Koei Tecmo took this game to a whole nother level on the SNES
A solid start to the Civ series with a pretty charming pixel aesthetic. Obviously, it's not quite as replayable or complex as its sequels, but it is nice to play a relatively quick Civ game
(This is the 52nd game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
This is going to be a short review similarly to what I did for 1990's Wing Commander. The truth is, there are some genres and games that are not going to be my cup of tea. This means that my review for these games couldn't do them justice. The right person will absolutely love Wing Commander, and the right person will absolutely love Civilization I, despite its lack of QoL and overall features compared to newer entries. So in terms of this challenge, I don't think it would be fair for me to review these games with my review score.
That said, I can recognize an objectively well-made game when I see one, and Civilization definitely belongs in that category. I can't say I didn't have any fun with the game either, I definitely did in my 5 hours it. However, the game (and its manual) is so packed with features that take a while to get a grasp of in nature, and also get more difficult to figure out due to the old-school UI. Once you get somewhat of graps of the basics though, the game becomes kind of routine, where you use the cities you build to create settlers, militia, phalanx and more, where you use these characters to explore the world, where you meet other races and either go to war or make peace, and where you overall try to gain world domination before you lose.
The gameplay loop was definitely fun. If you're intro strategy games and you want to go into the Civilization series from the start, I'm sure you'll find a lot of enjoyment out of this. And even if I will likely not include most strategy games to my challenge playlist for the coming years, Civilization will likely become a mainstay.
This is going to be a short review similarly to what I did for 1990's Wing Commander. The truth is, there are some genres and games that are not going to be my cup of tea. This means that my review for these games couldn't do them justice. The right person will absolutely love Wing Commander, and the right person will absolutely love Civilization I, despite its lack of QoL and overall features compared to newer entries. So in terms of this challenge, I don't think it would be fair for me to review these games with my review score.
That said, I can recognize an objectively well-made game when I see one, and Civilization definitely belongs in that category. I can't say I didn't have any fun with the game either, I definitely did in my 5 hours it. However, the game (and its manual) is so packed with features that take a while to get a grasp of in nature, and also get more difficult to figure out due to the old-school UI. Once you get somewhat of graps of the basics though, the game becomes kind of routine, where you use the cities you build to create settlers, militia, phalanx and more, where you use these characters to explore the world, where you meet other races and either go to war or make peace, and where you overall try to gain world domination before you lose.
The gameplay loop was definitely fun. If you're intro strategy games and you want to go into the Civilization series from the start, I'm sure you'll find a lot of enjoyment out of this. And even if I will likely not include most strategy games to my challenge playlist for the coming years, Civilization will likely become a mainstay.
Plays more like a board game than later entries. Makes for a quick and fun pick up and play game of Civ. Other games improved on this one's formula by leaps and bounds, but the basic core of what makes the series so great is here. Wonderful game, and well worth your time even now.
This is surprisingly good, no wonder it was such a hit
"Too Old To Enjoy"
I decided to try the original Civilization, but I was only able to find a copy through a DOS-emulator online. It ran through a web page, and was a chore to understand how to run. Finally I was able to load the game and start playing.
This game is ancient in all of the worst ways. There is no real tutorial, and instructions on how to play are bloated and hard to decipher. The graphics are blocky, the music is loud and irritating, and the gameplay was barely functional.
Overall, I would Not Recommend playing this entry. It is much too old to really provide anything other than a glance at the franchise's early roots, and honestly it deserves to be left behind in history. Later titles add tutorials and clearer communication to the player about expected goals, as well as a plethora of new features.
Final Verdict: 1/10 (Terrible)
I decided to try the original Civilization, but I was only able to find a copy through a DOS-emulator online. It ran through a web page, and was a chore to understand how to run. Finally I was able to load the game and start playing.
This game is ancient in all of the worst ways. There is no real tutorial, and instructions on how to play are bloated and hard to decipher. The graphics are blocky, the music is loud and irritating, and the gameplay was barely functional.
Overall, I would Not Recommend playing this entry. It is much too old to really provide anything other than a glance at the franchise's early roots, and honestly it deserves to be left behind in history. Later titles add tutorials and clearer communication to the player about expected goals, as well as a plethora of new features.
Final Verdict: 1/10 (Terrible)