gamepen review: a semi-review

[MarkG]

Jason Levine, a CGO reviewer, writes in the cdmag.com forums

quote: I've submitted my review for CGO/Computer Games. I expect it'll be posted in a few days. Without giving the whole thing away, those of you who have read my previous posts in this forum can guess that it will be more positive than Jonah's. I read Jonah's Gamepen review and I've read all his posts in this forum, and while I agree with some of his criticisms, there are a few I strongly disagree with: 1) The game is unbalanced. Call Power I was wildly unbalanced. The game was replete with "phalanx sinking battleship" incidents (a phrase which was coined for the Sid Meier games btw) and the uncoventional warfare units were way too powerful. I found CTP2 to be quite well balanced. The unconventional units are still powerful, but it's possible to counter them after the fact now. 2) The game forces you along certain technological paths. Yes, and I've never played a Civ 2 game where the endgame didn't wind up with everybody researching the same techs too. It's a strength of Civ 2 that the paths separate more widely early in the game, but they all seem to wind up in the same place. And I've never played a SMAC game where the research paths weren't all pretty much the same either, if only because the computer players all seem to have their hearts set on beligerance. BTW, Jonah seems to find it a strength of Civ II that you can sustain an empire without literacy. Now that's wildly unrealistic. 3) The cultural specifism. From a western pov, Hebrew samurai seem very odd indeed. I even make a little joke about this in my review. However, from an eastern pov, phalanxes in Japanese armies are just as odd. And am I the only one who finds it odd that Deirdre Skye would use planet busters? On the whole, Jonah seems to focus on specific aspects of CTP2 that he either doesn't like or feels that Civ2 and SMAC do better, and these specific items were enough to sour him on the whole game. There's no question in my mind that Civ2 and SMAC are overall better games than CTP2. But I still find CTP2 enjoyable, particularly if you want to concentrate on the military instead of micromanaging cities.

[This message has been edited by MarkG (edited December 01, 2000).]