Call to Power 2

Rating:
Summary: This game is very fun!
Review: I was really excited to get this game after I had beat CTP quite a few times. When I finally bought it I was very impressed about what Activision did in a short amount of time. The only big disappointment I had was the outer space part of the game being taken out. My favoite new thing is the Akimbo Scenario. I also like the new country borders because it helps me set my goals: to make my civ be big. Diplomacy is really easy in this game. When other countries reject my requests I threaten them by saying I'm going to destroy their capitol. When they still reject I use my eco-rangers (you don't want to know what happens). This game deserves 5 stars because once you get used to it you're hooked on the game. Civilization: Call to Power 2 is tied for first in my top 10 favorite computer games of all time, the other two tied for first being RollerCoaster Tycoon and Age of Empires 2.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money for Civilization III
Review: If you have not played Sid Meier's original Civilization or Civilization II (without the Call to Power in the title) then you do not know how good this game use to be.

Civilization III is probably a few months away. Sid Meier actually has input in Civilization III which means it will most likely be a decent game. Firaxis is producing CIV III and Hasbro is publishing it.

If you feel the need to play Civilization, go find an old copy of Civilization II before it became Call to Power. Activision took away too many cool features. I bought this game and the most upsetting part of the game is that you cannot go past a number of cities without changing a form of government that does not exist yet.

Sid Meier's last game was Alpha Centouri. I have not played the game yet, but from what I read, it is the game I should have bought. Again, put your $50 away in an envelope, wait for CIV III to come out or buy Alpha Centouri instead. The only reason gave this game 3 stars is because it is based on the original game.

Rating:
Summary: Fun, but with a twist
Review: Okay, here's the game, you build a country and defend it, sound fun?? Well theres more. Along with the building you need to form an army, and so on and so forth. I give it a 4 start because the game gets old within a month or so.... But if you are a strategy simulation game goo-roo, i would reccomend it!

Rating:
Summary: Seriously flawed-- If I could return this game, I would
Review: Personally, I feel ripped off for having wasted money on this product. Like Call to Power 1, the game has some interesting features, particularly the variety of stealth units. However, the game suffers from a number of MAJOR PROBLEMS. Not only does it appear that the designers never playtested this game, it's clear that they never went back and played the first Call to Power either; many glaring problems from the original are still here. The worst problems:

1. WAY TOO MANY BUGS: The game crashes often. Also, there's a problem with save game files being corrupted that gets progressively worse as the game progresses. -- I finally gave up after a game that I had spent 25 hours on would not reload, even though I had EIGHT seperate save game files from the last EIGHT turns. Every single one of them was corrupted.

There are also numerous less catastrophic, but more consistent flaws in the programming. For example, stealth units are supposed to be clandestined. When you are attacked by one, you don't know who sent it. The computer players, however, always do, and immediately declare war in response to any stealth attack by you.

2. BADLY WRITTEN DOCUMENTATION: Quite frankly, this is the worst rulebook I have ever seen. It's long winded and repetitive, yet still lacks many key pieces of information. As a result, you have to use trial and error to figure out how much of the game works. One example: the rules mention that you must have military units on hand to control your slaves, but never spells out how many. The right ratio turns out to be 1:3, but you wouldn't know that unless your read the rules to Call to Power #1.

3. WHOLE PARTS OF THE GAME DESIGN JUST DON'T WORK: While the stealth units are interesting, some of them are so badly designed that they just don't work. The Cleric, for example, is the chief weapon of the Theocracy, which uses it to go out and convert enemy cities to your faith. This is an expensive and risky operation. However, it is so ridiculously easy to undo this conversion (station a military unit in the city, endure one turn of mildly elevated unhapiness among the citizens) that no player (computer or human) ever allows a city to remain converted for more than one turn. So why bother having the cleric unit in the game in the first place? There are similar extreme problems with other parts of the game, many of them left over from Call to Power 1. Do these people ever playtest their own products?

4. CLUNKY INTERFACE: The interface is badly designed. Information that could easily be put on one screen gets spread out over two or three. For example, information on trade routes that you currently have and those that are still available are placed on different screens. So to compare them and figure out if you have the optimal set of routes requires endlessly flipping back and forth between two screens.

Overall, I just don't see how the designers could have played this game and still released it in the pathetic state that they did. This is the second game that I've bought from Activision which was released in an unplayable condition. Personally, I'm swearing off their products in the future.

Those interested in a good Civilization type game should probably try Civilization 2, or better still, Alpha Centauri.

Rating:
Summary: CTP vs. Civ
Review: Starting caveat: I am originally a Civ player although I picked up CTP/CTP2 in lieu of CivIII.

First of all, CTP2 is FAR superior to CTP. They definitely fixed alot of the balance problems. (Although they didn't get the trade mechanism figured out.)

