Sid Meier's Civilization II

The Good
Civilization II is probably the most addictive PC game of all time. The gameplay is perfect -- complex and brilliantly designed so that there are always several things you're looking forward to that are coming up in just another turn if you just keep playing 30 seconds longer. Hours later...

The interface is easy, and between the in-game civilopedia and the poster (tragically missing in Civ III), every unit, improvement, and technology is thoroughly explained. Also this game is extremely friendly to being tweaked by the player.

The Bad
Civilization II is probably the most addictive PC game of all time. You'll keep playing long after you've stopped enjoying it on any level beyond cheap compulsiveness, wasting hours that could have been spent lying in the sun or playing a greater variety of games.

The graphics are unexceptional and I hate the music (but you can turn it off).

The Bottom Line
Super-addictive civilization-building strategy game.

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.

The Good
Just about everything. Basically, it has the addictive qualities that few games can match, and will hook you very easily. It's varied enough so that there's incentive to play, and fairly well balanced, although perhaps not as much as its pseudosequel, Alpha Centauri. It uses recognizable icons from human history, so it draws you in, as you can identify with the subject material. It's hard to describe all that's right with this game-there's just too much. The Gold edition also has scenarios from the expansion packs that are varied and rather interesting, as well as the multiplayer, which works fairly well (at least over a LAN.)

The Bad
-Lots- of micromanagement as your empire expands. The AI pathfinding is somewhat braindead, so if you're playing on a large map, it's a pain to maneuver units all the way across. You can't group units, so you have to individually move each. The automatic build orders for your cities don't always work, either, and they build stuff that you don't always need. Graphics are crisp, but not spectacular, and there's no multiplayer in the original.

The Bottom Line
Simply awesome. Civilization II may not be a huge leap over the original, but it fine tunes everything in the original to create a polished and highly addictive game.