The graphics are done in a similar style to Civ IV, with the textures of the two entries in the series bearing a lot of resemblance. They seem to render in that 'cartoony' style that Civ 4 had, as opposed to the realistic graphics of Civ 5. They fit the mobile iteration of the series like a glove. Really not much more needs to be said here.
The gameplay is what you'd expect from a Civilization game; research technology, build cities, trade with other players, and so on. The growth of cities is similar to Civ 4, where your cities grow after a certain number of turns and the process can be sped up by increasing the amount of food tiles that are currently being used. When your cities grow, you get one additional 'worker', which allows you to expand your city borders to utilize a nearby tile. I'd say that one of the biggest differences between mobile and PC Civilization is that in Revolution 2, you can't build worker units to work the land and construct mineshafts and farms and all that. You just choose which tiles to use from within the city menu. For example, instead of building a mineshaft on a mountain like you do in Civ IV, you can build a workshop that gives you 3x the resources from hills.
There are also world 'wonders', such as atlantis, that can be discovered and will provide bonuses as you do so.
As for the content, there's a lot for you here, but some of the scenarios are pretty similar and you'll probably find that there isn't much difference between them and regular gameplay. For example, I played a scenario called "aftermath", where humanity has been engulfed in a nuclear war and has lost all of its technology, and there are also no special resources on the surface. Great people and science projects were also popped out at a much faster rate.There are also weekly challenges to complete, where you can compete with your friends for the highest score. Of course, to do this you must sign in using your google account. Speaking of which the game does include about 70 achievements for you to complete that will reward a ton of XP if they are all completed.There are 5 difficulty levels, but what I found was that the AI was really stupid on anything other than Deity, which is the highest difficulty. There's a massive gap in the skill level between the 4th and 5th difficulties, and I totally creamed the AI on the 4th but lost badly on the 5th. Really, the only reason you should ever play on the lower difficulties is to learn the way the game works.
Cartoonish graphics have a lot going for them in Civ Rev 2. I constantly considered every landscape I uncovered major eyecandy in a strange way. Since this is a mobile game, it was either cartoon or pixelated graphics, and the former definitely work very well.
The win conditions are somewhat different from other civ games. You've got your typical scientific victory that involves your civilization building a spaceship and sending some people to Alpha Centauri, and the Domination victory, where you have to capture 3 enemy capitals to win. Of course, knocking out somebody's capital means instant doom for them, so they aren't gonna make it easy for you to do so. There is the cultural victory that is similar to Civ IV, where you must develop 20 great people using your cultural influence and then build the United Nations to win the game. An economic victory is a first for Civilization, in which you have to reach 10 economic milestones. In case you didn't know, those are when you reach a certain amount of gold in your treasury. Certain bonuses are also given to the player as they reach new milestones, such as a free settler when you reach 100 gold and knowledge of currency for when you hit 250.
To wrap it all up, this is a really good entry into the civ series. The biggest problems that I can see at the moment are maps that are too small and lack of multiplayer. Despite the simplifying and shortcomings, this is still Civilization in all its glory. You've got building cities, acquiring great people, knocking out barbarian camps, researching technology, it's all here.
For price, the game goes for $14.99. You might think that's a bit excessive, but keep in mind that it is pretty much the whole Civ experience on mobile devices and one of the best strategy games available on Android and iOS so far, along with XCOM Enemy Within (which I'll review when lazy 2k get off their butts and make it compatible with my tablet already).
iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch-
Android-
Thanks for reading guys, and I'll catch you later!
No comments:
Post a Comment