For the first 3 weeks of class, we were introduced to the Civilization series where we all consequently became obsessed with the game. The game itself is pretty easy to get engaged with albeit it may be a bit confusing for those who have never played one of the Civilization games, or have seen anyone else play it.
To start off the game, you have the option of choosing an empire to play as, or for most people you can start off choosing to play as a random civilization if you weren't paying attention to the buttons you were clicking like I was. The game had me start off as Theodore Roosevelt, leading the American Civilization.
Playing as Theodore gives benefits such as the "Roosevelt Corollary," which allows the player to have the advantages of, "Units receive a +5 Combat Strength on their home continent. +1 appeal to all tiles in a city with a National Park. Gain the Rough Rider unit when they research the Rifling technology."
They also receive the benefit of, "Founding Fathers," which affects the policy aspect of the game by stating, "All Diplomatic policy slots in the current government are converted to Wildcard slots. +1 Diplomatic Favor per turn for every Wildcard slot in their government."
Throughout my playthrough, I managed to get far into the eras, reaching the Modern Era, all without inventing the wheel until late into the game because I forgot to dedicate time to that sequence. I managed to create 6 settlements, as I was more focused on building and exploring than making settlers.
During the duration of the game, I made sure to be on good terms with all the other civilizations. The two civilizations that I shared a continent with were Hong Kong and Australia. Throughout the first 100 turns or so, I put off going to sea in search for more land, but once I went I met Japan, and France. I made sure to send delegates as well as trade with them all. I managed to only partake in 1 war, declaring war on France as Australia allied with me and asked for help. My declaration of war against France caused 5 other civilizations to declare war on me. It went fine as eventually everyone reached a truce, preventing bloodshed. Everything was fine then.
It was about turn 280. I was focusing at that point on making as many settlements as possible and starting to place some on the other continent when suddenly,
A game over cutscene flashes on my screen, signifying the end of my civilization. It was abrupt and though I knew eventually someone would win, I didn't realize how soon it would occur. Had I paid more attention to the leaderboard I would have realized how fast the game was going to end. The winner of my first go around with this game ended up being France.
Though I was a bit bitter due the fact that France kept denouncing me due to being allied with Australia, I had to admit defeat in the end. France was in the lead for everything in the end of my first playthrough so the win rightfully belonged to them.
If I were to give critique in regards to this class, I'd say that it isn't necessarily a "historical" game. Don't get me wrong, it gives you pieces of history and has a historical basis, however, the characters could have been any random original character and the gameplay wouldn't have changed. The focus of the game isn't the historical aspect, it's more so the thought process of, "it'd be cool if you had several civilizations of differing times and places battle it out to be the best civilization."
Yes, in a literal sense it is a history game. But, in the context of what history games usually do, which is tell history in a story like sequence, it is more like a sandbox city builder game which just so happened to be based on real life civilizations.
Despite the critique, If I were to give a review for this game, I'd give it an 8/10. Overall, it was a fun journey. My favorite aspects of the game were the mechanics. I liked how the relationship system worked as well as the building of the technology/ ethics systems. The aesthetic worked great and benefits of each civilization were in character to the actual civilizations they were based on.
I definitely regret not playing more when my friends had me play with them in the past as I feel I have missed out on a lot. However, now that I got a taste of the game, I will most certainly be obsessing over it for the next year. France may have beaten me this time, but I will make sure to dominate next time. So watch out!
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