Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
August 6,2007 - Sid Meier’s Civilization IV is, simply put, one of the best games ever made. With last year’s additional expansion Warlords, and this year’s magnificent expansion Beyond the Sword, the game continues to flourish and remain one of the most important titles on store shelves. The Civilization series has been famed for being one of the most addictive games on the market ever since it first came out in the 90’s. It’s a game that will keep you playing into the early morning from the night before and, if you’re in the middle of a game, will always make you want to take one more turn. When Civilization IV came out in 2005 it was not only one of the year’s best but it was also a return for the series from its past glory in terms of quality. Beyond the Sword adds enough content to keep Civilization IV afloat for another few years until the inevitable Civilization V comes out.

If for whatever reason you aren’t familiar with how the Civilization series plays, it’s a turn based strategy game that relies more on your influence over the world rather than brute force. Although you can certainly build an army in these games, it’s usually more practical winning the game by political influence, winning the space race, or other things of this nature. Drawing off of real life history and physical creations on Earth makes the game entirely relatable and wholly interesting the entire time.

There are many new additions to Beyond the Sword. One of the most notable is the addition of ten new civilizations to play as and 16 new leaders. Most of them are expected, to say the least, but they are all good to have on the pallet nonetheless. Also, there is a new option to do an “advance game” which starts you in a normal game about ten turns in. Depending on your civilization choice it will change, obviously, as certain civilizations posses different traits and will offer you different things as you progress. This is a nice way to just get the ball rolling on the game and jump right in.

Another key addition, though not all that useful, is the corporation aspect. It’s basically the same as using a religion, where you’ll take a corporation’s influence over a specific city you’ll have under your control and spread it from area to area and effectively raise your own influence in the game. It’s only useful late game, and usually by that time you’ll have already figured out more or less who is going to win the game. The other big addition in this respect is the espionage unit, like spies and other things of this nature. They’re there to go to other civilizations, scout out information, get technology for your civilizations and things like that but usually they get found out too early and captured so they end up being kind of worthless.

The best part of the expansion is the new packed-in scenarios. The coolest one in theory is the futuristic Zombie battle in the afterworld, but it actually isn’t all that fun in reality. The others are pretty expected for Civilization scenarios, mostly rise and falls of great empires, things of that nature. But the coolest thing about them is that some of these aren’t developed by Firaxis at all, they’re actually fan-made scenarios that Firaxis found competent enough to join the ranks. It was a great decision on their part as it adds a lot of extra content that will surely last fans many more hours of great gameplay.

Naturally, if you’ve played Civilization IV already you know what the game looks and sounds like. By 2007’s standards its surely sub-par from what any hardcore PC gamer would be used to, but obviously it’s not about that for Civilization fans, it’s about the gameplay. This great expansion pack adds a lot of wonderful content that will re-hook a lot of fans and gives them an excuse to go back and play one of the best games around. For Civ IV fans, Beyond the Sword is a must-own game.

Games, News, Reviews, Media and More