Back in 2004 (2005?) I received Civilization IV for Christmas. This game was the most addictive of the series up to that point. Although winning is fairly easy, getting the highest normalized score will prove to be quite a challenge.

Graphics: 10/10

Wow! The graphics are such an improvement from Civilization III!

First, the game is back to a “normal” orientation (left-right, up-down rather than diagonal) like Civilization I. To my eyes, this makes city planning much easier since your cities are shaped like crosses rather than an X.

Second, the world map is very, very detailed especially when you zoom in. You can actually see the rivers flowing, you can see the individual trees in the forests/jungles, you can see the natural resources in great details – it’s even better when you exploit them with mines/quarries/farms/villages/etc. – and you can even see smoke coming out of Barbarian villages. You can even have a good look at you towns from the world map.

Speaking of resources, they now have a much bigger impact on your civilization. Not only are they necessary to build certain units, but they can also accelerate construction. For example, having stone or marble accelerates the construction of any building (ordinary or Wonders of the World) require such resource, greatly helping you build your empire. This adds a great dose of realism

Units are also very detailed and well-drawn. There are more of them, and you can see what they are wearing when they’re humans. Furthermore, civilization-specific units are much more distinguishable than Civ. III. For example, India has “Fast Workers” rather than regular workers; they wear a turban and have an obvious mustache. France’s Musketeers are also much more distinct than regular musket-wielding units, and Arabic Camel Knights are quite distinct from the regular knights, reflecting the reality of that region.

In addition to regular Barbarian units roaming the planet, you will also see Barbarian animals in the early game. They will never attack your villages, but they will be merciless against your workers and settlers – and they get pretty vicious at higher levels. They too are well-drawn.

Your cities too are better-drawn. As I said above, the cross-shape of the city radius makes planning much easier. Information is also much more user-friendly. You can actually see the direct effect of a building rather than having to click a question mark to prompt the Civilopedia. You also see whether a specific resource can speed up construction (the writing will be green if you have that resource accessible).

Finally, your borders are much more secure than in Civ. III. Unless you explicitly sign a right-of-passage agreement, no opponent can enter your borders without declaring war. Speaking of war, you can now have a better idea as to why your opponents hate your guts/worship you thanks to explicit comments you can see by moving your pointer on them. For example, Louis XIV will think that choosing hereditary rule is “wise” and will like you for it, but he will frown upon your choosing Buddhism if his state religion is Judaism.

Oh, and let’s not forget about all the movies this game has too. While I usually turned them off because my computer wasn’t top-notched, they were still well-done especially for world wonders. They start from a paper blue-print and then build up to see a life-like picture of the building. Special discoveries like religions show the religious symbols characterizing it, which was well-thought

Music: 10/10

Re-wow! If you thought the graphics were out of this world, wait until you listen to the soundtrack.

First, there are five distinct eras in the game: Prehistory, Classical, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution and Modern Age. All of them come with distinctive soundtracks characterizing the era.

The Prehistory stage has mostly wildlife sounds since humans were too busy surviving. But starting in the Classical Era, you start hearing some music, again reflecting the era – the instruments used are primitive, but nevertheless interesting. In the Middle Ages, an era characterized by the domination of religion, most tracks are quiet, relaxed religious chants. There are also one or two “minstrel” tracks, the only type of original music that existed in that time.

But starting at the Renaissance… man I get goose bumps just thinking about it! Sid Meier used some of the best compositions of all time and gathered them together. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart… you can hear tracks like Allegro Asai (the best of the best), the Brandenburg Concerto (5-6 separate tracks), Allegretto and many more. Just like me, you will just stand there in awe and listen to the tracks.

The Industrial Revolution also boasts classical compositions with a more “heroic” sound, showing the great progress of humans. I don’t remember much of the music for that era (or even Modern Times) as I always finished before getting to those eras. However, the modern era has most of the original composing; the one I remember the most is this dramatic choir that reminds me of space conquest.

