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First off, the disks are mislabeled. Disk 1 says install, Disk 2 says play - but other than just to install the game, I haven't needed disk 2.
That, and a sound issue (skipping sounds in wonder/game-win videos) are the absolute only technical problems I have had.
So, on to the good stuff!
First, I will say, I did not read the manual. All the other Civ games let you jump in and figure it out as you go along. Civ 4 is no different, though there are a few things that could be made easier. Anyway!
My first game was as the French. I noticed in the leader selection/game set-up screen that there aren't any tooltips, which is not that big a deal, but it made it a little tricky to figure out what my leader's traits were. I played on Settler level in order to figure out what was going on.
Start off, and - wow - this definitely doesn't look like Civ 3. I have my settler build a city, and start exploring with my warrior.
First, I like the tooltips over the terrain - I know at a glance exactly what is going on there, and what I get out of it.
I set my tech to study whatever it is that'll give me buddhism... But someone beat me to it. A fact I barely realized, because it seems that those kinds of announcements are in a little scroll box to the side - except I can't seem to scroll. An option to make things like that - the religion you're trying to found gets taken from you, or a wonder - you wanna know.
Anyway, I eventually start figuring stuff out. The unit movement commands are a little funky - I was used to being able to just drag on a unit (left-click-drag) to get it to GoTo - but now I have to right click.
At about 30 minutes into the game, I'm making sense of things, but I do have to admit that there's rather a lot going on on the screen. So I'm missing lots of information that might be nice.
About an hour into the game, and wonders that I was trying to build are not getting built - lo and behold, I was beaten to them, but there was no notification other than that thing on the left, which was kind of annoying, as I didn't see it and it is very easy to miss. (Note to Firaxis interface guy: MAKE THINGS LIKE THAT INTO POPUP BOXES ! And then let people turn those off if they like)
About 2 hours into the game, and my French culture is assimilating my neighbors like the borg. I had 5 French cities, and about 9 foriegn cities who decided they liked my cooking.
About 3 hours in, I am the undisputed leader of the pack - I've got tanks, I've got nukes, and I've enough minor allies that being elected leader of the UN is a walk. Not enough to get a diplomatic win, however.
About 3 hours and 30 minutes in, I discover that I am about 3 turns from being able to force a win on the space race, UN and culture. So I save the game and win each way once. The only downside was that the music skipped for those videos (and the wonder ones) (using integrated sound)
So, the first impressions:
Good:
The visuals are great. I love being able to zoom in and out easily, get a closer inspection - neat when I'm trying to figure out what I'm looking at. I wouldn't mind a bit more variety and variation - most of the terrain is semi-bland (pretty, but bland nonetheless)
The ambiance is lovely. Leonard Nimoy rocks, though I wouldn't have minded some variety. Sounds are incredible, music is as always wonderful. Only problem I had was with wonder movies and end-game movies with skipping sound.
The gameplay is a little tricky at first, but I got into it. Some things are a little flaky - movement stuff, for example.
The resource model is pretty funny - I had nukes, for example, but I didn't have any copper.
I liked the health thing, and never once had too big a problem managing it.
I didn't get a chance to go to war - every darn time I tried to start a war, the opposing civ would make nice and give me stuff. The only time I think I could have had a fight on my hands was with the Egyptians (my "closest" rival at about 1/3rd my size)
The Bad:
That list of stuff on the left! Argh! Let me scroll through it, and please, PLEASE let me have a way to make wonder race losses and religion founding losses into popups! Really - while usually I don't like lots of windows, I would accept them here.
Some things are not intuitive - I couldn't figure out how to automate what my city builds, or make a queue - I will read the manual on those, but really, something basic like that should be obviously labeled.
The not-sure-yet:
So far, this *seems* to be a gorgeous game that is working well, and hints at challenging yet fun gameplay. It *seems* like the micromanaging of workers etc is done. I say *seems* because I just haven't played it enough (a situation that'll be rectified after posting this
)
One thing that I think I would really like is the ability to have civil wars happen by a set of rules - as in, my cities are really unhealthy, and half of them threaten to split off if I don't switch to ecology or whatever.
Another thing I would like is the ability to have client/puppet states. For example, in this game, I *completely* dominated the indians - culturally, to a point where they had 1 city, and I had all of their other ones. I would like an option (and imagine it could be modded) where I turn them into a puppet/proxy to do stuff.
