Sid Meier's Civilization II
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Description official descriptions
Starting out with just a single unit and knowledge of a small local area, your challenge is to guide your civilization into becoming the dominant force, either by conquering every other civilization or by sending a spaceship to Alpha Centauri.
As you'd imagine, a lot of challenges come into such a task. You must locate cities so as to make use of food, construction and trade resources, which can be later improved by constructing irrigation, roads, mines, railroads, and farmland. Each city can construct one item at a time - civilian and military units, buildings or Wonders of the World (there are 28 of these across the different eras of the game, and each can be possessed by only one city). The buildings and wonders have different effects - most buildings and some wonders improve defenses, scientific research, trade or food output, but most wonders offer unique advantages that can be used to great strategic effect.
There are over 100 scientific advancements in the game, and most require prerequisites before they can be researched. How quickly this happens depends on your scientific output, which must be traded off against financial and military concerns.
Combat can occur in cities or in the open terrain - things like forests and mountains give the defense an advantage. Unlike in the original Civilization, fights aren't always won outright - most times the winning unit will be damaged, reducing its movement speed and attacking prowess until it's repaired, but the losing unit always disappears from game. If multiple units are in a square that comes under attack, the strongest unit fights - unless it is a city or Fortress, all units will be lost if the fight is lost. Once a city has no defensive units left, it can be captured. Certain units have the ability to cover all squares as fast as if they were roads, only a few can see submarines, and air units require re-fueling in a friendly city.
There are up to 6 other Civilizations in the game, and keeping good diplomatic relations with these is crucial. At times you may want to trade knowledge or pool military resources with a neighbor - at others they may want to destroy you. If you make deals and go back on them your reputation is affected.
Spellings
- II ציביליזציה - Hebrew spelling
- 文明II - Simplified Chinese spelling
- 文明帝國 II - Traditional Chinese spelling
Groups +
- Best of Infogrames / Atari releases
- Console Generation Exclusives: PlayStation
- Covermount: Fullgames
- Game with creator's name
- Gameplay feature: Fog of war
- Games that include map/level editor
- Games with classical music
- Games with randomly generated environments
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Setting: Totality of history
- Sid Meier's Civilization series
- Sid Meier's licensees
- Theme: Famous politician
Screenshots
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Videos
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Credits (Windows 3.x version)
70 People (65 developers, 5 thanks) · View all
| Game Design | |
| Original Civilization Design | |
| Producer | |
| Programming | |
| SMEDS System Design | |
| Art Director | |
| Art | |
| [ full credits ] | |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 88% (based on 45 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 259 ratings with 14 reviews)
Caution: May Be Habit-Forming!!!
The Good
Hmmm, just about everything. Great (and very addictive!!) gameplay, no-frills graphics, and more customizability than you can handle. And even though I get tired of this game sometimes and quit playing it for months, I always seem to come back to it eventually.
The Bad
The music gets kind of boring (though you can turn it off), and the original version was NOT multiplayer (though multiplayer was added later -- I eventually got Civ2 Multiplayer Gold). Otherwise, I can't think of much else.
The Bottom Line
Don't play it if you have to get up early, because you may be up all night. Start playing at 9 or 10 PM, and next thing you know, it may be 4 AM. An all-time classic!
Windows 3.x · by Aaron of Minneapolis (2) · 2002
Time and again, I keep coming back to this game.
The Good
Outstanding replay value, quick, smooth pace, there's always something to do every turn. Wide variety of options, unit types, technologies, wonders, etc to choose from. Very stable, never had a lock-up or crash.
The Bad
Too many barbarians! Micro-managing each city can be a chore later in the game.
Tedious soundtrack.
The Bottom Line
This is an excellent game that not only offers great play value, but also gives historical insight into its components and how they effect the game.
Windows 3.x · by Richard Agnew (6) · 2000
The Good
I liked it because it was Civilization. It got a much needed and fairly well done Windoze-GUI. It had lots of add ons.
The Bad
The gameplay wasn't as good as the original. They went nuts and added all these extra types of units. They didn't know when to stop, and it ruined the balance.
The Advisors screen was gaudy. The Elvis in Civ1 was a cool little joke, but the Elvis Impersonator and Hammy Actors in Civ2 were tedious and ruined the immersion. Plus the same "films" are repeated over and over again. They add nothing. When a Toga-wearing American with a thick accent comes out to advise my Chinese emperor, well...
Stuff they could have fixed like micromanaging is still a problem.
Hobson's choice. Civ1 has better gameplay, but a DOS interface with a steep learning curve. Civ2 is easier, but not nowhere as much fun to play.
The Bottom Line
Good to have a Windows update to the original, but Sid got carried away and added too much crap, wrecking the balance.
Windows 3.x · by B Jones (14) · 2006
Trivia
1001 Video Games
The PC version of Sid Meier's Civilization II appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Development
Brian Reynolds and his co-workers were initially reluctant to make many changes to the original game's design, as they didn't want to be known as "the guys who screwed up Civilization."
German version
The translation for the German version of Civilization II is almost legendary -- it's a total disaster. It was done by an US-American employee of Microprose, whose sole qualification had been that he "spent a couple of years in Germany". The outcome were ridiculous messages as "Russen einfangen Große Mauer" ("Russians catching Great Wall").
Sales
In 1998, Civilization II (Windows) won the Gold-Award from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 (but less then 200,000) units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Awards
- Computer Gaming World
- May 1997 (Issue #154) – Strategy Game of the Year
- GameSpy
- 2001 – #22 Top Game of All Time
- PC Gamer
- April 2000 - #5 in the "All-Time Top 50 Games" poll
- October 2001 - #2 in the "Top 50 Best Games of All Time" list
- April2005 - #3 in the" 50 Best Games of All Time" list
- PC Player (Germany)
- Issue 01/1997 - Best Game in 1996
- Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland
- 1998 - Gold Award (more information in "Sales" section)
Information also contributed by Entorphane, PCGamer77 and Xoleras
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Related Sites +
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Apolyton
Apolyton is the premiere fan site for all Civilization games, covering Civilization I and II, as well as Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Daily news, a huge archive of files and strategies, highly populated forums, and quite possibly everything else a civer could wish for! -
Brock Wood's Civilization 2 Site
Includes mods and more -
Civilization II Fan Wiki (German)
Fan Wiki containing lots of information about Civilization II. Has an overview of Civ2 versions (Civ2 main + addons, Multiplayer Gold, Ultimate Classic, and Test Of Time) and gives leads how to play them on modern PC systems. -
Civilization II Historic Scenarios
Has mod packs (scenarios with city flags, custom units and new rules), maps, and tips for Civilization II. Scenarios include alt_ww1 and alt_ww79 plus alt_rules.txt and europe_s.mp . -
MatFis deutsche Civ2 Seite (German)
Fan site that contains game info, help, downloads etc.
Identifiers +
Contribute
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Brian Hirt.
Windows 3.x added by Martin Smith. PlayStation added by Adam Baratz. Macintosh added by Scaryfun.
Additional contributors: PCGamer77, -Chris, Rebound Boy, William Shawn McDonie, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Martin Smith, David Ledgard, Crawly, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Plok, FatherJack.
Game added March 1, 1999. Last modified April 18, 2024.