Love PtW. Is CivII worth having?

[Aramis]

Just a BTW thread:

PtW then CivII? Sounds backwards, I know. I stumbled on CivIII about a year before PtW came out. I bought it blind--knew absolutely nothing about it. Sounded interesting as I read the box. Turned out to be fascinating, and with PtW obsessively fascinating.
Now I find I can pick up CivII for a song. I notice in many threads here in the PtW forum that many of you have been enjoying the Civ franchise since the start. And I notice a certain fondness for CivII ( ).
So my question: Is it worth having? Enough differences? I play only SP so I don't need any MP expansion of it.

Let me know, if you feel like letting me know. If you don't want to let me know, that's cool too.

Bye--Rob

[Willem]

IMO it would be a step backward. If you like Civ III stick with it, it's a much better game overall. The only advantage I think Civ II has is the ability to create more complex scenarios, because of the ability to use events scripting.

Once, while I was waiting for a Civ III patch to come out, I dusted off my old Civ II:Test of Time disk and started to play it. But I could no longer get interested after playing Civ III. The graphics alone were enough turn me off, they looked clunky and amateurish.

And I would never want to let go of the AI in Civ III, it can actually beat me from time to time, something that didn't happen in the other games once I learned the basic mechanics. It's much more of a challenge now.

[vmxa1]

I have to agree with Willem, you do not need civII.
If you just want to check it out, get Test of Time. It has the original Civ2 and offers some improved graphics and interface as well. It includes all the addon for Civ2 and some new stuff. I played the heck out civII, but do not fell much need to go back.
Moo and Homm were games that I do play the old and new versions.

[Alex]

Yes, stick with Civ3. I had a lot of fun with Civ2, and I still reserve a place for it in my "best games of all time" list, but you'll find its graphics pretty bad, and the unbalancing is pretty evident too (conquer the world with a tank and a howitzer, overpowered spies and diplomats). Also, Civ3 AI is better than Civ2's.

Civ2 still has some more interesting things, such as the wonder movies or some more detailed info screens, but, overall (I never thought I'd say this), Civ3 is a better game.

[Andemagne]

forget Civ3 and PTW. Civ2 is the best game in the series!

[Sava]

Originally posted by Andemagne
forget Civ3 and PTW. Civ2 is the best game in the series!

Even though I just started playing Civ3 again, I agree! Civ 2:ToT is definitely better than Civ3 and probably the best version of Civ ever created. And if you are proficient in modding in any way, you can make some kick ass modifications. I recently put photo-realistic military units in the game and they are much prettier than any of the Civ3 graphics.

Plus, ToT is only like 15 bucks now. It's definitely worth it.

[Juha Karlsson]

If you learned civ3 quickly from no prior civ playing, you will probably beat civ2 AI´s instantly. Civ2 AI´s are very simple minded and predictible. To get any challange from the game you have to jack it up to diety level. But at diety level the AI´s cheat is so obviously the game lost its fun.
But I admit feeling little nostalgic hearing the, hm... "different" music in civ2.
Anyway, its a bargain. Try it.

[Reinhard-Baer]

Well as CivIII is clearly better in terms of graphic (of course given the release-dates) I've to say that Civ II is worth for ONE important thing:
!!Scenarios!!
There are sooo many scens out there ranging from the two WW to the age of colonization, to the medieval and so on. Hundreds of good scens can be found everywhere around the web. I have to admit that the standard Civ-game got boring to me. Start always the same: build your empire,... But with the scnes it was a so called rebirth. I'm an enthusiastic Civ player again. Now plz excuse me I have to guide the Germans to victory in WWI. For the Kaiser

[ToeTruck]

I started playing Civ2 maybe three years ago, right about the time the MP-Gold package started hitting the bargain bin. And...I played it to death. Loved it.

However, aside from a trip down memory lane, I wouldn't go back. I liked many of the game dynamics, but it was just too easy to beat. Way too easy.

And it was seriously easy to abuse. Anyone remember the food caravan glitch?

Civ3 is definitely a major step in the right direction, the AI is tons better, diplomacy is much more involved, resource distribution is far less patterned. Plus, you can't engineer-transform mountains to grassland. That was a goofy concept.

The only downside to Civ3 as I see it is the Editor. No scripting makes historical mods difficult (read: impossible) to create. That said, I have seen some superb mods. Check out the Double Your Pleasure mod. The latest version is compatible with PTW and adds about a zillion techs, units, and governments.

Stick with Civ3.

- TT

[wilbill]

I've played most of the Civ series games and have fond memories of them, but would never want to go back.

[Maquiladora]

Go back if only for the great scenarios available, and it plays in a window so you can actually switch tasks without it crashing.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
Go back if only for the great scenarios available, and it plays in a window so you can actually switch tasks without it crashing.

I have no problems with Civ III crashing while running other things, so maybe there's something wrong with your system. I just hit Windows Key-D to minimize it and I can run almost anything, provided it's not a CPU/RAM hog. Though usually it's just the editor I have going. If something screws up it's always the editor, not the game.

[Todd Hawks]

The only reason to play Civ II is the scenarios.

You should be aware that most people who love Civ II do it because they have known it before Civ III. If you go "back" now, you will be disappointed.
Alone the fact that there are no borders bothers me to no end every time I try to play a game of Civ II again, not to mention the bad (cheating) AI, less diplomacy and the ugly graphics.


If you can afford it and it's the full pack with scenarios, get it but don't expect wonders.

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by Willem
I have no problems with Civ III crashing while running other things, so maybe there's something wrong with your system. I just hit Windows Key-D to minimize it and I can run almost anything, provided it's not a CPU/RAM hog. Though usually it's just the editor I have going. If something screws up it's always the editor, not the game.

I prefere to play civ2 because i can easily do other things, with civ3 its slooow alt-tabbing. If civ3 worked in a window, didnt hog all my memory and had decent scenarios id be playing that while doing other stuff, civ2/freeciv is perfect for this.

[Jawa Jocky]

I couldn't go back either. There are more things to micromanage and you have to go through more menus to do simpy tasks.