iPhone App: Civilization Revolution

Hello everyone, it’s been a while since the iPhone app review, so let’s get started. This time I chose to review a game called “Sid Meyer’s Civilization Revolution”. The game was originally the 2008 iteration of Civilization IV, and has been brought to the iPhone a few weeks ago. You’ve probably heard of Civ IV, the fantastic turn based strategy game. I spent hours on it (far more than I should have) and was really curious to see how Sid Meyer managed to bring what is probably one of the most complex computer games ever to the iPhone. For those who are not familiar with Civilization, here’s the big picture: You are the head of one of many civilizations (Civ IV had 18 different societies, Civ revolution has 16) and your duty is to lead your people through time. You start off in the prehistoric area and you may even have to research and discover the wheel. You decisions and strategies will lead you to antiquity, the middle ages, the Renaissance, the industrial revolution and even into the future. You can win the game in many different ways: By simply conquering the other civs, by extending your cultural influence, or even by winning a space race to Alpha Centauri, just to name a few.
One of the main characteristics of the game is its turn by turn playability, which means that the game is not played in real time: You can take all the time you need to check your parameters (such as resources exploitation, diplomacy, religion, scientific research and economic policies), as opposed to games like Age of Empire where you have to react quickly, often sacrificing strategy for the sake of action.
A typical game on Civ IV can take many hours, days, and even weeks. The most hardcore players will spend hours tweaking their settings and calculating various factors before validating a turn, but thanks to its many levels, the game is still accessible to anyone with a little patience willing to learn a few concepts.
Civ has many other features: great people, world wonders, government modes, warlords and and whole range of military machines, but I couldn’t possibly describe them all in this article; after all, entire books are written about the game.

Civilization revolution for the iPhone

My main concern when I downloaded Civ revolution on my iPhone was that the game would be some kind of stripped down version of the original product, simplified to appeal to the masses. The iPhone has become a great gaming platform thanks to the updated specs of the 3GS, but even on a dual core computer with dedicated GPU, Civ IV isn’t the fastest, which led me to think that some sacrifices had to be made.

Full of expectations, I started the app, which rapidly loaded and displayed a sleek menu featuring typical (and very welcome) Civ music. I chose to start a new game, which gave me the choice between playing a scenario or loading a random map. I chose the latter, selected the second of 5 difficulty levels (Warlord) and then chose the leader I would control. Here come my first disappointment: The interface is a strange mix of tap and slide and tilt to slide, which can be quite confusing at first. A simple tap and slide would have been sufficient, the tilt control ads absolutely no benefit to the interface. Also, the display picture of the various leaders are really – how should I put this? – hideous. I understand an iPhone can not display the beautifully rendered 3D portraits like in Civ IV, but it can surely do better than pixelated cartoonish images.

As soon as the map is loaded, it become apparent that the very poor graphics are present in the entire game. The map is heavily pixelated and not even in 3D (mountains and other geographic feature are just icons on a map) the units are animated in 4 frames, the whole feel is just ridiculously close to what an average windows ’98 game was. I can already hear the civ fanboys out there shouting “who cares about the graphics, it’s Civ on an iPhone!”, but that is precisely my point: The screen is small, you don’t have a mouse or keyboard, which is already a big handicap when it comes over game overview and manageability of the various strategic factors. The last thing you will want when playing such a complex game on such a small device is to have to cope with bad graphics. I’d be really happy with 2D graphics if only they were sharp and a little more aesthetic.

The gameplay itself isn’t bad: If you’re familiar with earlier versions of Civ, you’ll have no problem figuring out what to do in this version. The main limitations are linked not to the iPhone, but to Civ revolution itself. Sid Meyer, trying to appeal to a broader audience simplified the rules settings, meaning that the player has very little control over pre-game options. There are only 4 ways the player can win: Domination, space race, culture and economic. That’s right, no conquest, no time victory. This means that a civ game can be finished in at little as 2 hours. If the player’s civilization is nearing one of the above mentioned victory conditions, all other civilizations will declare war on them in an attempt to delay or stop them from winning. The construction of the World Bank, the construction of the United Nations, and the launching of the ship to Alpha Centauri can all be stopped by capturing the enemy’s capital/palace. Another difference from previous iterations are the barbarians now live in villages and attack from them. Also, the level of barbarian activity cannot be adjusted as in previous iterations, though the level of barbarian activity changes in certain scenarios.

The iPhone is the most connected phone on the market, and it would therefore be logical to expect a multiplayer option, right? Wishful thinking, there is none, to my disppointment. What was 2K thinking? The iPhone can handle this!

Value and verdict

This app leaves a bitter sweet taste. I love the idea of Civ on a phone, I love the fact that it even exists. However, I can’t help but feel that 2K hasn’t fully exploited the iPhone capabilities, to say the least. I would have gladly traded the short loading times for better graphics and a few leaders for a multiplayer capability. The scenarios are a nice option, but they’re nothing more than in-game saves.
I would find this acceptable if this was just the mobile version of civ, but it is not: Civilization Revolution is the current flagship of the Civiliaztion franchise, and the Nitendo DS shares the same limitations. The Xbox and PS3 games just have better graphics, but are basically simplified versions of Civ IV.

If you’re a hardcore civ fan, get the app. It just feels good to carry the game in your pocket. If you love strategy games, I suggest you buy SimCity or even the much simpler (but gorgeous) Star Defense. In any case, I strongly recommend “Civilization IV: The complete edition” for PC and Mac.

Civilization IV is available for PC and Mac, and Civilization rRevolution is available for PS3, Nitendo DS, Xbox 360 and iPhone OS. The iPhone apps costs 7,99$.