Civ IV: Teh Review

Format: PC
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis
Genre: 4X
Price: Variable, £30 new
Reviewer: Munki

Yeah, so this is about my third attempt to review Civilisation IV, I've actually had the game for ages, it's just been difficult for me to commit my thoughts to paper. Erm, E-paper. Yes. Civ IV is the latest in Firaxis' brilliant 4X series (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit & eXterminate) and manages to improve on the winning formula and easing the series into the third dimention.
I'm going to avoid the technical workings of the game, mostly because Simon "The Wang" Wang is paranoid I steal my reviews from PCGamer UK, and thats exactly what they did. Suffice to say, Civ IV continues much as the rest of the series, you start with a settler, create your first city, research some new technology, build new units etc amd eventually conquer the world. How you go about this is totally up to you, and the rewards for exploring new play styles are the numerous winning conditions, space race, diplomatic, military blah blah blah. Much of the boring old micro management has been stripped away in this game, but some remains if you like that sort of stuff, the rest of us will ignore it and lose nothing from the game. New features include the much demanded implementation of religeon, which I must say has been handled in a very subtle and fluid way, noice. The other big thing of course is the changing of civics to make them a bit more flexible, it's a good system and works well, allowing strange cross breeds of Communism and Universal Suffrage.
The game also benefits from it's spangly new engine. Some people will tell you that looks don't mean anything, that graphics aren't important. These people (my younger, more naive self included) are idiots. Graphics make things look pretty and can (shock horror) enhance the gameplay or even your game experience.Civ IV is achingly pretty, although until a lovely optimising patch I was running it on 7 fps, yum. Theres still a bit of lag in the late game when your screen is covered with lots of little railways and coal plants, but it is worth it, worth it so much [/drooling].
If I'm being honest I havent actually tried the multiplayer yet, we'll ignore the fact that thats actually because I'm scared of people and pretend that it's because the game is so damn replayable. Oh it really is that replayable? Again, noice. It's difficult to talk about this game without knowing in your head, that what your saying is a massive under statement, but then I am British so what do you expect? To be perfectly honest though if turn based games and 4X's really don't do it for you then theres not much here you'll enjoy, it certainally won't change your opnions about the genre. However if you are a fan of superior strategy then it would be a crime to miss out on one of the most rewarding games ever made ("omg I got a 6:1 kd ratio on dust the other day" "so what I nurtured a people from a tiny settlement to rulers of the earth in just over an hour"). There can be no praise great enough I can give this game to really put it in context for you, well, not until "The Wang" lets me give games a percentage score.

Ten Out of Ten (and 98% if your not Si)