Civilization II

Time for a game of really high quality. In my opinion, this is one of the best games ever made.

If you have played Civilization (or Colonization), you'll know the layout. For the rest of you, here goes: You start out in 4,000 BC with a small group of settlers and a covered map. The first thing you need to do is to find a good location to build your first city. Then you have to develop the land and research new technologies. As the game progresses, you also have to start building an army to defend yourself from any neighbors with hostile intentions. You can face up to six computer-controlled civilizations during the game, and each of them has its own unique behavior. Any actions you take towards one of them might give you a bad reputation, making the others less friendly towards you, and if you are really careless, they will start forming alliances against you.

You have several levels of difficulty, ranging from very easy to one in which the computer actually cheats.

What distinguishes this version from the other Civilization 2 is that this one has multiplayer support. As usual, Kosta and I have done some "beta-testing" and found it to be a lot of fun. The multiplayer function works like a dream over the net, and it supports up to seven players.

The game has three different endings: Either you are the first nation to send a spacecraft to another star, or you simply kill everyone else. Or, if you fail to do any of this before a certain year ...

I'd better not give any more away, but I'm telling you it's much more fun when playing against another human being. Now go and form your own opinion!