I Love Civilization

No, I really do. Civilization is all about gameplay and interesting choices, as Sid would have it. Now with the expansion "Warlords" being released tomorrow, I can't help but wonder if Civ 4 is/was really good enough. It's a great game, no doubt about that, but I must say that it has annoyed me much more than the first three games in the series.

First of all, I really don't like the interface and much of the control system. Sometimes I end up inside a city when all I wanted to do was change the production. I can never remember which of the little buttons on the top right to press. When attacking with stacks of units, the units have a really mean tendency to deselect themselves although the game knows that I'm going to attack with all of them. Then there are the graphics. I can never seem to see the country borders, although I don't remember this being an issue in Civ 3. Also, do I sense a lack of charm? There's just something about the appearance of Civ 4 that makes is less feel-good than the previous games. This might just be because of my never-ending fondness of 2D-graphics. Finally, the music. I remember Civ 3 as having quite nice music, especially during the medieval times, but in Civ 4, I find many of the tunes too depressing. Yes, yes, I know that the Middle Ages were such-and-such, but I'm just playing the game to have a good time.

Gameplay-wise, well, I guess Religion is nice, but... I'm not blown away. I was very pleased with the inclusion of Culture in Civ 3, but I don't feel that Civ 4 stays fresh nearly as long as Civ 3 did.

I guess I would still pick Civ 4 over Civ 3 today, but...

It's not that there's that much wrong with Civ 4, and I certainly don't know what kind of gameplay additions or tweaks that would make the game more fun. All in all, I guess Sid did a good job, and I might even pick up the expansion...

Note, that I do know what kind of changes would make most Japanese RPG's more fun. My first move would be to actually include gameplay.

^_^