Title: Civilization: Revolution
Platform: Xbox 360 (review platform), PlayStation 3, DS
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis
ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

When Civilization: Revolution was first announced by Firaxis and 2K Games, I found myself suffering from both anger and disappointment instead of the usually excitement that I would feel when a new Civilization product is announced. I was upset because I felt the franchise belonged nowhere near a console. I felt as if Civilization: Revolution coming to the console exclusively was just a sign of yet another developer "selling out" their PC franchise games, just to make an easier buck. I was disappointed because in my mind I knew that they were going to dumb the game down, so to speak, for the console masses.

As someone that had played every Civilization game since the original exclusively on the PC, I found the announcement a hard pill to swallow, and I almost immediately brushed it off my gaming radar. In fact, whenever I'd see an announcement on Civilization: Revolution, I would wish that the game would be cancelled and hope that Sid Meier and company realize that Civilization didn't belong on a modern console. While my wishes were a bit grim at the time considering how much I loved Sid Meier's past games, I wanted to see the franchise continue to thrive on the PC. I felt threatened by the concept of the Civilization games moving permanently over to the console systems, with the PC versions being left in the dust. There was just no way conceivable in my mind to have a proper Civilization experience on a console, at least that's what I kept telling myself.

A short time later, I sat down to enter the world of Civilization once again. After many games spanned into many, many late nights, and many nations that rose ended up falling to my advances, I came to the surprising conclusion that Civilization: Revolution is without a doubt a true masterpiece among the Civilization games, and a nearly flawless gem full of strategy in a sea of cookie cutter console games. Literally all of my previous assumptions went right out the window after my very first full game, and I ended up feeling quite guilty for being so jaded about the game in the first place. Sure, it's true that some features were removed from the PC versions. But new content was smartly created and then added to fill its place.

Civilization: Revolution features classic Civilization gameplay but also comes with some changes and enhancements for the consoles.

One of the issues that began to pop up in the latest Civilization games on the PC was that each new version built upon the last. Combined with expansion packs, the game evolved on nearly a yearly basis, while stripping away very little. Civilization began to require more micromanagement with workers, diplomacy, espionage, technology advancement, wonders, religions, corporations, network play. Firaxis seemed as if they were looking to build upon the game in every conceivable way possible, going as far as to even hire the voice talent of Leonard Nimoy, better known as "Spock" from Star Trek.

As the series evolved all the way up to Civilization 4 and its expansion packs, the complexity especially in the late game became apparent, and turns began to drag on especially on larger maps. It was not unheard of to spend eight or more hours playing a single game online, and sometimes even longer while dealing with slower-paced opponents. The AI-based games did not progress all that much faster, so needless to say, playing a game of Civilization 4 almost always required a significant investment of time.

Civilization: Revolution immediately makes it clear that a lot of the micromanagement that was required in Civilization 4 has been stripped away. The days of having to move workers about to do things like chop down forests, build cottages, and place roads are gone. Instead, roads can be built city to city for a set price, and resources and terrain cannot be altered. Actual worker units simply don't exist - they've been completely cut from the game. Worker management actually occurs within a city now, and tiles around your city can be harvested better depending on the buildings within your city, the technologies that you've researched. Granaries can turn plains squares into fertile sources of food, and Iron Mines can make previously useless mountains into productivity powerhouses.

Combat has significantly changed as well. Firaxis decided to go back to the "old ways" so to speak, and units once again have individually unique attack and defense values. Archers are excellent at defending in the early game, but can hardly put a dent into other units if going on the offensive, while Knights can dish out some serious damage against units while attacking, but are easier to defeat if attacked. The two combat values make it much easier to determine the specific purpose of the unit, especially for newcomers. Collateral damage has been removed from artillery based units in place of extremely high attack values; however the artillery lovers are bound to discover that ships may now provide ground support to adjacent forces that are active in combat.

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