Civilization: Call to Power

aka: CTP, CivCtP
Moby ID: 336
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Civilization: Call to Power is a turn-based empire building game. The players start a civilization in the stone age and lead them to the future through science, diplomacy, war, trade, and other actions. Eventually, the player will be building colonies in space and cities in the ocean if the player can survive.

Spellings

  • 文明帝國:權傾天下 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Windows version)

347 People (294 developers, 53 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 78% (based on 31 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 61 ratings with 7 reviews)

Sid Meier is god. This game proves it.

The Good
Nothing - I played it for fifteen minutes, then it was out the door so fast even gravitation didn't bother to work its magic on it.

The Bad
This game is just SO lacking in every respect the only game sequel I ever enjoyed less is Dune 2000. It's like Activision took everything that made the original Civilization what it was and spat on it, making this game a dull, graphically and musically inferior waste of time... and worst of all, they didn't even consult Sid Meier!...

The Bottom Line
Don't touch it, don't get near it. If you see it in the store take it, wave it in front of the salesman, scream "BLASPHEMY!" and tear off one of your arms! It's that bad!

Windows · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

They tried. They really did... ...

The Good
Activision paid big bucks for the Civ license, so of course they'd want to do a good job on the product. Sid Meier purists will call me a traitor, but there are good points about this game to be commended on. For example, the concept of stacked armies for combat makes sense. No battle in the real world was fought without coordinated military units, so why shouldn't that be the case in the Civ world? The graphics are the most beautiful in any Civ game to date, and various parts of the game are really beautiful to look at.

The Bad
Unfortunately, despite all the innovative features, the folks at Activision crashed Call to Power to the ground by bloating it with unnecessary frivilous accessories and skimping out on the real essentials. The interface is by far the greatest downfall. Activision tried to radically alter the interface in the hope that the player would be able to do things more efficiently. The interface is streamlined and almost all interactions take place in the bottom area of the screen. Such familiar items as the City Window are gone. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything wrong with the original interface, and the adage of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes instantly to mind. You'll notice when playing Call to Power that you get to see the map a lot. Now where do you get that usually? Yes, in real-time strategy games. Activision slapped on an RTS interface on a Civ game, and that's why most people will not like it (myself included). The graphics, although very nice, also really put strain on the system. Animations are somewhat slow, and one gets anxious getting on to the next unit while waiting for the first to lumber along. There is no "railroad speeding" in this game (as in how units seem to zoom along railroads in Civ II or the maglevs in Alpha Centauri). The unconventional warfare units are also very annoying. Perhaps there'll be a day when I'll master unconventional warfare, but the effects of ecoterrorists and lawyers are just too large to make the game enjoyable. The tech tree also leads to extremely advanced units, which take a horrifically long time to build even the simplest defender on a conquered city, whose population will obviously be reduced to low levels to make it even more difficult to defend. The battles favour defense to an amazing level, where fresh stealth bombers can be brought down by machine gunners without any SAM assistance. This makes offensive drives extremely tedious and depressing.

The Bottom Line
The folks at Activision obviously tried very hard to put a new spin on the Civ franchise, as the massive battle and interface changes show. However, they had failed to see what made the original Civ formula so successful, and in this they have created what many see as a very disappointing product. However, the license does show promise, and one hopes at least some of the problems will be remedied in the upcoming sequel, which, by the way, does not carry the Civ title.

Windows · by Kelvin Chan (4) · 2000

Boring and full of pesky details.

The Good
The game has some nice Wonder movies.

The Bad
Other than the movies, everything:
* Interface: Clumsy. It takes quite a while to get used to it, and every minor task requires a lot of other minor tasks.
* Graphics: Ugly. The units are small and unrecognizable and the buildings are poorly rendered.
* Stability: None. The game constantly crashes.
* Gamplay: Terrible. The AI barely moves, and the first turn of the game takes 15-20 seconds, not even mentioning the later ones. There are many one-purpose units which require a special defense, there are many units (like the Slaver) which drain your resources and require a special defense just for them. One of the wonders actually has a chance of 3% a turn to make you lose the game.

All in all, this game is a terrible miss, trying to ride the fame of a popular game to sell more copies.

The Bottom Line
This game is full of flaws with almost no advantages. There are other, much better strategy games available, so you better try one of them.

Windows · by El-ad Amir (116) · 2000

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

Civilization title

Call to Power is not related to Sid Meier's Civilization in any way. It is made by a completely different development team, and the only reason it shares a name is because it is based on the Avalon Hill board game Civilization. Trademark lawsuits related to MicroProse's franchise allowed one game based on the board game to be made with the Civilization name, and any sequel must drop the title. The similar gameplay is more coincidental than anything, though it may have been inspired by Sid Meier's Civilization.

Sales

In 1999, Civilization: Call to Power 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

  • Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland
    • 1999 - Gold Award

Information also contributed by Xoleras and Zack Green

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Related Games

Call to Power II
Released 2000 on Windows
Sid Meier's Civilization V
Released 2010 on Windows, 2010 on Macintosh, 2014 on Linux
Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Released 2005 on Windows, 2006 on Macintosh
Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Warlords
Released 2006 on Windows, Macintosh
Sid Meier's Civilization II
Released 1996 on Windows 3.x, 1997 on Macintosh, PlayStation
Civilization II: Test of Time
Released 1999 on Windows
Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Released 2016 on Windows, 2016 on Macintosh, 2017 on Linux...

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 336
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Brian Hirt.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper. BeOS added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Michael Dionne, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Evolyzer.

Game added October 30, 1999. Last modified January 29, 2024.