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I'm idly curious about this one, so I thought I'd start a poll about the Civilization games. They're fairly popular.

I predict that most people will vote for Civ II, SMAC, and Civ IV...

I voted for four, though I've only played SMAC, IV, and V. I've played IV the most so that may bias my perspective, but I just don't enjoy V as much, perhaps if I played it more often I would.

I liked SMAC, especially the custom unit design, but I never really got into it. I always just felt swamped in stuff while playing it.

Civ II + Fantastic worlds had some of the best mods of all time.

But Civ IV + Expansions is hands down the best Civ titile overall.

I wouldn't really put AC in the poll, it's an excellent game, but it deserves to be rated seperately.

V for me, the change to hexes, no stacking and the simplification of the display are. for me anyway, preferable to IV, though I do miss the culture wars from IV a fair amount. Gods and Kings added some decent stuff in as well, especially with the navies.

AniThyng wrote:Civ II + Fantastic worlds had some of the best mods of all time.

But Civ IV + Expansions is hands down the best Civ titile overall.

I wouldn't really put AC in the poll, it's an excellent game, but it deserves to be rated seperately.

Pretty much my view entirely on the subject. I was very disappointed with V, although I'm going to give it another chance given I got Gods and Kings super cheap.

5+Gods and Kings is such a vast improvement over the gigantic mess that 3 and 4 had become it's not even funny. The hexes and removal of giant super stacks alone should do it, but the improved religion mechanics and unit roles make the gameplay far more interesting. Plus, I've actually been beaten by the AI a couple times which has literally never happened in any other Sid Meier game.

Losonti Tokash wrote:5+Gods and Kings is such a vast improvement over the gigantic mess that 3 and 4 had become it's not even funny. The hexes and removal of giant super stacks alone should do it, but the improved religion mechanics and unit roles make the gameplay far more interesting. Plus, I've actually been beaten by the AI a couple times which has literally never happened in any other Sid Meier game.

This.

My biggest issue with Civ 5 when it came out is that it felt half done in terms of gameplay, but Gods & Kings pretty much finished it and it's easily the best IMO.

I liked Civ II a lot, but found the modern age endgame a little bland for some reason.

Alpha Centuri was awesome. I'd rate it higher then Civ II.

Only ever played Civ II.

I actually liked Call to Power, only because it had space and sea layers, that made things very different.

But SMAC was probably better.

SMAC is my personal favorite. I love the customizations, the larger varieties of diplomacy interactions that I ever had with either Civ III or Civ V, and the Secret Project cinematics - among other things. It's still by and far away the Civ-related title that I can pick up and play whenever I want, and I virtually never tend to have flagging interest in my games (unlike with Civ V, although I still have to get Gods and Kings).

Call to Power (a pseudo-Civ title) was fun, but it had some serious bugs that made it so I could never put it at the top of the list. The diplomacy options were really limited too. I've gotten a ton of mileage out of Civ III, but the AI is stupidly predictable after a while.

SMAC's my personal favorite, but it only barely edges out Civ 4. Admittedly, Civ 4 has an enormous level of feature creep, but I liked the complete Civ 4 experience (with all the expansions) because the AI actually knows how to make some damn armies.

I've played Civ 5 basic and was "Meh" to me, but everyone who's played it with Gods & Kings (and not just the folks here) have said the gameplay gets MUCH better with this expansion pack, so I may change my mind once I've actually played 5 + G&K.

Zinegata wrote:SMAC's my personal favorite, but it only barely edges out Civ 4. Admittedly, Civ 4 has an enormous level of feature creep, but I liked the complete Civ 4 experience (with all the expansions) because the AI actually knows how to make some damn armies.

I've played Civ 5 basic and was "Meh" to me, but everyone who's played it with Gods & Kings (and not just the folks here) have said the gameplay gets MUCH better with this expansion pack, so I may change my mind once I've actually played 5 + G&K.

Do it, I just bought G&K and it's not just the game play or AI that's better, Im loving the political intrigue too.
I've had a religious war and to wars because of spies and the other country knows this, because when you click on the popups it opens the diplo. channel now and one of your options is going to war.

I warned Russia once about spreading her religion, then caught two spies in a row, on the third one I chose the declare war option. Yeah it's almost like I'm playing a new game.

The community-updated version of CtP2 - iirc the Apollyton ed - is still my fave, though the last Civ I played was the base version of Civ 4.

