Best Civilization (like) games

[Kuokkanen]

What in your opinion is best game in Civilization series? Is there game in same genre but outside Civilization series that you think is better? Explain yourself!

In Civilization series I have played only the original. Repeatedly. One more turn... I have tried FreeCiv and I remember game mechanics are identical. But is it different otherwise? Is AI more intelligent without resorting to cheating?

I immensely enjoyed Colonization and in my opinion is better game than Civiliztion itself. It has more micromanagement, but it is manageable: I particularly liked more detailed trade system and colonists having professions (I can recall lumberjack and soldier). Something like turn-based Settlers with Civilization's user interface and game mechanics. So tobacco is cultivated, it is processed to cigarettes, and cigarettes are sold for good money. More cigarettes to sell if civs responsible for tobacco farming & cigarette manufacture are trained professionals in their respective jobs. To me it was really impressive back in the day and had just the right amount of detail without going too much micromanagement.

Civilization V has got quite bit of flak in this forum. But I just read this from TVtropes:

Know When to Fold 'Em: In contrast to the incredibly stubborn AI of past games (IV in particular), the AI in V won't hesitate to surrender if things are going particularly badly for them. It's even smart enough to change its mind about whether or not to declare war on you. If you spy an army approaching your border and get warned by a spy that Genghis Khan is planning an invasion, marching your own army up to the border can actually make the AI reconsider and pull back.

Can you name me Civ-like game where AI is equally considerate and game allows stacking?

[Rosseau]

Civ IV with dlc's has always been highly regarding, stacking or not.

[wings7]

I have played all the Civilizations, Civ 1 (the first one) came out in 1991, designed and programmed by Sid Meier with a design-writing team of Bruce Shelley, B.C. Milligan and Jeffery L. Briggs. Published by the innovative MicroProse.
When I first played Civ 1 I was totally blown away, with the early exploration and discovery, I was hooked! [&o] Civ 1 was when I became a computer (strategy) game player, Civ 1 changed everything. The next 5+ years I bought most of what MicroProse published.
All the subsequent Civ versions that came out all had their good points. Civ 4 stands out a little more than the rest for me but I've enjoyed all of them! [:)]

Patrick

[Rising-Sun]

I enjoyed playing the old and later version of Sid' Civilization games. I would say the best sid would be Civ IV, many didn't like the stack of doom. But if you plan your strategy right, you can cripple the stack of zoom. Also like Fall from Heaven II mod by Kael, a fantasy game that require Civ IV to play.

Also like this one, too bad they had to step down due to copy-related to Sid games...
http://www.gog.com/game/call_to_power_2

And my favorite is...
http://www.tacticularcancer.com/content.php?id=4328

The problem is that Destiny is very old and they or nobody never pick up the pieces and move up to better graphics, etcs. It had realistic resources that will use up, so you would have to look else where. It would be a great and complex civilization game if they ever put effort into it. Hopefully someday it will rise.

[JosephM]

I'd agree with RisingSun. Call to Power 2 is probably my favourite Civ game (Eco-rangers are great!). Then Civ 2: Tests of Time, because of the Fantasy aspect. I thought the latter Civs are just rehashes of the earlier games, but they lack the great tech tree of Call to Power 2 so I'd rather play the old versions.

[warspite1]

Civ II was got me into computer games in a big way. It was just so good, so engrossing. A couple of times I played through the night - even though work was the next day...

Civ III was too dark and not as much fun.

Civ IV was as good as Civ II (just with better graphics and gameplay) and I have played this regularly since it came out.

Civ V I bought but thought it a backward step and never really got into it.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Civ II was got me into computer games in a big way. It was just so good, so engrossing. A couple of times I played through the night - even though work was the next day...

Civ III was too dark and not as much fun.

Civ IV was as good as Civ II (just with better graphics and gameplay) and I have played this regularly since it came out.

Civ V I bought but thought it a backward step and never really got into it.

I agree with the observations about Civ II. I also am enjoying replaying Civ IV of late. Civ III, for whatever reason, never really did much for me. I've given Civ V a miss.

My all time favorite of this XXXX genre has still got to be MOO and MOO II. Many, many sleepless nights playing the Master of Orion franchise. [&o][&o][&o]

[aaatoysandmore]

Look for a remake of Civ game online called "CEVO" it has one of the best ai's I ever played against.

Also if you like fantasy "Master of Magic" is a fantasy CIVlike game. You can put up to 6-8 units (I think) in a bigger box but you can't stack the bigger box on top of another bigger box unit. Doesn't have the ai of a CEVO but it's a lot of fun to play. Especially since you get to play "tactical battles" in it.

Also many of the newer fantasy games of today: Legendary heroes, Endless Legend, AOWIII have civlike maps and play in a 4x way. None of the AI's are spectacular though but the AOWIII ai does play a good wargame with you in the later game portion.


As far as Firaxis's CIVs go I would go with CIV III just because it makes you goto war over resources you don't have that the AI has and won't trade with you. They took that out in CIV IV and beyond and it made me really sad as it was the best feature in a CIV game I think. I'll never forget the war I had to fight to get uranimum for nukes. Later in the game as I was taking off in my space ship I remember blowing up the whole world as I launched into space. [:D]

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore

Look for a remake of Civ game online called "CEVO" it has one of the best ai's I ever played against.

What do you mean?

Also if you like fantasy "Master of Magic" is a fantasy CIVlike game. You can put up to 6-8 units (I think) in a bigger box but you can't stack the bigger box on top of another bigger box unit. Doesn't have the ai of a CEVO but it's a lot of fun to play. Especially since you get to play "tactical battles" in it.

Sounds very much like Age of Wonders series...