The game is incredibly deep. You could, potentially, spend far more time playing this game than any Civ. The stackability of units seems to be something Sid Meier is averse to. CTP also accepts some of the unseemlier sides of civilization like slavery, theocracy, totalitarianism and mass subversion while Civ sticks to the "clean" aspects of humanity. The single biggest concept I wish Civ would have adopted from CTP is the Corporate Branch unit. The idea that two nations, regardless of size, could fight legal/business wars with one another while completely at peace is a relatively young concept and CTP does a good job of extrapolating game concepts from sometimes tenuous real-life theories on civilization. The revolutions and creation of new civilizations is an interesting concept that I would have liked to see taken further.

The pro-Civers are not wrong at all, however. Sid Meier games feature a playability that's hard to define and nonexistent in other titles. Hours playing a Civ don't feel like hours. At first I was disappointed that CivIII seemed so similar to CivII but it really isn't. There is far more detail in the military simulations and the city management. Also, most importantly, is the concept of culture, totally new to this genre. Although it's not perfect it is really well done for a first attempt. CivIII acknowledges the reality that we all have unique cultural/racial heritages and that they affect us is subtle ways. For example, if you capture an enemy worker it will not work as efficiently as one of your own. (This is Civ's version of slavery but they never call it that.) Also, when you take an enemy city the citizen remain tied to their own culture and will assimilate to yours slowly. Until then they will be more likely to revolt against your regieme.

Essentially, I'd like to see CTP2 combined with CivIII. If someone did that I'd probably be a fool and pay any price for it.

Rating:
Summary: The best, the only
Review: The Civilisation series are in my opinion the only games one doesn't get bored of after a while. The way in which the game is structured is so complex that the possibilities and game approaches are numerous. other strategy games (settlers, age of empires, dark reign, cossacks ...) are all set up in the same way: some guys gather the food, some fight, and some gather the wood, iron or whatever is needed. in civilization (the call to power series as well as the original ones) the setup is completely different.

civilisation to me is most definitely the best, and the only one ...

Rating:
Summary: Don't answer this "Call."
Review: There are probably some PC gamers who never played the original Sid Meier Civilization series. These were games so good as to establish for not only strategy games, but PC gaming in general. If you haven't been spoiled by the Civ series, you might like this empire "build-and-conquer." If you ever looked at the clock in the wee hours and promised you would save and exit Civ (or Civ 2)... you are in for a disappointment.

Call to Power 2 (CTP2) is simply not as good. Think of your high school prom queen standing next to Miss Universe. CTP2 is generally serviceable, but the longer you play, the more you miss the "real" Civ series.

Graphics and sound are adequate, but games like CTP2 are not played for the lush landscape and catchy soundtrack. CTP2-type games attract those who want a deep, layered strategic challenge. The key is to make empire/city/army management intuitive and fast. Unfortunately, CTP2 falls short of the original series.

Unit movement and combat strikes me as a bit awkward. The cheesy battle animations you'll find in CTP2 were more fun back in days Master of Magic. At least in MOM, you had a personal investment in your hero characters. (Where's a great game like that today?)

The Civ series showed more evolution in unit design (Civ to Civ 2 to Alpha Centauri). In AC, you have a nifty unit design workshop. CPT2 rolls out the same units I remember from Civ and Civ 2... with a few new twists that unfortunately add little to gameplay.

Terraforming is a bit easier. Rather than fussing with individual terraformer units, you "buy" land improvements. (This is far easier than trying to micro-manage 200 terraformers.)

Cities grow tremendously, but this makes map management a bit awkward. To allow for maximum growth, cities are placed quite far apart. This means more scrolling to and fro to keep an eye on the empire. The pop-up global map is nothing short of sad.

I suppose people read interviews with the question, "Should I buy this game." If you haven't played the Civ series, spend a quarter of the money on a "gold edition" of Civ 2 or a marked down copy of Alpha Centauri.

Rating:
Summary: Better Than The First
Review: This game is a little buggy but they will all get worked out with patches and such, but other than that Its better than the first without a doubt.

Rating:
Summary: TOTALY AWSOME!
Review: This game is awsome!! In my last review, I said there wasn't any way to cheat for all the map and Advances. I was wrong. I found a way shortly after that. Now I'm having loads of fun with my copy. I like the new units and new looks for some of the units from Civilization: Call To Power I. The planning can get compicated sometimes. Other than that, this game is TOTALY AWSOME!

Rating:
Summary: Great with one exception
Review: This game is great. You will spend hours upon hours building an empire while battling real tough or easy enemies. The only problem is that once you get to the 1900s or so, you'll only be concerned with your own nation in that all the others no longer posit any threat. In the beginning, being located near another nation can be really tough, however, once you get stuff like tanks, the other nations can be destoyed completely within an hour, even on the highest difficulty, and they never attack you so its really just a game of infastructure. If you like to win, then pick this game.