Reviews / previews
Civilization: Call to Power is a new broom that clears
away some of the cobwebs that have haunted
turn-based strategy games.
Regrettably, in the process, it clears away much of
the good with the bad.
Activision's first Civilization game, by turns engaging
and frustrating, belongs to the classic world
domination genre that starts in the "prehistoric past"
and ends somewhere in a futuristic
techno-apotheosis. It involves equal parts research,
exploration, exploitation, diplomacy and battle. You
can win by out-performing your opponents and
achieving the final breakthrough technology first, or
just beat them bloody.
Now, graphically,
there's no
contest: Civ:
CTP represents
a step forward
over the likes of
Civ II or Alpha
Centauri. Its
attractive 3D maps are covered with animated units
and resources. (That said, individual civilizations in
the game look and feel boringly alike, and the
soundtrack doesn't lend itself to cultural distinctions.)
And the "Wonders" on the new technological tree are
generally better balanced than those in Civ II.
On the other hand, the combat system is a melange
of interesting concepts and poor execution.
Too many "dirty tricks" unit types are
provided in Civ:CTP. For instance,
Ecoterrorists can instantly destroy all of a
city's advancements and Wonders. And
guess what? They are completely invisible
to nearly everything else. Yet these units'
attacks aren't even considered war
provocations by the AI, so computer-driven
players use them frequently and with
impunity.
Kudos to Activision for supporting combat
stacks (unlike Alpha Centauri). But unit balance, too, is way off. The game is
overly weighted in favor of stacks built from units with multiple attack types,
so a group of Archers and Cavalry can decimate a small squadron of futuristic
militia.
Then there's the AI. Time and again I've watched all the computer players go
from a position of very favorable reactions to me on one turn to declarations of
war or negative stances on the next, and all without without cause.
The AI cheats, too, and blatantly. Once you
get beyond the introductory training level,
you'll find that computer-controlled societies
start with more gold than human-controlled
ones, and receive a number of free cities.
Imperialism II reduced required player input
for any task to one or two clicks. Not so,
Civ: CTP. Its building queues, trade and
diplomatic screens each require a lengthy series of clicks to achieve a desired
goal. Some actions in the game are hotkeyed, but many are not.
No doubt future bugfixes will take care of many minor glitches, like combats
hidden beneath research completion screens and the frequent, mystifying
game crashes. But Civ: CTP has several major problems no amount of bug
spray can address. Who's going to clean up after the cleaner?-- Barry Brenesal / GamePro
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