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Avalon Hill/$69.95 |
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Avalon Hill/$69.95 |
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Advanced Civilization on CD-ROM is a computer version of Avalon Hill's board game of the same name, in which players use trade, force, and strategy to become the first to develop an advanced ancient civilization.
Players control one of eight ancient peoples of the Classical world, and attempt to acquire a series of 26 "Tools" that will allow them to advance from the Stone Age to the Late Iron Age and complete civilization.
Players begin by building cities, allowing them to produce various goods each turn, the quality and quantity being determined by how many cities they have in play. These goods can then be traded with other players, allowing players to build up sets of commodities that are worth the most to them. Interaction with other cultures through trade can bring about various calamities, and can also allow calamities to be inflicted upon other cultures. These include civil war, epidemics, and natural disasters. Windows with animations pop up whenever one of these disasters strike.
At the end of each turn, players can use sets of goods to buy "tools" that are the hallmarks of civil advancement and can have practical effects in the game. These are divided into five categories: Crafts, Sciences, Religion, Civics, and Arts.
Familiarity with the Advanced Civilization board game is not a prerequisite (I have never played it, and was no worse off as a result), but the computer version can clearly serve as a practice device for avid board game players.
On the down side, Advanced Civilization takes a long time to play; the two-hour play time is usually nowhere near the mark (although the number of computer players selected can affect this greatly, and a minimum of opponents can make for a much faster game). In part, play time is long because the game's artificial intelligence (AI) tends not to think very quickly; "Big Blue" it's not. The most annoying delay is when the AI mulls over whether the computer-played cultures will build ships, which can drag on for several minutes per turn.
Overall, however, the slow play time is not an impediment as long as one does not try to finish a game in one sitting. It is easy enough to decide how long to play and then save the game and open it back up when ready. And beginning players at least can read through the instruction manual while the computer decides how many ships it wants to build.
Advanced Civilization is an enjoyable, enthralling, challenging game. It rates an 8 on a 10-point scale, a score that will get upgraded when the game technology does. For more information about this or other Avalon Hill games, go to http://www.avalonhill.com. To order the board game Advanced Civilization directly, go to Amazon.com.
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