Tweet
First things first:
I have a Cyrix 300 (225mhz) with 64mb of ram and a Voodoo 3 2000. One of the major complaints after the original CTP release was how slow it ran even on extremely powerfull machines, well with CTP 2 there is no such problem. Even on my weak Cyrix computer the time between turns is short, the unit movement smooth and the sound is clear and unchoppy. This is also on a decent resolution of 1280 X 1024.
Now the review:
OK, now I absolutely hated CTP. I bought it and within days had sold it again on EBay for something like twenty-five dollars. And one of the reasons I hated it so much was because of its sloppy, hard to decipher interface. This has been 100% remedied in CTP 2. The interface is clean cut, everything is easy to find and I had no trouble figuring out what button went with what option, etc.
As far as diplomacy and warfare improvements go, I don't see much. Part of the fun of Civ 2 was getting that attitude from the AI when in negotiations with them. In Civ 2 you really wanted to beat down the Mongols after a sneak attack or something. In CTP 2 you don't get the feeling that your opponent is a living breathing enemy (not that you should but it should seem like something more than just programmed responses).
Warfare is the same as CTP, the stacked unit method and such, but the "Army Manager" and "Unit Manager" make keeping track of specific armies far easier than in CTP. I never played CTP in very great detail but the government systems in CTP 2 are excellent and a side by side comparison to each other at the "Empire Manager" really makes it easy to decide which one you want to run your empire. The wonder cut scenes are interesting and the music decent but they don't compare to! Civ 2.
The AI is from what I can see at least a small amount improved. I played my first game at Beginner level in order to get the feel of the game, and I still found myself having mild trouble capturing some English and American cities, but after a few hours it was obvious that I was by far the most powerful civ in the game. But from what I can tell, the harder difficulty levels should prove to be near impossible.
From this point, I didn't see much that showed a great improvement over CTP and I was disappointed. However, when I played later and later into the game, I started getting into it, my empire started to take shape and I actually started to have fun again. There was that "just one more turn" feeling again, but I wouldn't say it was a strong as Civ 2's. I found myself actually wanting to build up massive armies and take out the next English city rather then just quitting and putting CTP 2 back on the shelf for years to come. I cannot put my finger on it but CTP 2 has something that CTP did not that actually makes you want to play the game, and take it from me, I have been playing Civ 2 since 96 and have purchased ever single addon. This is a good game, its no Civ 3, but its still a lot of fun, and I would recommend it to any die hard Civer. However, try to get it at a lower price, like on EBay ! or something, cus its a tad expensive for something that still uses 65-70% of the original game art and programming.
Rating for a new comer to Genre:
Graphics: 9
Gameplay: 8
Interface: 9
Multiplayer: 7
Sound: 8
Overall: 8.9
Rating for a player of CTP 1 (Improvements Over CTP):
Graphics: 8
Gameplay: 9
Interface: 10!
Multiplayer: 5
Sound: 7
Overall: 8
Or won't ever. 
