Civilization II: CALL TO
POWER 
posted by CivPartisan at
Sun, 24 February 2008 1:24:03
After Hasbro purchased
Microprose, and the Sid Meier team seemed to split
up, the end of the Civilization series seemed
close at hand. Hasbro realized that the remaining Microprose
team's expanded sequel Civilization II: Test of Time (ToT) sold
less than expected, although it was received well initially.
Players of Civ generally value the strong modding capacity
of Civ II, but seemed to be met with an all new engine in
ToT and new macro code to learn in order to create modpacks.
New mods and scenarios were very slow to enter the net for
download and players dropped off almost immediately and
returned to playing regular Civ II games. There seemed to be
none of the extras promised on the Microprose site at the
time and by 2000, an urgent call for a more substantial
sequel came to order. By this time Microprose was
kaput, and Activision - a well known game god - had already
stepped up to the plate and received license to produce
another Civ sequel that was called Civilization: Call to
Power in March of 1999. But instead of producing Civ III,
Activision chose to build on the game's best qualities,
attractive game play, and multiplay. Activision built an
entirely new game from the ground up, clearly researching
the massive Civ II archive of opinions on the net.
Unfortunately, I don't believe anyone at Activision ever
played any of the previous Sid Meier
Civilization games.
Numerous bugs were
reported upon CTP's initial release, almost to the
point of classifying CTP as unfinished (9 months later Call
To Power II was released if that is any indicator). Playing
CTP required learning an entirely new interface, and
completely redesigned micromanagement for cities and
units, and a patience for a quirky AI that made
challenging opposition. By this time, most didn't even
try to write a modpack, as it was a game never played to the
end.
It has really taken a long time for
players to warm up to CTP. To be fair, CTP didn't get a
decent shake down by both players and designers. It has
one of the best introduction movies of the entire
series, designers pioneered clearer territorial
boundaries (later expanded upon in Civ III),
excellent graphics and animation that blew ToT out of the water
(which raised the bar for visual expectation), 8 fantastic
modern music tracks, offered a micromanagement system absent
from other civ games (which provided more control of
population and production), and finallly, CTP upgraded
visuals by adding new movies, units, and a Monument
City that acts as much the same way as Civ's throne room.
Also, one of the most noticeable features compared to the
original Civilization is that the timeline of the
game does not end in the 21st century, but rather goes to
the far future. There are five epochs in this game: Ancient
Age, Renaissance, Modern Age, Genetic Age, and Diamond Age.
In the game, space colonization and sea colonization become
a reality with appropriate technological advances (available
in the Genetic Age).
CTP uses a different approach
integrating an xyz coordinate environment that might be a
shift in the traditional civ board, but still a civ
game you can sink your teeth into. Nowadays, it has evolved
to be a better game in my opinion because it is simpler to
learn than Civ III or Civ IV.
System Requirements
- Pentium 166 or higher (Pentium II- 333
recommended)
- Windows 95 OSR2/98/98SE or higher
- 32 MB Ram (32 MB recommended)
- 16-bit Videp w/ minimum 4 MB video card
(1024x768 recommended)
- 2x CDROM
- 400 MB Hard Disk space
- Direct X 6.1
- 100% compatible Windows sound card
- 100% compatible Windows modem
- 28.8 Modem (Optional Multiplay)
- More
The game begins around 4000 B.C.
starting out with just a single unit and a small locality.
You have until 3000 A.D. to achieve your objective.
Your goal is to build your civilization
into the supreme force, either by defeating
every other civilization or by sending a spaceship to Alpha
Centauri. There are 41 civilizations to choose from. Apart
from conquering all opponents, players can achieve victory
by completing the Alien Life Project, which is triggered by
the "wormhole sensor" wonder. After a wormhole probe is sent
through the wormhole, an alien life lab and a series of
upgrades must be built to achieve victory. The third option
is to get the highest score by the year
3,000.
A lot of challenges occur throughout
the game. Your cities must have access to food,
construction and trade resources, and later be improved by
irrigation, roads, mines, railroads, and farmland in order
to be competitive with other civilizations. Each
city only constructs one item at a time - military
units, buildings or Wonders of the World (there are 28 of
these across the different eras of the game, and only one
city can possess each one. Once a wonder is built it cannot
be built by anyone else. Also, wonders offer special service
or effects). The buildings also have different effects -
some improve defenses, while others improve scientific
research, trade or food output.
There are over 100
scientific discoveries in the game, and most require
"prequisite knowledge" before they can be
discovered. Discoveries depends on your scientific
output, which must be traded off against financial and
military concerns.
Combat can occur any time or
anywhere such as in cities, in the ocean or land
terrain - forests and mountains offer
defensive advantages. Different than the original
Civilization, fights aren't always won outright - a
unit might survive but be damaged (reducing its
movement speed and attacking abilities but
only until it is healed). If stacked units are in
a square that come under attack, the strongest unit fights -
but unless it is a city or Fortress, all units will be lost
if the fight is lost. If a city has no defensive units
left, it is vulnerable to capture. Special units have
the ability to cover all squares as if they were roads
(roads provide enhanced movement), others can see
submarines, and air units must refuel in a friendly
city, etc.
There are up to 6 Civilizations in a
single game (including your own), and good diplomatic
relations can be crucial. Sometimes you may want
to trade knowledge or military resources with a neighbor -
or you may want to spy on another nation by building
embassies using your Diplomat or Spy unit. Your reputation
is affected if you agree to peace treaties and
reneg on them. You will also meet barbarians which can
act like a civilization if they capture cities but are not a
civilization that you can have diplomacy with. Barbarians
will likely attempt to destroy you at every opportunity,
so a good rule is hunt them down and take them out
first.
Note: Civilization: Call to
Power save game files and scenarios are not compatible with
earlier versions of Civilization/Civ II or Test of Time.
Almost no upgrades or utilities exist. If you know of any
please contact the webmaster right away. If you have
screenshots that are interesting please
Contact
us!.
Screenshots
Units
Civilization
Advances
Terrain
Cheats
Documentation
Downloads
None available at this time. Please
check back
later.
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