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Sid Meier's Civilization II

aka: Civ2, Civilization 2000, Civilization II de Sid Meier, Cywilizacja II Sida Meiera, Wenming II
Moby ID: 15
Windows 3.x Specs
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Description official descriptions

Starting out with just a single unit and knowledge of a small local area, your challenge is to guide your civilization into becoming the dominant force, either by conquering every other civilization or by sending a spaceship to Alpha Centauri.

As you'd imagine, a lot of challenges come into such a task. You must locate cities so as to make use of food, construction and trade resources, which can be later improved by constructing irrigation, roads, mines, railroads, and farmland. Each city can construct one item at a time - civilian and military units, buildings or Wonders of the World (there are 28 of these across the different eras of the game, and each can be possessed by only one city). The buildings and wonders have different effects - most buildings and some wonders improve defenses, scientific research, trade or food output, but most wonders offer unique advantages that can be used to great strategic effect.

There are over 100 scientific advancements in the game, and most require prerequisites before they can be researched. How quickly this happens depends on your scientific output, which must be traded off against financial and military concerns.

Combat can occur in cities or in the open terrain - things like forests and mountains give the defense an advantage. Unlike in the original Civilization, fights aren't always won outright - most times the winning unit will be damaged, reducing its movement speed and attacking prowess until it's repaired, but the losing unit always disappears from game. If multiple units are in a square that comes under attack, the strongest unit fights - unless it is a city or Fortress, all units will be lost if the fight is lost. Once a city has no defensive units left, it can be captured. Certain units have the ability to cover all squares as fast as if they were roads, only a few can see submarines, and air units require re-fueling in a friendly city.

There are up to 6 other Civilizations in the game, and keeping good diplomatic relations with these is crucial. At times you may want to trade knowledge or pool military resources with a neighbor - at others they may want to destroy you. If you make deals and go back on them your reputation is affected.

Spellings

  • II ציביליזציה - Hebrew spelling
  • 文明II - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 文明帝國 II - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows 3.x version)

70 People (65 developers, 5 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 47 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 262 ratings with 14 reviews)

Expansion and improvement of the original.

The Good
This game is VERY flexible! Whatever you don't like can be changed by editing Rules.txt, and other text files. The created worlds I don't like can be gotten around by creating my own stock of pre-made worlds using map editor and then selecting them at random. Scenarios can also be created and saved for re-use. the cheat mode is also useful for experimenting, instruction, and creating scenarios. Combat, movement, and cost properties of units can be changed if you wish. Reseach pattern can be changed, units can be made avalable with any advance you want, any wonder can be made non expiring or avalable sooner! New unit can be created, and given unique charactoristics. Can be run w/o the CD-ROM. Likes Win 3.1, 95 and 98 and probably all other Windows versions.

The Bad
The worlds it creates are too random, not enough variation, and have too many small islands and not enough water, even in the small land mass variation. High council advice sometimes is inapropriate.

The Bottom Line
The ultimate strategy game, with endless variations: you can make it what you want!

Windows 3.x · by John Schall (3) · 2003

Time and again, I keep coming back to this game.

The Good
Outstanding replay value, quick, smooth pace, there's always something to do every turn. Wide variety of options, unit types, technologies, wonders, etc to choose from. Very stable, never had a lock-up or crash.

The Bad
Too many barbarians! Micro-managing each city can be a chore later in the game. Tedious soundtrack.

The Bottom Line
This is an excellent game that not only offers great play value, but also gives historical insight into its components and how they effect the game.

Windows 3.x · by Richard Agnew (6) · 2000

A Good Strategy Game

The Good
The game is very engrossing and entertaining. I liked the fact that you have total control over everything (except when the peasants are in a revolting mood). Learning to play the game is pretty simple however it does take a while to learn the best strategies for improving your score at the end. For those who like to cheat, the game provides those at the click of a mouse. I like to use the cheats to maximize myself whenever some other civ has all but beaten me (and I'm down to one city). Heh!heh! I hate to lose and this way you never do.

The Bad
At times I had trouble getting a round (turn) to end. The game would act like I still had a move to make (and maybe I did but I wanted to proceed) and wouldn't go to the next round. Also at times having another civ's unit in your area (whom you were not at war with) would block you from moving. That could get real annoying!

The Bottom Line
This is an excellent turn-based strategy game. Plenty of replay value with so many different civilizations that can appear when starting a new game. Also the land can change by random generation if you are tired of the pre-drawn maps.

Windows 3.x · by AstroNerdBoy (35) · 2002

[ View all 14 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The PC version of Sid Meier's Civilization II appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

Brian Reynolds and his co-workers were initially reluctant to make many changes to the original game's design, as they didn't want to be known as "the guys who screwed up Civilization."

German version

The translation for the German version of Civilization II is almost legendary -- it's a total disaster. It was done by an US-American employee of Microprose, whose sole qualification had been that he "spent a couple of years in Germany". The outcome were ridiculous messages as "Russen einfangen Große Mauer" ("Russians catching Great Wall").

Sales

In 1998, Civilization II (Windows) won the Gold-Award from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 (but less then 200,000) units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • May 1997 (Issue #154) – Strategy Game of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – #22 Top Game of All Time
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2000 - #5 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games" poll
    • October 2001 - #2 in the "Top 50 Best Games of All Time" list
    • April2005 - #3 in the" 50 Best Games of All Time" list
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/1997 - Best Game in 1996
  • Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland
    • 1998 - Gold Award (more information in "Sales" section)

Information also contributed by Entorphane, PCGamer77 and Xoleras

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Related Sites +

  • Apolyton
    Apolyton is the premiere fan site for all Civilization games, covering Civilization I and II, as well as Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Daily news, a huge archive of files and strategies, highly populated forums, and quite possibly everything else a civer could wish for!
  • Brock Wood's Civilization 2 Site
    Includes mods and more
  • Civilization II Fan Wiki (German)
    Fan Wiki containing lots of information about Civilization II. Has an overview of Civ2 versions (Civ2 main + addons, Multiplayer Gold, Ultimate Classic, and Test Of Time) and gives leads how to play them on modern PC systems.
  • Civilization II Historic Scenarios
    Has mod packs (scenarios with city flags, custom units and new rules), maps, and tips for Civilization II. Scenarios include alt_ww1 and alt_ww79 plus alt_rules.txt and europe_s.mp .
  • MatFis deutsche Civ2 Seite (German)
    Fan site that contains game info, help, downloads etc.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 15
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Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brian Hirt.

Windows 3.x added by Martin Smith. PlayStation added by Adam Baratz. Macintosh added by Scaryfun.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, -Chris, Rebound Boy, William Shawn McDonie, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Martin Smith, David Ledgard, Crawly, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Plok, FatherJack.

Game added March 1, 1999. Last modified June 25, 2024.