The choice does affect their starting position on the "Play on Earth" map, and thus different resources in one's initial cities, but has no effect on starting position when starting a random world game or a customized world game. In contrast to later games in the Civilization series, this is largely a cosmetic choice, affecting titles, city names, musical heralds, and color. These threats only come from huts, unclaimed land or sea, so that over time and turns of exploration, there are fewer and fewer places from which barbarians will emanate.īefore the game begins, the player chooses which historical or current civilization to play.
From time to time the player's towns may be harassed by barbarians, units with no specific nationality and no named leader.
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Along with the larger tasks of exploration, warfare and diplomacy, the player has to make decisions about where to build new cities, which improvements or units to build in each city, which advances in knowledge should be sought (and at what rate), and how to transform the land surrounding the cities for maximum benefit. The game requires a fair amount of micromanagement (although less than other simulation games). The player takes on the role of the ruler of a civilization, starting with one (or occasionally two) settler units, and attempts to build an empire in competition with two to seven other civilizations. Civilization was followed by several sequels starting with Civilization II, with similar or modified scenarios.Ī world map screenshot from the Amiga version of CivilizationĬivilization is a turn-based single or multiplayer strategy game. A multiplayer remake, Sid Meier's CivNet, was released for the PC in 1995. In addition to its commercial and critical success, the game has been deemed pedagogically valuable due to its presentation of historical relationships. Civilization has sold 1.5 million copies since its release, and is considered one of the most influential computer games in history due to its establishment of the 4X genre.
The player's civilization is in competition with other computer-controlled civilizations, with which the player can enter diplomatic relationships that can either end in alliances or lead to war.Ĭivilization was designed by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley following the successes of Silent Service, Sid Meier's Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon. The player can also make such decisions as setting forms of government, tax rates and research priorities. The player can control individual units and advance the exploration, conquest and settlement of the game's world. The player is tasked with leading an entire human civilization over the course of several millennia by controlling various areas such as urban development, exploration, government, trade, research, and military. The game was originally developed for MS-DOS running on a PC, and has undergone numerous revisions for various platforms. Sid Meier's Civilization is a 1991 turn-based strategy 4X video game developed and published by MicroProse.