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MobyRank MobyScore
PlayStation
...
3.1
Windows
91
4.1
Windows 3.x
...
4.4

Description

Starting out with just a single unit and knowledge of a small local area, your challenge is to guide your civilization into becoming the dominant force, either by conquering every other civilization or by sending a spaceship to Alpha Centauri.

As you'd imagine, a lot of challenges come into such a task. You must locate cities so as to make use of food, construction and trade resources, which can be later improved by constructing irrigation, roads, mines, railroads, and farmland. Each city can construct one item at a time - military units, buildings or Wonders of the World (there are 28 of these across the different eras of the game, and only one city can possess each one). The buildings and wonders have different effects - some improve defenses, while others improve scientific research, trade or food output.

There are over 100 scientific discoveries in the game, and most require you to have certain knowledge before they can be discovered. How quickly this happens depends on your scientific output, which must be traded off against financial and military concerns.

Combat can occur in cities or in the open terrain - things like forests and mountains give the defense an advantage. Unlike the original Civilization, fights aren't always won outright - sometimes a unit will survive but damaged (reducing its movement speed and attacking prowess until it's repaired). If multiple units are in a square that come sunder attack, the strongest unit fights - unless it is a city or Fortress, all units will be lost if the fight is lost. Once a city has no defensive units left, it can be captured. Certain units have the ability to cover all squares as fast as if they were roads, only a few can see submarines, and air units require re-fueling in a friendly city.

There are up to 6 other Civilizations in the game, and keeping good diplomatic relations with these is crucial. At times you may want to trade knowledge or pool military resources with a neighbor - at others they may want to destroy you. If you make deals and go back on them your reputation is affected.

Alternate Titles

  • "文明II" -- Chinese Title (Simplified)
  • "Wenming II" -- Chinese Title
  • "Civilization 2000" -- Working Title
  • "Civ 2" -- Informal Name

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User Reviews

Addictive is not always good. Windows Ran Prieur (19)

No reason to play this if you own the PC version.

PlayStation Entorphane (371)
The best Pc Game ever made. Hands down Windows William Shawn McDonie Bronze Star Contributing Member (1183)
Jumped the shark Windows B Jones (14)
Its was good, but RTS beats it hands down Windows Peter Clark (10)
Caution: May Be Habit-Forming!!! Windows Aaron of Minneapolis (4)
A Good Strategy Game Windows AstroNerdBoy (40)
Beyond any doubt or question the best video game ever created, for any platform. Windows Rick Jones (108)
Probably, the most addictive game in the world. Windows Craig Tanswell (21)
Time and again, I keep coming back to this game. Windows Richard Agnew (8)

The Press Says

PC Player (Germany) Windows Apr, 1996 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars 100
FZ Windows Dec 13, 2006 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars 100
GameSpot Windows 3.x May 01, 1996 9.2 out of 10 92
GameSpot Windows May 01, 1996 9.2 out of 10 92
PC Games (Germany) Windows Apr, 1996 90 out of 100 90
Coming Soon Magazine Windows Jun 14, 1996 88 out of 100 88
JeuxVideoPC.com Windows Jun 30, 2006 15 out of 20 75

Forums

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Trivia

Brian Reynolds and his co-workers were initially reluctant to make many changes to the original game's design, as they didn't want to be known as "the guys who screwed up Civilization."


This entry was contributed by Brian Hirt (10082), Martin Smith (60308) and Adam Baratz (1385)
 

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