Anyway, back to conquering the world! Next up: Japanese and WAR!
That, and a sound issue (skipping sounds in wonder/game-win videos) are the absolute only technical problems I have had.
So, on to the good stuff!
First, I will say, I did not read the manual. All the other Civ games let you jump in and figure it out as you go along. Civ 4 is no different, though there are a few things that could be made easier. Anyway!
My first game was as the French. I noticed in the leader selection/game set-up screen that there aren't any tooltips, which is not that big a deal, but it made it a little tricky to figure out what my leader's traits were. I played on Settler level in order to figure out what was going on.
Start off, and - wow - this definitely doesn't look like Civ 3. I have my settler build a city, and start exploring with my warrior.
First, I like the tooltips over the terrain - I know at a glance exactly what is going on there, and what I get out of it.
I set my tech to study whatever it is that'll give me buddhism... But someone beat me to it. A fact I barely realized, because it seems that those kinds of announcements are in a little scroll box to the side - except I can't seem to scroll. An option to make things like that - the religion you're trying to found gets taken from you, or a wonder - you wanna know.
Anyway, I eventually start figuring stuff out. The unit movement commands are a little funky - I was used to being able to just drag on a unit (left-click-drag) to get it to GoTo - but now I have to right click.
At about 30 minutes into the game, I'm making sense of things, but I do have to admit that there's rather a lot going on on the screen. So I'm missing lots of information that might be nice.
About an hour into the game, and wonders that I was trying to build are not getting built - lo and behold, I was beaten to them, but there was no notification other than that thing on the left, which was kind of annoying, as I didn't see it and it is very easy to miss. (Note to Firaxis interface guy: MAKE THINGS LIKE THAT INTO POPUP BOXES ! And then let people turn those off if they like)
About 2 hours into the game, and my French culture is assimilating my neighbors like the borg. I had 5 French cities, and about 9 foriegn cities who decided they liked my cooking.
About 3 hours in, I am the undisputed leader of the pack - I've got tanks, I've got nukes, and I've enough minor allies that being elected leader of the UN is a walk. Not enough to get a diplomatic win, however.
About 3 hours and 30 minutes in, I discover that I am about 3 turns from being able to force a win on the space race, UN and culture. So I save the game and win each way once. The only downside was that the music skipped for those videos (and the wonder ones) (using integrated sound)
So, the first impressions:
Good:
The visuals are great. I love being able to zoom in and out easily, get a closer inspection - neat when I'm trying to figure out what I'm looking at. I wouldn't mind a bit more variety and variation - most of the terrain is semi-bland (pretty, but bland nonetheless)
The ambiance is lovely. Leonard Nimoy rocks, though I wouldn't have minded some variety. Sounds are incredible, music is as always wonderful. Only problem I had was with wonder movies and end-game movies with skipping sound.
The gameplay is a little tricky at first, but I got into it. Some things are a little flaky - movement stuff, for example.
The resource model is pretty funny - I had nukes, for example, but I didn't have any copper.
I liked the health thing, and never once had too big a problem managing it.
I didn't get a chance to go to war - every darn time I tried to start a war, the opposing civ would make nice and give me stuff. The only time I think I could have had a fight on my hands was with the Egyptians (my "closest" rival at about 1/3rd my size)
The Bad:
That list of stuff on the left! Argh! Let me scroll through it, and please, PLEASE let me have a way to make wonder race losses and religion founding losses into popups! Really - while usually I don't like lots of windows, I would accept them here.
Some things are not intuitive - I couldn't figure out how to automate what my city builds, or make a queue - I will read the manual on those, but really, something basic like that should be obviously labeled.
The not-sure-yet:
So far, this *seems* to be a gorgeous game that is working well, and hints at challenging yet fun gameplay. It *seems* like the micromanaging of workers etc is done. I say *seems* because I just haven't played it enough (a situation that'll be rectified after posting this
)One thing that I think I would really like is the ability to have civil wars happen by a set of rules - as in, my cities are really unhealthy, and half of them threaten to split off if I don't switch to ecology or whatever.
Another thing I would like is the ability to have client/puppet states. For example, in this game, I *completely* dominated the indians - culturally, to a point where they had 1 city, and I had all of their other ones. I would like an option (and imagine it could be modded) where I turn them into a puppet/proxy to do stuff.
Anyway, back to conquering the world! Next up: Japanese and WAR!
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