Each civilization also has its own soundtrack that varies according to eras too. And they are a reflection of the civilization: France has La Marseillaise playing with different tones, Spain has lively guitar playing and China has some nice, er, “oriental” music that reminds you of that culture right away.

Oh, and let’s not forget the intro song. I don’t know in which language it is (probably one from Africa), but it’s also very beautiful.

In addition to a great soundtrack, there are also great sound effects. The late Leonard Nemoy narrates the whole game. In the introduction, he gives a brief summary of life on Earth until the start of human settlement with a very poetic voice. He also narrates every discovery of the game by using a famous historical quote. His rendition of Ben Franklin’s “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both” (upon discovering Liberalism) is simply beautiful. Some of them are less serious, like The Graduate’s “I just want to say one word to you, just one word: plastics” (upon discovering Plastics) but are nevertheless well-said. Some of them (highly authentic) are even quite funny like Napoleon’s “You would sail a ship against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense” (upon discovering Steam Engine) – Nimoy’s voice has a very serious tone.

Your units also talk. For English, American, French and Spanish (the only ones I can understand) units, the grammar and accent are quite accurate.

I honestly can’t talk much about the other sound effects – I truly want to enjoy the music – but my early impressions were good. Weapon clashing sounds even better than Civ. III and cannon sounds sound very realistic.

Addictiveness: 10/10

To be honest, the music was quite enough to hook me to the game. I’m always trying to reach the Renaissance as quickly as possible in order to listen to the music over and over again. I also (yes, indeed) save and load the game so I can listen to my favorite tracks.

Of course, there is more to that game than excellent music and graphics. The concept of religion makes an appearance in the game. Its mastery can take time but it makes the game much more interesting. Not only can you only build small temples when one of the seven religions is present, but you can only build “cathedrals” (medium-sized temples) once you have a certain number of small temples. And you can only build every religion’s Great Temple (Church of Nativity for Christianity, Temple of Solomon for Judaism) in the city where it was founded. These elements are an essential part of the cultural victory.

Speaking of victories, you now have more choices than ever to win the game. Unlike Civ. III, the cultural victory requires three of your cities to have legendary culture (25k points at the fastest speed). This is where spreading as many religions as possible in your cities takes its importance: so you can build the “cathedrals”. The diplomatic victory is also more complex. Sure, building the U.N. is an important part of the game since YOU will get to make propositions, but there’s more to it than just be Secretary-General. You can vote to ban nuclear weapons, impose certain civics (for better or for worse like Environmentalism and Universal Suffrage) and finally vote for SG. The larger a nation is, the more votes that nation has, making it important to either conquer them or be real great friends with them.

For the space victory, you will need to build quite a large ship. I don’t think it requires as many parts as Civ II (30-something), but many of them are enormous and no amount of natural resources can accelerate the construction. The classical conquest victory (destroy every other nations) is also present, along with domination victory. That latter one requires both a certain percentage of the planet and of the population to be within your borders – so it’s not all to have a large empire, you also need a large population. Finally, there is the most-points-by-2050 victory but I never tried to achieve it because I always finish before that.

However, since domination (to my eyes) is fairly easy to attain, you might want to turn it off if you wish to do conquest of space victory.

Finally (I never tried that feature either) you can play against opponents online. You can play only against humans; you can also add one or more AI opponents in the match.

Another great feature in this game is the division of the Hall of Fame according to several categories: type of victory, size of the world, civilization, speed of the game, era of beginning, nominal score and normalized score. That latter feature is the true challenge in the game; it will determine your final title, i.e. will you have the leadership qualities of Charles de Gaulle or Dan Quayle? I’ve been trying to get the highest leadership ratings for every victory (except 2050) and every speed. This will prove challenging with some civilizations but not impossible.

Story: 9/10

This feature would be better-named as “history”, since Civ. IV is much more faithful to actual human experience.

