Civilization Revolution Review

Civilization Revolution is the portable outing of the long-running, seminal classic turn-based strategy game and while it encapsulates part of what makes Civ great, it also has some noticeable flaws that detract form the experience.

I am a huge Civ fan and a bit of a purist at that. My reaction to Civilization 5 was equatable to one’s reaction to discovering a pit of vipers underneath a delicious cake: shock and then displeasure. However, despite my love of the traditional and ‘pure’ Civ, I approached Civ Rev. with an open mind. After all, a world-conquering game shrunk down to play anywhere is a great idea, right?

To its credit, Civ took a look at Sim City Deluxe and recognized the complexity and somewhat clunky nature of the game, and decided to take a more logical, if a bit disappointing move: to streamline. The menu, presentation, and combat is all condensed and simplified. The advisor, production, road, Great Person, and other sundry panels have all been made into little widgets along the side, while cities are easily shifted between. The displays of information (production, gold, science, research) are all clear and accessible. Roads and trade have been automated, units stack and defend easily, conquest and diplomacy is all simple. Even, to somewhat of a detriment, the graphics are simple: colorful and cartoonish.

However, the biggest problem with this simplification and streamlining is that the game loses some of the essence of Civ. What used to feel like commanding a nation and armies now feels like a highly simple and automated series of assignments and orders. The feeling of a massive world is gone, replaced with a sort of cartoon wonderland of easy resources and odd proximity. Due to some software limitations, the diplomacy is a shadow of the actual Civ diplomacy, often extremely simple and easily manipulable – and more often disappointing. Many of the important factors and stats that would have decided a battle in the computer games are absent, instead a rudimentary brawl of soldiers.

The brilliance of Civ is in its deliberateness, in its contemplation. You must plan ahead, chose your research carefully, make intelligent decisions, and so on. However, in portable form the game feels rushed and unsatisfactorily shrunk down, a giant of a game squished through a tube a tenth of its size.

However, and it pains me to say it, Civilization Revolution does have its moments. Conquering the world is always fun and scraping out an existence from nothing is novel and exciting. Actually, if the game has been called anything but “Civilization”, I would probably review it better. But up against the pedigree of the computer games, Revolution seems like the runty pig in the litter compared to a prize swine. But, if you are looking for a turn-based strategy game for the iOS and you don’t mind the changes to the Civ formula, then Revolution is a relatively solid choice.

Author: Kit Marlowe