Civilization: Call to Power

aka: CTP, CivCtP
Moby ID: 336
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/23 7:18 AM )

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

Groups +

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)

A sad, sad Civilizatioon game...

The Good
After playing Civ 2, and then playing this, you'll notice a complete overhaul in graphics. The terrain and models look much better than Civ 2. There are a TON of new units and governments and wonders and other stuff. You can't really say Activision wasn't trying. There is some really nice wonder movies. The game has a very satirical sense of humor and will make you laugh out loud at some points with the funny units. Like having televangelists be people with TV's for heads.

The Bad
Although i put the graphics in the "good" section, they are also a libability. Load the game and you will be assualted by bright, garish colors that are almost painful to look at. The interface in a word, sucks. Instead of the beloved cty window, they put all these sliders and buttons on the bottom of the screen. Trying to select units and cities is difficult and you'll click a bunch of times to try and select it. They even ruined how you move units. instead of the arrow keys, you have to click where they move, which causes many accidental clicks. The game is very slow. Even at the beggining. It takes forever to build units and improvements. Although it's at least reasonable in the begging, as the game progresses, you will begin to see glaring problems. Musketmen and phalanax will defend against fighter planes. Machine gunners will take down robots and tanks. When at the end of the technology tree, units and wonders become ridiculous. You'll be assualted by televangelists, lawyers and mind controlling ads. The Eden bombs (or whatever) will completely remove a city and all the improvements. Wonders will destroy all nuclear weapons, put super powerful shields around all your cities and cause all unhappy enemy cities to join you. Speaking of stuff like roads, etc. THEY COMPLETELY RUINED IT!!! Instead of just having a settler build roads, you have to allocate some of your income to public works and then build it when you finally get enough. So, in the beggining, you can build almost no roads or irrigation. Finally, it is really annoying how for each government type, there is some limit to the amount of cities you can have or else most of your cities revolt.

The Bottom Line
YUCK!!! Go buy Civ 2 or 3.

Windows · by James Kirk (150) · 2003

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

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

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

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
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

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.