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore
I'll never forget the war I had to fight to get uranimum for nukes. Later in the game as I was taking off in my space ship I remember blowing up the whole world as I launched into space. [:D]

[:D]

[Josh]

ORIGINAL: Joseph M

I'd agree with RisingSun. Call to Power 2 is probably my favourite Civ game (Eco-rangers are great!). Then Civ 2: Tests of Time, because of the Fantasy aspect. I thought the latter Civs are just rehashes of the earlier games, but they lack the great tech tree of Call to Power 2 so I'd rather play the old versions.

+1 here, thoroughly enjoyed CIV II and III, not so much IV and V maybe the graphics got too flashy[&:]
There is no successor to Call for Power if I'm correct. Recently I tried some 4x magic games, empire building with some sorcery/magic in it. Like Fallen Enchantress and Endless Legend, where the first is the better imho.

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: Josh

ORIGINAL: Joseph M

I'd agree with RisingSun. Call to Power 2 is probably my favourite Civ game (Eco-rangers are great!). Then Civ 2: Tests of Time, because of the Fantasy aspect. I thought the latter Civs are just rehashes of the earlier games, but they lack the great tech tree of Call to Power 2 so I'd rather play the old versions.

+1 here, thoroughly enjoyed CIV II and III, not so much IV and V maybe the graphics got too flashy[&:]
There is no successor to Call for Power if I'm correct. Recently I tried some 4x magic games, empire building with some sorcery/magic in it. Like Fallen Enchantress and Endless Legend, where the first is the better imho.

I haven't gotten into Endless Legend yet, thinking about getting it someday. Look interesting, but wasn't sure if I will like it.

[Kuokkanen]

So I gave in to temptation and bought & downloaded Colonization from Good Old Games. It is still fun and enjoyable game! Becouse I can now read english better, I have learned whole lot more about the game than I did first time around on my dad's 40 MHz 386SX PC when it was still relatively new. If this forum has someone who hasn't tried out this gem, I recommend you to do so now [&o]

By the way, I play with Netherlands. It is early 15th century, I've got 3 towns in norther part of South America and 1 in Middle America. My plan was to use Middle American town as border fortress to prevent other colonial powers from coming through there, but France boys decided to go around by ship and set up town by the coast. Oh well, I need set up more towns around that and indian villages before they cut off territory between my towns. My plan is to have few heavily fortified coastal towns and most of the rest further inland in and around Amazon rain forest. With waterways and roads under my control, my plan for battle of independence is to force royal forces either to crawl through forests or along the few roads and rivers I have fortified towns set up. Maybe not exactly most historical set for for Netherlands merchant marine, but what the heck... Besides coasts are already populated by the indians.

After I'm done with this Netherlands campaign, I plan to play another with Spain, higher difficulty setting, and bad attitude (= rape, kill, burn). One more turn...

[aaatoysandmore]

The old Colonization is a far cry better than the neww colonization by a long shot.

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore

The old Colonization is a far cry better than the neww colonization by a long shot.

Bhuh? There is new? Where? What is exact title?

[aaatoysandmore]

ain't gonna tell yah....it's not worth playing. [:'(][:D]

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore

The old Colonization is a far cry better than the neww colonization by a long shot.

Bhuh? There is new? Where? What is exact title?

It is on steam, but it really is just a remake, and as aaatoysandmore said, it is imo not as good.

For me it all started with Civ 1, played them all, and my ranking would be;

Civ IV - Civ II - Civ III - Civ - Civ V if looked at when they came out, however I've gone back and replayed Civ and Civ II, and they are very old now, so these days I would rate them this way;

Civ IV - Civ V - Civ III - Civ II - Civ

I do feel the DLC is needed for Civ IV though.


Terje

[Rising-Sun]

On Sid Meier's Colonization (Civ IV) I manage to make a pirate mod so you can play the pirates. As Blackbeard that replace Dutch and dealing with natives and European Countries such as England, France and Spain. Also have added some music themes from the movie 'Pirate of the Caribbean' and I have to say its quite of interesting gameplay playing as a pirate. You can trade with mother country (Dutch).

[aaatoysandmore]

CIV II best of all time with CIV IV coming in second. You just can't beat the LIVE or animated live characters they used in that game. "IT's good to be KING" my favorite line and a diplomat that looked like Elvis and talked like Elvis was a laugh everytime it played

[marcpennington]

ORIGINAL: RisingSun

ORIGINAL: Josh

ORIGINAL: Joseph M

I'd agree with RisingSun. Call to Power 2 is probably my favourite Civ game (Eco-rangers are great!). Then Civ 2: Tests of Time, because of the Fantasy aspect. I thought the latter Civs are just rehashes of the earlier games, but they lack the great tech tree of Call to Power 2 so I'd rather play the old versions.

+1 here, thoroughly enjoyed CIV II and III, not so much IV and V maybe the graphics got too flashy[&:]
There is no successor to Call for Power if I'm correct. Recently I tried some 4x magic games, empire building with some sorcery/magic in it. Like Fallen Enchantress and Endless Legend, where the first is the better imho.

I haven't gotten into Endless Legend yet, thinking about getting it someday. Look interesting, but wasn't sure if I will like it.

I did pick up Endless Legend over last weekends Steam sale (it was also free to play then). I gotta say I haven't been this hooked on a game of the genre in a long, long time. All the concepts are turned on their head in interesting ways that once you get the feel for them, one can't imagine why they weren't doing it like that all along. For example, as far as units go, you don't research new units. Rather, you research weapons and armor, and then create blue prints for your units with the improved equipment. It leads to a much more natural upgrade flow then any other game I've seen in the genre.

One could go on. Short answer is the game is amazing, but maybe not for everyone, and has a somewhat steep learning curve for those even familiar with the genre.