Iphone Games: Civilization Revolution

There is a ton of applications for the iPhone, even if sometimes it is hard to find what you are looking for in the wealth of fart-based-applications (currently over 120 when I gave up counting).

I was going to review two games today, but I had way too much to say about Civilization.

Civilization Revolution

Most people who have played computer games have either played or are familiar with the Civilization series.  Starting with Civilization launched in 1991, and extending to Civilization V (which is currently in production), Civilization is a fairly epic series consisting of ten games (counting Alpha Centauri) with more than five expansions.  If you haven't played the series, the games are turn based strategy, and start you off with the first settlers of a civilization.  You are charged to found a town, research technology, expand your empire through conquest or settlement, and not run afoul of the 4-6 computer players trying to do the same thing.  They are all really fun games, but as you progress each turn gets longer and longer as you manage your growing amount of cities and units.  It is typical to keep saying "one more turn" until you've played far longer than you planned.  On to specifics:

Civilization Revolution costs $0.99 which is pretty cheap for Civilization on your phone.  A lite version is available for free, but limits you to 3/16 rulers, 2/5 difficulties more importantly stops your game before you enter the modern age, which comes pretty quickly.  You also are unable to save your game.

Pros:  

• The graphics and sound are good, and the interface works quite well with the touch screen. 
• Most importantly though, Its Civilization... on your phone.  This is a very good thing.

Cons:  

• You have no control over map generation, and every map is fairly small.  Its not uncommon to have all your opponents on the same landmass.  
• There are quite a few naval units, but no compelling reason to build any of them, due to the lack of oceans.  Maybe this was a needed concession to get the game on the phone, but I really enjoy playing on sprawling maps.
• There is no way to turn off battle animations, which get old pretty quickly.

Final Thoughts:  The game seems to go pretty quick and easy on King and below, but Deity is very challenging.  Something that you only find out if you read the on screen instructions to the very last page is that you can combine three of the same units into an army which is much more powerful.  This is fairly important to do.  Units gain experience and odd abilities such as additional move or damage.  Every so often you still see odd things such as archers taking out a tank.  

If you have ever played Civilization before and liked it, I would recommend downloading the full version for a dollar.  If you haven't played it before, it is certainly worth your time to download the lite version.