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QUICKTIPS: Religion plays an even bigger role,
so found them ASAP |
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Way More then Your Average Expansion
Civilization IV was huge. Warlords contracted it somewhat with
it's emphasis on scenarios that tightened the focus of play. Beyond the Sword,
however, again makes Civ4 the biggest turn-based time sink around, with tons of
new civs, leaders, units, buildings, techs, and wonders. Even the scenarios tend
towards this huge open-ended play style that Civ gamers love. In all, they
could have called it Civilization 4.5 and charged full new-game price for this
and still had a bargain going. It's that big.
The news civs include Ethiopia, the Dutch, Holy Rome, and
an amalgamous civ called 'Native Americans,' designed to represent all of the
tribes. The new leaders include the return of Abraham Lincoln to the Americans
and Pericles of the Greek. The change that took me the longest to get used to is
the swap of the leader art between Kublai Khan and Qi Shi Huang. The art had
been backwards since Civ 4, but the switch still caught me off guard.
Only two of the new wonders had any real impact on my play:
the Apostolic Palace and Christo Redentor. The Apostolic Palace is
basically a medieval United Nations, and Christo Redentor allows you to switch
civics without a turn of anarchy even if you don't have a spiritual leader.
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