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Civilization II (Microprose, 1996) turns 30 this year. When I first saw and played Civilization in 1991, I thought I'd never see a better strategy game. Then, Civilization II was published and everything went up a gear. Better graphics, better diplomacy, better units (good bye Phalanx vs Battleship PTSD... show more
71 Comments
I was stupid addicted to this game
I think we all were, it was hard to resist. "Just one more turn..."
You should try Civ III. It’s changing the game once again.
You know what... I will give it a try, why not! ❤️🙏
@wdavidturner yeh, civ 3 is the last classic. 4 started the trend with "eventually, after the dlcs and years of balancing. i even like 7 now, i can see that the hard eras irks some people, but it too has subtle changes that will make me look forward to 8 :)
@exquizitely I play a ton of 6 and just haven’t had the heart to jump in to 7 without DLCs and packs coming out. But it seems like it’s about time.
Too bad they went backwards with Civ 7. It was going so well. 5 and 6 were amazing. 7 is an epic fail.
Call me old fashioned - I never went past Civ 1 and 2 😂🙏
I still play 2 every once and a while. It’s one of my favorites in the series. I’d rank them 5, 6, 2, 4, 3, 1, and lastly 7.
So then I should really give 5 a try based on your ranking! Noted! 🙏❤️
@whodeyjb Civ 5 is the better one. But once you went 6, it’s hard to go back, for a bunch of reasons.
@exquizitely Agreed.
I'm still bitter about that time a phalanx sunk my battleship in civ 1.
Civ 2 ia still my goat
How would you rank Civ 1 in the complete series?
Well the first I played was 2 so I guess sort of like the first bond you see always sort of your favorite one thing. Also I first play 2 in 2000 so I was really late coming into the game overall. I think I didn't appreciate 1 as much as I should have
Makes perfect sense - having "first contact" with Civ 2 must have been amazing. A truly great game and masterpiece. I often go back and play pre 2000 era games. None of the new stuff. But I guess I am also old(er). ❤️😂🤣
So i moved to nyc early 90s and literally play nothing for most that decade but I was injured in a accident and therapy guy says trying civ 2 while recovering. It blew my mind! Lol I got play straight for like 6 months
+2 for the therapist! Legendary advice! 😂❤️🫶
i have literally lost years of my life to this game.
...but hopefully made wonderful memries and had a great time doing so! ❤️
Haha yes, definitely!
I had a physical copy, beautiful packaging and a HUGE user manual. Well deserved, because of the deep and layered gameplay. It was addictive, and every time you started a new game you managed to uncover a layer, find something you never noticed. Masterpiece.
MicroProse manuals were legendary!
Glad you remember them. I used to play w/ the couple PC - Nintendo and I was literally obsessed by manuals in the 90s. Even a 2D beat'em up had like a 100 pages manual. When we boomer are a bit nostalgic is because there was some magic that has been lost.
I wrote an utility to hack the savefiles so you could do diplomacy in play-by-email games. How I loved this game in my youth.
I wished I had technical skills like that! 🙏❤️
Civ II is a great game - I still play it.
100% agreed, I do the same. Civ 1 and 2 are on my playlist!
It was an awesome game. I loved sending "doom stacks" into cities. Micropose was awesome. They made F-15 Strike Eagle too. Great games.
Nuking a city always felt a bit mean, I dunno why, I never felt good doing it lol 😂
The isometric grid was brutally simple, yet it read instantly. Limited palettes, chunky sprites, fixed angles nothing wasted. Your brain filled the gaps, turning symbols into stories…
Exactly, couldn't have said it any better. That's why it still looks timeless and great today!
Sometimes, I wonder if half the charm of these older games is that you have to use your imagination more. Games these days often strip that element out by filling in every single detail, imagining for you. While it has its appeal, maybe using our imagination is something we should go back to more.
That's 100% what I think. I have a post schedule for exactly that topic where I talk about it a bit more in depth. ❤️
We think alike, friend. Side note: still waiting for SimFarm to one day pop up on Steam. Maybe one day...
I really loved Civ 2. Hit points was a great idea, and I loved the little movies you got with wonders... Darwin's Voyage in particular was delightful. Civ 3 ruined Christmas once...
Darwin's voyage is the +2 tech advances bonus, right?
Yeah, that's the one. And the lovely film of wildlife around the world.
As an old school trekkie nerd... now I really NEED to check out IV!
Still has the best and most replayable scenarios of any Civ, imo. Rise of Rome, Civil War, X-COM, oh and Jules Verne ... masterpieces
Why do I feel so stupid now not knowing about Jules Verne (there was a game?)
Civ II scenario, from the Fantastic Worlds expansion. Captain Nemo as a barbarian sea unit, find the entrance to the center of the earth, etc. Much fun
Best game ever for modding. Then they went to Civ III that was almost impossible to mod. That never made any sense to me.
What's your guess why they did it? More control over quality?
Get away with this thing ! Its cursed ! I lost 10% of my entire life playing it !
Lost - or made wonderful memories and had a great time playing it? 🙏❤️
I'm playing CIV II right now!
+2 on my awesome ranking for you then!
Civ 2 Test of Time was great. Did innovative things they still have not attempted again in the franchise (future tech tree, Alpha Centauri gameplay, overlayed maps).
This is the most important game of my life. Two years ago, I took the liberty of recording a tribute song to Mr. Sid Meier.
One of those rare moments when the sequel is even better then the original. Loved the Civ II in Windows 95 windowed mode, for those days that was rare experience. Sadly I am stil searching for working version for DOS4staging or some other emulator on Mac.
You can play Civ 2 in browsers these days I think?
Nice, didn't search browser versions so far. But will definitely try it, thx! Great game.
Works well, I play it there sometimes.
Just an update, I managed to find a working version and indeed it works great on MacOS with DOSBox Staging:
They get better with each one until 4. 5 is the first version that is a noticeably worse game.
So what's the best Civ? I vote IV
They should re-release it for modern platforms. I’d 100% buy it (and then lose days playing it)
"no complaints...noble leader"
One of my favourite games, at the moment I'm playing lots of "Unciv" on my phone
If my eyes wouldn’t fail me, playing games on a phone would be an option. Alas, sticking with my Pentium P133 and a good old 17” monitor… 😂❤️
Civilization and Pirates made my childhood nicer. And then launching missiles at Utopia was fantastic. Thank you Sid Meier!!!
Microprose was slightly defunct for a few years in the 2010's. Thankfully the right ppl bought it and brought it back to life. more than 40 years after it was founded? Still publishing complicated sim wargames.
Imho Civ V was the peak. The last Civilization for adults.
I bought Civ2 and didn't have a PC to play it for another 2-3 months later 🤣 The game manual kept me entertained until the PC arrived😊
"BUILD CITY WALLS FIRST AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS LATER!!!" IYKYK
I don't really know what the difference is, but I played CivIII endlessly. It was easily one of my favorites back then.
Glorious times.
Civilization is one of the rare series where, every single sequel is a revolutionary leap. Just a side note one of the worst series is the RTK one (Romance of the three kingdom)
The craziest thing - it worked on EGA on Win 3.1 (not even 3.11). On the first run it detected EGA monitor and converted all the sprites from VGA to EGA. Insane
