Civilization (series)

Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video games started by Sid Meier when he released the video game Civilization in 1991 and has been continued. Until today with several sequels.

History

The first Civilization was not published in Spain but Civilization II and Civilization III were, in 1996 and 2002 respectively. While the first two versions were published by Microprose, the disappearance of that company caused the French Infogrames (later renamed with the historic name of Atari) to acquire the rights to both games and the saga itself; in collaboration with Firaxis Games, the company of the game's creator Sid Meier, they published Civilization III and IV.

After the disappearance of Microprose, the rights to the three games in the saga have been in the possession of Atari (formerly Infogrames) until November 2004, when they were sold for 15.5 million euros to the company Take Two Interactive, which will distribute the franchise's products through its subsidiary 2K Games, to alleviate Atari's poor financial situation. Firaxis and 2K Games published Civilization IV in October 2005.

Civilization has created the scheme that most turn-based strategy games have followed; In addition, games have been created in its shadow, such as Freeciv or the Activision games Civilization: Call to Power and Call to Power II. Firaxis also created another game with similar mechanics but with a science-fiction setting, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, published in 1999 and its sequel Alien Crossfire. In these games the possibility of designing the units and a detailed configuration of the form of government (called "Social Engineering") was added. These innovations were lost in Civilization III.

Civilization was originally developed for the DOS operating system for PCs. It had to endure numerous revisions for various platforms (including Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Atari ST, GNU/Linux, AmigaOS and Super Nintendo) N-Gage. The latest version (Civilization Revolution) is available for the Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

Video games

Civilization

Civilization was the first video game in the series, published in 1991. It is a single player game, with a version adapted to multiplayer mode. The player takes the role of the ruler of a civilization starting with a single settler-unit (sometimes two) and tries to build an empire by competing against other civilizations. The objective of the game is to lead this civilization from its beginning to reach space or conquer the entire planet (which can be Earth or a randomly created planet). Considered by many to be the best computer strategy game ever, it has a large community of fans.

Civilization II

This game would come from the hand of Sid Meier to the PlayStation console and PC with a new idea among all strategy games: start a civilization from a nomadic tribe and take it to the highest possible level of technology, power and money. A fairly long game where you have to do scientific research, defend cities, plan attacks on up to six more civilizations, truces, peace treaties and alliances. It is designed to be run in a Windows window with a new interface and isometric perspective graphics that improved the aerial view of the previous version.

Civilization III

In this edition, the concepts of “culture” and “zone of influence” were created, with the latter as a result of the growth of the former. Culture points are earned by building either structures that generate culture in cities such as temples, cathedrals, coliseums, libraries, etc. or through wonders of the world that bring culture in great levels. Culture is earned in turns and when certain levels are reached, the range of coverage of the area of influence of the city in question is extended. The "zone of influence" or "territory" refers to the zone in which sovereignty is exercised by a nation (more specifically, it refers to the sum of the zones of influence of the cities). As cities normally tend to be grouped together (at least at the beginning of the game), a territory is formed which is considered national. This concept introduced numerous related changes to the gameplay. The concept of “resources” was also created, goods present in the territory of the country whose consumption will give the possibility of creating better units and structures, or will help to make the population happy.

Civilization III: Play the World

Play the World includes the option to play in multiplayer mode with the main feature that it is possible to play it in real time and not based on turns like previous versions. In addition to new troops, and images includes two new game modes: regicide and elimination. In regicide there is a new troop, the king or the queen and the objective of the game is to destroy the enemy king.

Civilization III: Conquests

Conquests includes more maps, different types of government (fascism, imperialism, tribal council, feudalism), new city specialists (police units and civil engineers), more resources, more wonders, more civilizations, new map features (like volcanoes), and some new troop abilities like slavery and silent attacks.

