Sid Meier's Civilization II

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.

The Good
The game is very engrossing and entertaining. I liked the fact that you have total control over everything (except when the peasants are in a revolting mood). Learning to play the game is pretty simple however it does take a while to learn the best strategies for improving your score at the end. For those who like to cheat, the game provides those at the click of a mouse. I like to use the cheats to maximize myself whenever some other civ has all but beaten me (and I'm down to one city). Heh!heh! I hate to lose and this way you never do.

The Bad
At times I had trouble getting a round (turn) to end. The game would act like I still had a move to make (and maybe I did but I wanted to proceed) and wouldn't go to the next round. Also at times having another civ's unit in your area (whom you were not at war with) would block you from moving. That could get real annoying!

The Bottom Line
This is an excellent turn-based strategy game. Plenty of replay value with so many different civilizations that can appear when starting a new game. Also the land can change by random generation if you are tired of the pre-drawn maps.

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.