As I said earlier, you finally know why your opponents love/hate you, and these feelings can carry on for a long time – like refusing to pay tribute or asking for one. They can also change quickly, especially when religion is involved. Love can turn to hate when your religion differs from your opponent (and there is no Judeo-Christian mentality possible) and then turn to neutrality the moment you choose Freedom of Religion. It’s much better than the leaders’ three moods in Civ. III.

At higher levels of difficulty, you actually need to discover basic discoveries like agriculture and mining, which are given at the Settler level. Yet another great dose of realism.

Finally there are far more wonders, both world and national ones, reminding people about the several great architectural achievements of humans.

Depth: 9/10

This game is HUGE.

There are so many different combinations possible to finish this game: four different speeds, seven difficulty levels (settler being the easiest), seven world sizes (which are never the same) including setting like Great Plains, Coast and Ring World and 26 different leaders.

Speaking of leaders, they were actual leaders for their respective countries/empires. For France, you have Napoleon and Louis XIV rather than Joan of Arc, who never actually had an official political position. And for Arabia, Scheherazade isn’t listed like in Civ. II. You won’t have to play Lincoln for the US this time, though (it’s either Washington or Franklin Delano Roosevelt).

Still about the leaders, they are all completely different even if an Empire had two leaders. They may be (no more than two traits) aggressive, giving free combat I promotion to melee units; creative, giving +2 culture to each city; expansive, giving +2 health to each city, financial, giving +1 gold to squares producing already 2; industrious, making wonders building 50 percent faster; organized, cutting civics upkeep by half; spiritual, eliminating anarchy when you change civics and philosophical, doubling the rate of appearance of Great Persons.

Great Persons are also another great (!!) feature in Civ IV. Just like real life, they come about and greatly inspire the people. They can build unique buildings, accelerate your research or production, increase your culture or wealth or simply join the city as a super X (artist, engineer, merchant, etc.) and permanently increase production/culture/gold.

In addition, combats have become much more elaborate. Troops still get some bonuses like in Civ III (pikemen vs horse units) but they can also gain experience. And with each level comes a promotion where your units’ attack becomes stronger, better adapted against certain types of units or  simply move faster.

Finally, Barbarians are MUCH more elaborate in this game. They too can found cities and use workers to work around their cities. And they will defend their cities to the bitter end, when they are not busy trying to pillage around your cities or attacking your settlers.

Difficulty: 7/10

As such, the game isn’t too difficult (despite a 7). Finishing the game with whichever victory parameter is fairly easy to obtain once you master the basics. Also, your cities don’t “riot” as such when there are more unhappy people; they simply stop working. Finally, sick cities also stop growing rather than shrink in size.

The 7 mainly comes from the difficulty one can have for achieving the highest minimal normalized score (25k points? It’s been a while) to achieve the highest rank of leadership. It’s much more difficult than it looks like since it considers your difficulty level, the speed, how quickly you win and (probably) other factors.

It also comes from the high increase in the difficulty level even at settler. Back in Civ. III, you could basically leave your cities defenseless and your people didn’t care. In Civ. IV, having no troops even under Republic and Democracy will cause discontent. And starting at Chieftain, the Barbarians are wildly aggressive; they can build many cities and send their raging hordes within your borders.

Finally, the numerous civics possibilities can make choosing the right government a challenge. While Representative Government increases scientific research and happiness, it costs more to maintain than Hereditary Rule, which increases happiness with each military unit inside the city. Also, while Freedom of Religion makes your people happy and can improve international relations, you forgo any bonus other religious civics might give you (higher birth rate for Great People, experience bonus for military units or shorter construction times).

Despite these difficulties, Civilization IV is still a master piece. Beautiful graphics, addictive music, numerous concepts to master and, above all, so many possibilities to finish the game that you’ll spend hours trying to master them all. You can also make weird government combinations: a Republic without free speech and serfdom or a Fascist regime with emancipation and pacifism.