Call to power had many interesting ideas, I quite liked the military readiness mechanic and the wonders, but it was clunky.

gods and kings did for 5 what beyond the sword did for 4, and I agree it did very well but I still found the 4 experience better. But I did enjoy 5, but this its a ranking thread.

2 has so many flaws in retrospect, but modders made the most if it . The advisor movies and wonder movies have never been topped. I still enjoy the UN video.

I played a lot of II, III, IV and V, but I think after V, I can't go back to the others and still enjoy it. I downloaded SMAC because of all the good things I'd heard about it, but just couldn't really get settled back into the stack'o'doom style of play after the 1 unit per tile thing. I had a lot of fun with the previous versions, but V+G/K does feel much more fun to me. And that's a purely gameplay effect which discounts the shinier graphics - I'm stuck playing on strategic (read - no graphics) mode because of my laptop specs, but it's surprising how little it matters!

Nephtys wrote:I actually liked Call to Power, only because it had space and sea layers, that made things very different.

Yes, and the fact that it went beyond 2050 or whatever and into the realm of science fiction. Also, the AI Entity video is still the creepiest fucking thing on earth.

SMAC and Civ II both had something in place to create incentives NOT to stack units endlessly: in Civ II, you can stack units, but if someone blows up one unit in the stack, all the others die. Unless it's the garrison of a fortress or a city, in which case stacking seems justifiable. SMAC merely has the dying unit cause collateral damage to its mates, but that damage can add up pretty fast.

Civ II stacking was only really unbalanced, I think, when you could park bombers over a tile to make it immune to attack by ground forces.

Civ III and Civ IV definitely had problems with stacks of doom, though. The only way to break into defended territory was to massively concentrate your armed forces, and the AI does that automatically, so all wars boil down to big clashes fought over single tiles.

I went with IV. It has a lot of customization available to it with some of the best mods out there that completely change game play. (Fall From Heaven II and it's modmods have kept me busy for many many hours)

Loved the ideas in call to power, like whats been said before. Too bad it was rolled up in a craptastic interface

I voted for Civ II. I had *so much* fun with that game in high school, mostly with the scenarios- hell, I still play it sometimes. The only other game that old which has any replay value for me these days is Star Control II.

I wouldn't complain if I could get, say, Civ II with Civ III/IV's culture-based national borders, or get rid of some of the wonkier features of the original, of course.

Wish I could figure out how to get my hands on a copy of Test of Time...

I actually liked the challenge of defeatng the AI's stack of doom in IV. But I am one of the weirdos who like to crank up difficulty up to Deity level .

Civ IV was really the pinnacle of the original Civilization concept, and the number and quality of mods for it are unmatched. As much as I liked it, though, I could never fully get past the frustration of stacks-of-doom being able to simply snake past any defenses and rampage inside my territory. It was especially frustrating because Civ II had already solved that exact problem in two separate ways (unfortified stack destruction and zone of control). I also found the AI's decision-making to be stupid and arbitrary.

Civ V with the G&K expansion is far and away the best Civ game, although I'm sure there are many people who didn't like the major overhauls and would have rather seen a more refined version of IV. That said, I voted II because it was my introduction to the series and will always bring back fond memories.

No love for the original? LOL, It will get my vote, but perhaps that's the nastalgia talking. Never the less, all the rave reviews I'm seeing here about G&K for CIV V has me intrigued. I've been playing vanilla Civ V for a while now, was planning to pick up G&K during a steam sale or something, but now I may have to investigate whether I want to give that a shot at retail.

Alferd Packer wrote:

Nephtys wrote:I actually liked Call to Power, only because it had space and sea layers, that made things very different.

Yes, and the fact that it went beyond 2050 or whatever and into the realm of science fiction. Also, the AI Entity video is still the creepiest fucking thing on earth.

Pity it's vanished into the same hole as Alien Crossfire.

SirNitram wrote:

Alferd Packer wrote:

Nephtys wrote:I actually liked Call to Power, only because it had space and sea layers, that made things very different.

Yes, and the fact that it went beyond 2050 or whatever and into the realm of science fiction. Also, the AI Entity video is still the creepiest fucking thing on earth.

Pity it's vanished into the same hole as Alien Crossfire.

Good Old Games

Shazzam! AC is now available again. Call to Power is there for three quid as well.