Civilization IV

Developed by Firaxis and published by 2K Games on October 25, 2005, to August 2006. Contains all the baggage of experiences from previous versions of Civilization as well as new improvements that incorporate more responsibilities to the game. From a certain point of view, the game is becoming more difficult as there are more and more elements to take into account. In Civilization IV the concept of religion appears. Now, in the tree of technologies, the discovery of seven religions has been incorporated, which may be welcomed by the population of the cities to maximize nationalism and/or to control the population. The holy city has a great advantage: You can see all the cities with temples of that religion and receive gold from those temples, even if they are from another civilization. The concept of great people also appears to replace the concept of the "Great Leader". It is possible to get great people such as "great merchant" or "great artist", who can advance the scientific research of civilization, or even usher in a golden age.

Civilization IV: Warlords

As mentioned before, there is an expansion called Warlords, which introduces some new elements such as vassalage between civilizations, as well as some improvements to the gameplay. On the other hand, the expansion includes updating the version of the original game, where incompatibility problems that the game had with ATI brand graphics cards are solved, a problem that even led to the introduction of an explanatory guide with an alternative solution procedure. of this problem on the game's official website.

Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword

Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is an official expansion for Civilization IV released during the spring of 2007. This expansion introduced the concept of espionage for this installment, as well as new buildings, units and wonders.

Civilization IV: Colonization

Civilization IV: Colonization is the second installment of the Colonization saga, in which the objective is to conquer an unexplored continent, populated by indigenous people. It also recreates the economy of the time, such as trade with Europe and the natives. It uses the graphics engine from Civilization IV and was released during 2008.

Civilization Revolution

In spring 2008 a new version of this saga was released for consoles called Civilization Revolution. The game takes many cues from Civilization IV, such as the detail of a battle unit being visually composed of a platoon of men, in addition to those typical "cartoon-like" graphics. It has unique characteristics, such as the absence of workers or the fact that the routes are bought and not built.

Civilization V

In February 2010, the development of Civilization V was announced, with its release scheduled for September 24 for markets outside the United States. hexagonal squares. In this edition the military combats are greatly improved, adding more realism in each battle. Siege units and long-range units are now very useful, allowing us to weaken units and cities before entering melee.

Civilization: Beyond Earth

Civilization: Beyond Earth is released on October 24, 2014. As the spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri, it shares part of the development team for that game, as well as many concepts introduced in the 1999 title. Its staging is unique in the entire Civilization saga, as it is set in the future, with the humanity traveling through space and founding colonies on extra-terrestrial planets. Beyond Earth is a unique installment in the saga. In contrast to the rest, which take place in different historical periods of human history, this installment is set in the distant future. It uses the same engine as Civilization V (meaning no stacked units, with the exception of civilian and military, 'orbital' units, and hexes).

Civilization VI

It is the sixth main installment in the series. Developed by Firaxis Games. A title published by 2K Games and distributed by Take-Two Interactive. The game was released on October 21, 2016 for Windows, for OS X and Linux.

In popular culture

Some leaders of Civilization: Lincoln, Moctezuma, Hammurabi, Ramses II, Isabel I of England, Napoleon I, Frederick II of Prussia, Alexander the Great, Gandhi, Gengis Kan, Julius Caesar, Stalin, Shaka and Mao Zedong.

Civilization is considered a game with a very high educational component. It is a game of strategy and conquest based on the evolution of humanity from its origins, from the birth of the first cities to the space age. It is a perfect game to interest young people in world history, organization, management, social and economic problems (pollution, wars, famine, catastrophes, etc.), diplomacy and the military aspect, offering the possibility of experiencing this evolution under the player's own mandate and direction.

The educational aspect was present from the beginning in the game. The programmers added a section to the game called Civilopedia, that is, the encyclopedia of Civilization, in the form of an in-game help. The player could consult it whenever they wanted, for example to read a historical introduction about each military unit or scientific advance. The concept of Civilopedia was so successful that it was incorporated into several of the games that Microprose subsequently published: for example, the "Colonizopedia" from Sid Meier's Colonization or the "UFOpaedia" from X-COM saga.